You might know this is called the urban graveyard effect -- cities are always and everywhere a demographic sink.
I think it might be true that moving people from 800 sq. foot apartments to 2500 sq. foot houses on 1/4 acre lots would increase fertility noticeably. I bought my first house as a single man, and I noticed almost immediately that I started feeling an urge to fill my house with a family, which I hadn't felt as an apartment-dweller.
But there's no serious public policy proposal to get to that drastic of a change, and any realistic gains in affordable housing will have a negligible effect on fertility. People will either move to a slightly larger home, which won't be enough to trigger a psychological change, they'll keep living in the same small apartment and spend more money on other consumption.
Jun 28, 2022
at
12:57 PM
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