COULD THE HOUSING BUST LEAD TO A BABY BUST? It seems to me that as houses get cheaper, more people should want to have kids. I don’t understand why the research points the other way.

UPDATE: Dave Price emails:

We’re buying (or trying to buy, at least, it’s a short sale so who knows) a 5-bedroom house with the expectation of having at least 3 and maybe as many as 5-7 kids (our first was born a couple weeks ago). We never would have dreamed we could ever afford a house like this in 2007, and if we were staying in this townhouse we might have stuck with only one child.

OTOH I suppose the other side of that equation is the millions of people who can’t afford to buy anything, because they’re left the labor force.

Yeah, there is that.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Jim Bennett emails:

European economics brings European demographics.

I agree with Dave Price’s last comment. I suspect most people in the family-starting age groups are finding it hard to get house loans right now. Also, the “reforms” on mortgages since 2009 have had the effect of making it harder for anybody getting income reported on a 1099 rather than a W-2 to get a mortgage. Another front in the war against the self-employed. And more and more young people are going to have to be self-employed.

Indeed.