The trend is especially prevalent in large cities: In 2010 New York, Austin and Denver almost 57 percent of adults were single, and in Washingon, D.C., that number is 71 percent. The result is many singles in large urban areas are living with unrelated adults, when they would prefer their own space, or living in a space larger than they need, paying more than they want, because there are not enough efficiencies or studios to meet the need.
The rise in the singles population may call for more micro housing units, modular apartments like those being built in New York City, as MHProNews has documented, which are no larger than 400 square feet. Some existing urban regulations require habitable space to be of particular square footage, to regulate density, which may call for legal changes and, perhaps, challenges.
Demographics and social norms change more quickly than the housing stock. Currently, apartment rents have been rising, leading to a near meteoric rise in apartment building construction. Is this the result of stagnating wages that might be preventing household formation, as well as tight credit that staves off home buyers? If wages rise, will household formation and marriages increase? And what then of the micro modular units? Perhaps as the population ages, senior singles may then occupy them. ##
(Photo credit: earthtechling/Panormaic Interests–small modular apartment)
