Housing too expensive to buy? A big part of the solution: increase the marriage rate, which has declined dramatically. This is the finding of a “joint analysis by the American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Center (AEI) and the Institute for Family Studies (IFS)."
Marriage has three benefits for the housing market. First, increasing marriages would decrease the number of homes required in the housing market by consolidating two households into one. This acts like a supply-side solution, reducing our national shortage. Second, when two working people get married, their household income rises, meaning they can afford to live in larger and higher-quality homes. Finally, the homes that would be freed up by a marriage recovery are among the most affordable in the country, making marriage both an affordability and supply solution.
Couples have more buying power but need only one home, whereas two individuals need two homes but have less available buying power.
Some things were better and have gotten worse, this appears to be an example.
