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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