Rise in Child-Free Households to Likely Impact Housing Market

Washington, DC, September 15, 2017-The fact that an increasing percentage of U.S. adults are not having children will likely impact housing inventory demand, according to the Washington Post.

“In 2015, just over 70% of households had no children living there, a growth of three percentage points over 2011, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey,” the publication reports. “The numbers grow starker when filtered by age. Compared with four years earlier, the number of people 25 to 29 years old and 35 to 44 who didn’t have kids in their household grew by more than 5%. The number of 30- to 34-year-olds without children rose by 4%.

“Those statistics for people age 25 to 44 outpace the 3% growth in childless households across all age groups.”

According to National Association of Home Builders chief economist Richard Dietz, consumers are typically looking for 800 square feet/occupant, so an increase in the number of single or two-person households will increase demand for smaller homes.

“The fact that we’re having smaller-size families I think naturally means that the demand for smaller-size housing would get greater interest than before,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors.