Census Shows Families Shrinking, Houses Emptying in Tri-Cities

Summary

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A crisis in the banking and mortgage systems three years ago has been widely blamed for causing the worst real estate market downturn in living memory, but new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau suggest that long-term population trends may also be playing a major role in the weak housing market in the Tri-Cities.

The latest numbers from the 2010 Census show that locally, the average household is getting smaller as growth in non-traditional living arrangements is outpacing the increase in traditional families, with a lower percentage of couples marrying, fewer married couples choosing to have children, and a sharply rising number of people living alone.

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Extract

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Census Shows Families Shrinking, Houses Emptying in Tri-Cities

The numbers have important implications not only for the housing market but for the local economy as a whole, as well as health care, schools and the urban landscape.

Of the more than a dozen household types and subtypes reported by the Census Bureau, only one, "non-family households...

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