The Housing Chronicles Blog: September column for Builder & Developer magazine now online

Friday, September 21, 2012

September column for Builder & Developer magazine now online

My column for the September issue of Builder & Developer magazine is now posted online.

For this issue, entitled "The Rise of the Single-Person Household," I had read an interesting article in Fortune magazine about the demographic changes in the U.S. and the generational rise of single-person households.  What does that mean for our industry? An excerpt:

According to the most recent Census Bureau statistics, just 51% of adults today are married, putting singles within shouting distance of becoming a majority cohort.  Moreover, 28% of the country’s households now include just one person, which has doubled since 1960 and is the highest in U.S. history.  And this trend isn’t just confined to the U.S. – single-person households account for 50% of the total in cities like London and Paris and even higher (60%) in Stockholm...

Of course singles also buy homes, and that is attracting the attention of both brokers and builders.  Today, single households buy one-third of homes and, according to the NAR, unmarried men and women account for 10% and 21% of all buyers.  Interestingly, despite their higher incomes, men in their thirties and early forties show little interest in buying a home, while women increasingly look to homeownership as a way to graduate to the next life stage of total independence. Then, and only then, will many of them even consider partnering up with a significant other...

To read the entire column, click here.

To read the entire September 2012 issue in digital format, click here.

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