There’s less need for space
Adults who opt not to have kids cause ripple effects in U.S. housing market
Sara Moran’s closet in her Colonial house, built in 1920, once served as a nursery for a past homeowner. But Moran and her husband don’t need that nursery. They have no plans to extend beyond the confines of their two bedrooms and small yard in Stratford, Conn.
“Because we’re not going to have kids, I don’t really worry about having a big yard. Same with having more room,” she said. “We’re never going to have kids and ever feel like we’re going to be expanding.”
The fertility rate in the United States has fallen to its lowest levels since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began keeping records in 1909. The general fertility rate is the total number of births per 1,000 women age 15 to 44. According to provisional data, the rate last year was 62 births per 1,000 women.
The decrease in the number of people having children affects the real estate market and decisions.
“Clearly, it’s not a one-year change,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. “It’s been occurring throughout the years here in the U.S. and many developed countries (with) smaller family size, delayed marriages, fewer kids, so all these trends, and how does this impact housing or could impact housing for the long haul.”
In 2015, just over 70 percent 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 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 percent. The number of 30- to 34-year-olds without children rose by 4 percent.
Those statistics for people age 25 to 44 outpace the 3 percent growth in childless households across all age groups.
Robert Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, said people generally look for 800 square feet of home per person in the household.
Moran said not many people want a two-bedroom house such as hers because they anticipate having children. But she and her husband, who bought their home in 2015, are content with their 1,200 square feet.
“Even our real estate agent said, ‘It’s going to be too small. You’re going to want to move,’ “Moran said. “I kept saying, ‘Well, I’m not having children, so it doesn’t really matter.’ ”
About 90 percent of buyers with children younger than 18 at home bought a detached single-family house, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. But for those without children at home, that number fell to 79 percent. Instead, more chose townhouses and condos.
Part of the reason for this trend, besides wanting less space, is people without children tend to prefer urban areas. Those desires go hand in hand.
“We’re seeing this trend in many metro markets, so clearly there is a consumer desire and preference for wanting to move closer to the city,” Yun said. “That’s generally associated also with smallersized homes because those big McMansions that are being built are typically out in the more distant suburbs where the land is plentiful.”
Buyers without children said their neighborhood choice was more influenced by convenience to friends, family, shopping and entertainment, according to the 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.
This mirrors trends on the home building side. Builders have less land available to develop in desirable urban areas, leading to smaller yards and lot sizes, Dietz said.
But Dietz said many people still want a suburban feel, perhaps with townhouses.
Experts agreed that there is demand for medium-density, walkable neighborhoods closer to city centers — and for smaller homes.