[anal_reactor]

I've posted it already, but at least in my country (Netherlands) it seems like the problem isn't the lack of housing, but lack of marriages. If people ages 30-60 married each other at the rate they used to in 60's, then there would be no housing crisis.

The statistic that doesn't compute for me is how is it possible that we're having a housing crisis while at the same time we have historically low average number of people per house.

[pixl97]

>we have historically low average number of people per house.

I'd like to see the actual statistics method used to calculate that. Saying it's marriages alone just doesn't past the smell test for me. Just because people aren't married doesn't mean they don't live together and the number of unmarried people living together is higher than ever. What makes far more sense is the number of children people have has fallen off a cliff which drastically drops the number of live at home adult children.

[anal_reactor]

https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/2024/36/1-op-de-5-mensen-woo...

It's basically this graph. In 60's almost nobody was living alone (less than 400k people). In 2024 about 3,3 million people live alone. When you look at the infographic, ages 30-60 add up to like 1,2 million people.

https://www.volkshuisvestingnederland.nl/onderwerpen/aanpak-...

Here we have an estimation that the country is missing like 400k houses. So if two-thirds of those 1,2 million married each other and started living together, they would nicely plug the housing crisis by freeing 400k houses.

Either way, we have a huge societal change that lots of people live alone, which did not use to be the case.

[autoexec]

> In 60's almost nobody was living alone (less than 400k people).

In the US, back in the 1960s you could own a home, a car, and support a family all on a single income. If we got back to that home ownership would skyrocket.

[therealdrag0]

People living together out of necessity (roommates) still has the optics of a housing crisis of those people wish they didn’t live together. This is the opposite for couples who want to live together.

[jorgen123]

Is that true, though? When my parents got married in the 60's in the Netherlands, they had to move in with my grandparents because there was no housing available and eligibility was restricted. It took a few years and a 2nd child before they were eligible to rent an apartment. Perhaps that does not show up in the statistics?