In August 2024, the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), in partnership with Demographic Intelligence, fielded a survey of over 8,000 Americans ages 18 to 54. Per IFS, 7,241 responses passed all quality-control benchmarks and respondents were sampled to ensure approximate representativeness for the U.S. population by age, sex, and marital status. Here are some survey findings:
Homeownership is strongly tied to family ambitions. Among respondents who were not currently homeowners, over 90% of those who want more children report a desire to own homes.
Across every demographic subgroup, safety/low crime was by far the single most important neighborhood trait, especially for families with children or with plans to have more. Good schools ranked second for people with children, followed by walkability.
When choosing the best home for their family, respondents overwhelmingly preferred to have at least three bedrooms. IFS did not find not a preference for bigger yards over smaller yards.
All else being equal, families would also like single-family homes over apartments and bigger yards, but absolutely nothing substituted for safety, schools, and more bedrooms.
Across the entire political spectrum, from deep blue Massachusetts and Vermont, to deep red North Dakota, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wyoming, over 2/3 of surveyed respondents reported that their ideal housing would be a detached single-family home.
This preference for single-family homes and homes with multiple bedrooms is common across the world, especially in developed countries. For example:
South Korea: Newlyweds who did not live in cities or apartments planned to have more children than metropolitan and apartment dwellers. Satisfaction with certain features of the residential area, such as safety, childcare facilities, and transportation infrastructure, was associated with the intention to have additional children. (Jeon et al, 2021)
Sweden: This study covered 25% of the Swedish population over the period from 1986 to 2006, following four birth cohorts of women who aged 15–18 when the study began, until ages 35–38. The researchers found that women living in apartments were less likely to have children than women living in detached houses. They also found that property ownership (own or rent) was less important for childbearing than factors that constrain fertility for women living in apartments, such as dwelling size or neighbourhood quality. This finding echoes previous research from Sweden, where size of dwelling was seen as the most important factor for transition to first birth. (Chudnovskaya, 2018)
Sweden: This study explored the extent housing (type, tenure and number of rooms) constrained first births in Sweden during the period of 1972–2005. The main finding was that size of the dwelling seems to be the housing factor with the strongest association with first-birth intensities. A consistent result was that number of rooms in the dwelling was positively related to first birth propensities. On average, detached or terraced houses are larger than apartments, and this characteristic may have been more important for housing decisions than other considerations. (Ström, 2010)
Iran: This study clearly and consistently showed that women living in single‐family housing units have significantly higher actual and desired fertility than women living in multi‐family housing units, regardless of their major social, economic and demographic differences. (Paydarfar, 1995)
Finland: Lower first-birth rates in urban areas were related to the fact that people in cities mostly live in apartments; higher first-birth levels in rural areas and small towns were associated with living in detached or semi-detached houses, which were larger than apartments. The author suggests that limited availability of affordable ‘proper’ housing (detached or semi-detached) is a factor in lower first-birth rates in urban areas, particularly in large cities. The author also notes that the pattern of higher fertility in rural areas and small towns and lower fertility in large cities has been observed for the US, England and Wales, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria, the Nordic countries, the Czech Republic, Poland and Estonia and Russia. (Kulu, 2011)
Finland: Longitudinal data revealed a significant variation in fertility levels across housing types: fertility is highest among couples living in single-family houses and lowest among those residing in apartments, with the variation remaining significant even after controlling for the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of women. The study also showed elevated fertility levels after couples have changed dwellings, suggesting that much of the fertility variation across housing types is attributed to selective moves. The study also found that couples in single-family houses several years were more likely to have a third child. In addition, women who entered relationships as a clear step to family formation were more likely to start their co-residence in single-family or terraced houses, whereas women who did not have any childbearing plans were more likely to move into apartments with their partner. (Kulu & Vikat, 2007)
Next: Connecting preferences to ideals to effects.
References:
Chudnovskaya, M. (2018). Housing context and childbearing in Sweden: a cohort study. Housing Studies, 34(3), 469–488. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2018.1458288
Cox, W. and Stone, L. “Homes for Young Families: A Pro-Family Housing Agenda.” Institute for Family Studies, March 2025. https://ifstudies.org/report-brief/homes-for-young-families-a-pro-family-housing-agenda
Jeon, Seran, Myounghoon Lee, and Seiyong Kim. "Factors influencing fertility intentions of newlyweds in South Korea: focus on demographics, socioeconomics, housing situation, residential satisfaction, and housing expectation." Sustainability 13, no. 3 (2021): 1534. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031534
Kulu, Hill, and Andres Vikat. "Fertility differences by housing type: The effect of housing conditions or of selective moves?." Demographic research 17 (2007): 775-802. DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2007.17.26
Kulu, Hill. Why Fertility Levels Vary between Urban and Rural Areas? Regional Studies, 2011, ⟨10.1080/00343404.2011.581276⟩. ⟨hal-00714930⟩
Paydarfar, Ali A. "Effects of multi‐family housing on marital fertility in Iran: Population policy implications." Social Biology 42, no. 3-4 (1995): 214-225.
Ström, S. (2010). Housing and First Births in Sweden, 1972–2005. Housing Studies, 25(4), 509–526. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673031003711519