Rising housing costs are delaying marriage and childbearing by preventing young adults from forming independent households, thereby making housing affordability a central driver of declining family formation and demographic stability.
Key points:
- Housing affordability directly shapes whether young adults can form independent households, influencing marriage, fertility, and long-term family stability.
- Rising housing costs and limited supply increase co-residence with parents, delaying transitions into marriage, and reducing childbearing rates.
- Starter homes and family-sized housing have largely disappeared due to zoning, land-use regulations, and minimum lot size mandates.
- Homeownership and stable housing are strongly associated with earlier marriage, higher fertility, and improved long-term family outcomes.
- Expanding housing supply through regulatory reform can lower costs and restore pathways to family formation without direct government subsidies.
- Texas should expand housing supply by legalizing light-touch density, reducing minimum lot sizes, and preempting restrictive local zoning to restore access to starter homes and support family formation.