CREFW-Winter2016

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Winter issue 2016 sponsored b CRE Finance World Winter 2016
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Table 6
Households by Type
Source: US Census Bureau.
This trend is not only attributed to divorce and widowhood, but also
to never married adults that constitute a significant and growing
part of single people.
Delayed Marriage
Age at time of first marriage has increased 3.2 years since 1990
and 6.6 years since 1960. The age at first marriage was 28.2
(29.3 for men and 27.0 for women) in 2014 compared to 25.0
(26.1, 23.9) in 1990 and 21.6 (22.8, 20.3) in 1960. If these trends
continue more demand will be created for multifamily housing.
Table 7
Estimated Median Age at First Marriage: 1890–Present
Source: US Census Bureau.
In 2014 unmarried headed households were more likely to be
apartment rental candidates than married headed households.
The chart below details the homeownership rates for married and
unmarried households since 1990.
Table 8
Homeownership by Marriage Status
Source: US Census Bureau.
As the share of adults that are married has declined over the past
65 years, the pool of potential renters increased. People who are
not married are more likely to rent apartments than to own a home.
There are several demographic and social trends that indicate that
more Americans are spending a larger share of their adult years
being single and/or not having children at home. A growing part of
the US population is childless by choice. Married couples between
the ages of 20 and 50 without children are considerably more
likely to live in multifamily units than are married couples in the
same age category with children. This is most pronounced in the
30-34 age category. Sixty-one percent of individuals aged 30 to
34 who occupied a multifamily unit in 2013 lived alone compared
with 35 percent of those who were married without children and
18 percent of those who were married with children3.
Growth of 65+ Population
The world has experienced unprecedented human lifespan growth
over the past 115 years. In the United States life expectancy at
birth increased from 47 years in 1900 to nearly 79 years in 2013.
The US life expectancy rate at age 65 has increased to 19.3 years
in 2013 from 17.2 years in 1990.
Longevity has resulted in more adult years without children at home.
As the “empty nester” years are elongated, more years of potential
apartment renting exist. Similarly the delay of marriage creates
more years of likely apartment renting in the early years of adulthood.
Trends Impacting Habitation Alternatives