Families say cost of housing means they’ll have fewer or no children : NPR

Families in the U.S. and around the world are having fewer children as people make profoundly different decisions about their lives. NPR’s series Population Shift: How Smaller Families Are Changing the World explores the causes and implications of this trend.

At an indoor play center in Cheyenne, Wyo., a sea of toddlers throw around colorful blocks and balls. Grace Moreno, who is 21, is there with her 11-month-old son, who is dressed in pajamas with little firetrucks on them.

“It’s the only free place, so it’s worth it,” she said.

Finances are tight for Moreno and her husband. They moved to Wyoming from Texas, while pregnant, so her husband could work a higher-paying electrician job. But now that they are parents, paychecks seem to disappear.

“Our rent in Texas was like $800,” Moreno said. “Here, it’s like $1,775.”

Rent is their biggest cost. They spend $300 a week on groceries and $100 on formula. The couple also have car payments, and they’re paying bills for their son’s delivery.

“I remember sitting there looking at a stack of mail, probably like maybe 3 inches tall … hospital bills, ER bills,” Moreno recalled.  ”And I looked at my husband. I was like, ‘I don’t ever want to do this again.'”

Just too expensive to have kids

Months earlier, she thought she’d have multiple kids. But just six weeks after giving birth, Moreno decided to have her tubes tied.

“I was kind of like, ‘Oh my gosh, my mom was right. This is too expensive.'”

Having only one kid means Moreno’s family can save a couple of hundred dollars a month for a mortgage, so their son can someday have a backyard.

“Not only are homes more expensive, but then add, you know, a 7% [mortgage interest] rate on top of that,” said Emily Harris, senior demographer at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah.

She said the rate at which women are having babies in Wyoming is just above the national average but still too low to replace the state’s population. The same is true for all other states in the Mountain West, which have seen some of the largest drops in fertility rates nationwide in the past two decades.

Meanwhile, the region’s population is still growing. A lot of people are moving here to escape bigger cities and for an outdoor lifestyle, which is driving up home costs.

Harris said things like child care costs and generational values also play into people’s childbearing decisions and that they’re definitely changing.

“We have this idea of, like, the nuclear family,” Harris said. “You need to get married, and then you buy a home and then you have children …  and really over the last decade or two, that kind of timeline has been halted and kind of rearranged.”

Some states are passing laws aimed at easing housing costs for young families. In contrast to many states, Wyoming has not passed any affordable housing legislation this session. State Rep. Trey Sherwood, a Democrat, highlights the challenge of convincing colleagues about the government’s role in addressing the housing crisis.

While Progressives advocate for a state fund to support affordable housing, Republican Sen. Bob Ide believes the government should not interfere, as it may disrupt the free market.

Despite passing laws that restrict abortion access, expand nanny care, and ease property taxes, Wyoming still faces challenges in making it affordable for couples like Reesie Lane and Sean Thornton to have children. Lane and Thornton, both employed in the state university system, struggled financially in their 20s but managed to buy a house in their 30s. However, financial constraints and health issues have made them uncertain about starting a family.

Lane expressed the emotional toll of not being able to afford a child but also finds solace in their fur babies, two well-cared-for dogs named Huckleberry and Finn. They bring joy and fulfillment to Lane and Thornton, who have embraced their roles as pet parents for the time being. following sentence:

“I don’t think I will be able to attend the meeting tomorrow.”

“I believe I won’t be able to make it to the meeting tomorrow.”