Multifamily Rentals House Fewer School-Aged Children, Confirms Latest NAHB Analysis
Yingchun Liu, Ph.D.
In a study of almost 300 metro areas across the country, NAHB has found that school-aged children are less likely to live in large rental apartment buildings than any other housing type. This latest look at households across local geographic areas confirms NAHB’s earlier findings that, on a national average, multifamily buildings house considerably fewer children than single-family homes.

In last year’s study, which was reported in Multifamily Market Outlook, July 2004, NAHB analyzed American Housing Survey (AHS) data and found an average of only 37 school-aged children per 100 multifamily households, compared with an average of 62 school-aged children ¹ per 100 single-family households.

For the analysis reported here, NAHB used data from the 2000 Census to further examine the number of school-aged children in rental housing units across metropolitan areas and states. The Census data set is less recent than the AHS, but it enabled NAHB to look at school-aged children by structure type for 297 metro areas. On average, the data confirms the previous results from the 2003 AHS data. On a per-household basis, multifamily structures house fewer children than other types of housing structures. For example, there are about 76 school-age children out of 100 single-family rental households, but only about 34 children in an equal number of multifamily rental households.

This analysis provides additional evidence that multifamily housing does not put an undue burden on local schools. This is especially important now, when the cost of public education — usually the largest item in the budgets of local governments — is rising.

According to the Census Bureau’s Governments Division, local governments in the United States spent a little more than $1.18 trillion altogether during fiscal year 2002-2003, and 35.8% of that was spent on elementary and secondary education. Although residential development has an impact on the demand for public schooling, NAHB’s local impact model has shown that in the typical case, multifamily housing generates enough local income to offset the increased educational expenses. (See the Market Outlook story “Multifamily Housing Pays for Itself” for details.)

Higher Density Housing Doesn’t Necessarily Mean More Children

The 2000 Census data shows that, on average, there are 49 school-aged children in every 100 rental households (both single-family and multifamily). Looking at different structure types, we see that single-family rentals have the highest number, with 76 children in every 100 single-family rental homes. There are only 34 children in every 100 multifamily rental homes. Also, there are fewer school-aged children per household in larger apartment buildings. For example, households in 2-4 unit apartment buildings have 46 children per 100 households, while households in 20+ unit structures have only 20. These overall results are roughly consistent with the results of the previous study based on AHS data.

Housing Costs, Immigrant Population Plays Role

The census data shows that there is significant variation among all the metro areas in the U.S. For example, Visalia-Tulare-Porterville, California has 80 school-aged children per 100 rental multifamily households, while Iowa City has only 10.

Table 1 shows the top ten metro areas based on the number of children in multifamily rental homes. Seven out of the top ten are from California, and the other three are from Texas. Both California and Texas have very high immigrant populations. According to the Census Bureau, California has a 25.9% immigrant population — the highest percentage of immigrants across all states. California has the largest actual number of immigrants, too — nearly 8.8 million — a number which accounts for 30.9% of the nation’s total immigrant population. Texas has 2.4 million immigrants, which makes up 12.2% of its population, and it ranks ninth in term of percentage of immigrants in its population.

California metro areas also are among the least affordable metro areas in the U.S., according to the Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) developed by NAHB. For the first quarter of 2005, of the 20 least affordable metro areas across the country, 17 were in California. [View the complete reports at this link.] Certain immigrant populations have a tradition of large household size. For example, according to the 1990 Census data, the average household size of native-born Americans was 2.7; the average household size for immigrants was 3.5 if the immigrants came from Asia, and 4.0 if they came from the Western hemisphere. High housing costs may make it more difficult for them to unbundle into separate households.

Table 2 shows the 10 metro areas with the fewest number of children in multifamily rental homes. Most of these areas are located in the Midwest, where housing is relatively cheap. For example, according to the HOI for the first quarter of 2005, Champaign-Urbana, IL, was ranked 28th in terms of affordability out of all the metro areas. Most of these metro areas also are college towns, and have a much larger population of households headed by people younger than 25. For example, 17% of the household heads in Iowa City are younger than 25, while the nation's average is about 5%.

Building Size Also Significant

The Census data shows that there are more school-aged children in single-family rental homes than in multifamily rental homes in every one of the 297 metro areas. There are more school-aged children in smaller apartment building than in larger apartment buildings in almost all metro areas. Washington, DC is the only exception. There are 52 school-aged children in 5-19 unit multifamily rental buildings per 100 households, but only 34 in 2-4 unit multifamily rental buildings.

See Table 3 for details on the 297 metro areas. [The table is linked to NAHB's Web site because of size, and loads slowly, so be patient.]

For confidentiality reasons, the Census Bureau restricts the amount of geographic information it provides, so Table 3 does not show all the metro areas in the U.S., and many jurisdictions are not in metro areas. For readers interested in areas outside the metro areas covered in Table 3, Table 4 shows the average number of school-age children in rental homes across states.

On average, there are 34 children in every 100 multifamily rental housing units. California has the highest ranking, with 50 children in every 100 multifamily rental housing units, while North Dakota has the lowest, with 17 school-aged children. Once again, multifamily housing units have the lowest number of school-aged children among all building structures.

In summary, the 2000 Census data shows that multifamily rental housing has fewer school-aged children than other type of rental structures. This result holds true across all states and across all 297 metros studied here. It is important for local governments to avoid overestimating the cost of multifamily development. This information can help local jurisdictions make more informed decisions.

¹ The Article also showed that, for a given structure type, renters tend to have more children than owners do. The differences among structure types are large, however. There are fewer children in multifamily than in single family, irrespective of ownership status. See Paul Emrath, Multifamily Market outlook, July, 2004.

²   See Paul Emrath, Housing Economics, March, 1994 for detail. [ return to top ]