Housing and Babies
Apparently McMansions can inspire more than just lust for a new home. Demographers are now speculating that the formerly gangbusters housing market was the cause of the baby boom of 2006, the first year in more than three decades that the United States birth rate reached population replacement levels.
The argument goes something like this: When housing is hard to get, we delay or don’t have children. When it’s relatively cheap to set up a domicile, we are fruitful and multiply. That’s why Europeans, despite all their wonderful maternal and family benefits, barely reproduce.
It sounds great, but there is only one problem. The birth rate for teenagers increased in 2006 too. Somehow, I don’t think that many 18 year olds are out buying homes. Even Countrywide didn’t get that creative when it came to handing out loans.
About Helaine Olen
I am the voice of The Bills, a column about the intersection of money and life, at Slate. At Inc., I contribute to the Spread the Wealth personal finance column. My work on politics, economics, workplace culture and women’s issues has been published in numerous other print and on-line publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Salon, Pacific Standard, and The Los Angeles Times, where I wrote and edited the popular “Money Makeover” feature.
I'm the author of the critically acclaimed book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, and The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to be so Complicated, which I co-wrote with Harold Pollack.
What else? I’m a passionate bibliophile, a fan of 1970s pop music and a lover of rummage sales. I live in New York City.
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