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KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

An auction will be held Sunday to sell the contents of Grammy Award-winning singer Alicia Keys' Muttontown home, which is in contract.

"It will be a public sale," says Gerard S. Trimboli, head auctioneer at Commack-based American Auctions.

Items for sale will include a wood-carved antique billiard table, two antique desks, a wooden game table with chairs, leather club chairs, bedroom sets, porcelain dolls and a trampoline.

Keys is about to close on the sale of the seven-bedroom, 61 / 2-bath home. She put the 2.2-acre property on the market in June for $3.85 million. The last asking price was $2.995 million.

The address of the home will be posted on the auctioneer's website (americanassetsonline.com) the day before the sale, Trimboli says. The preview will begin at 10 a.m. The auction is scheduled for noon.

Keys is not expected to be there. Anyone who wants to attend has to pay a $100 registration fee. "Serious bidders only. No loitering," the auction company's website warns. -- VALERIE KELLOGG

THE MULTIGENERATION GAP

There were about 500,000 more U.S. households that were multigenerational in 2010 than in 2009, according to the new AARP Public Policy report, "Multigenerational Households Are Increasing." In the past two years, the number of multigenerational households grew faster than in any other two-year period since 2000, coinciding largely with the recession of the past few years, says AARP family expert Amy Goyer.

More than 7 million American households are home to more than one generation. The report defines multigenerational households as any household where three generations are living in the same home and those in which the householder lives with parents or grandchildren.

"More grandparents, children and grandchildren are moving in together both to save money and to take care of each other. The past couple of years have not been easy for families financially," says Madeline Seifer, director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic at Hofstra University's Saltzman Community Services Center. -- GIGI BERMAN AHARONI