Abrupt Household Trends from the Pandemic Affected Apartment Prices

Rapid household shifts that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic have led to dramatic effects on housing affordability, including 2.5 million households disappearing and then reappearing in that time.

That was one of five primary trends according to senior research associate Rob Warnock, author of an Apartment List report released this week.

Significant changes in household composition normally take decades to play out, but in 2020 these gradual movements shifted abruptly. Many proved temporary, but still were impactful.

Household trends, however, have made housing markets increasingly unaffordable, according to Apartment List. These dramatic shifts in household volume led to equally dramatic shifts in price.

“When 2.5 million households evaporated in 2020, 2.5 million fewer homes were in demand,” according to the report. “But when 4 million households suddenly reappeared, some markets went from over-supplied to under-supplied in a matter of months.”

Single, Living Alone, Most Likely

Apartment List said that today it is more likely for a household to be a single person living alone (28 percent) or a couple living together without children (26 percent). 

Multifamily households are relatively rare, but are becoming more common. They are defined as having a traditional roommate household where no members are related by blood or marriage.

Independent Living No More

Causing the household disappearance-and-reappearance trend were younger adults who had been living alone or with roommates, and then deciding to temporarily give up their independent arrangements to move back in with family.

Nuclear Household Formation Bucks 50-Year Trend

The nuclear household cohort had been steadily declining for at least 50 years, according to the report. 

“There were the same number in 2019 as there were in the mid-1980s, when the US population was nearly 30 percent smaller,” it said. “But for a brief period in 2020, we observed a resurgence of nearly 1 million new nuclear family households as young adults living away from home moved back in with parents.” 

Supporting this was that in June 2020 a record number of young adults were “disconnected” – neither employed nor in school, according to Pew Research.

Let’s Get Married and Have Kids

Marriage activity boomed during the pandemic, as 2020 saw a jump in married couple households that mirrored a drop in unmarried couple households. 

In 2022, nuclear family formation is rising again as younger generations are starting nuclear families of their own, supported by the Centers for Disease Control finding that the national birth rate is increasing for the first time in nearly a decade.

Roommate Households Disband

Roommate households broke apart and have yet to recover, Apartment List pointed out. In 2020 more than one-half million roommate households disbanded, and despite a slight recovery, the number remains below pre-pandemic levels – even as the total number of households reaches an all-time high.