The US currently has the highest number of housing units per population in history. This is because we have fewer occupants per household.
In the media, and social media, there are pleas to either (a) we must build more housing, or (b) “boomers” must be forced to downsize from their 6-bedroom homes.
Both statements are nonsense.
First, as homes have been supersized, simultaneously, each home now holds fewer occupants.
Those age 65 and up already live in smaller homes than most of the population.
Why do we have fewer occupants per home?
There are multiple reasons.
Families are smaller than in the past. Today’s fertility rate is 1.6 versus 3.5 in 1959. That means each family has fewer people – yet paradoxically today lives in far larger homes such that each individual now has about 3x the square footage as was common in the 1950s-1970s.
In the 1950s/1960s/early 1970s, most people started work at age 18-21, began earning money, saving and buying homes and having families.
Today, most young people go to college, about one-third take on “education” debts, and all defer the start of working and earning money until age 23-25 (typical). Consequently, rather than have up to ten years of earnings behind them by age 28-30 (the historical age of first home purchase), today’s young have deferred earning money, buying a home, and having a family.
Most of the reasons who see posted on social media are noise and nonsense disconnected from reality and the data.
In some areas, however, there might be fewer – or more – housing units than required in the local economy. National averages can hide individual, smaller, broken markets.
