How Having a Baby Impacts Buyer Migration

Women having babies in a given year are more likely to move than are women who are not having babies, and the mothers-to-be are moving to areas with lower, more affordable median home values.

Of the 35 largest U.S. metros, women who moved and had a baby in 26 of them in the past year moved to communities with less expensive homes than their last hometown. Women with newborns moving to median-valued homes in the 35 metros were moving to areas $20,100 less expensive than where they moved from. For women without newborns, the values were $6,300 lower. Nationally, the median home value change for women with newborns who moved was $11,500, whereas women of a similar age without a newborn moved to communities with home values $9,000 lower, Zillow reports.

In the wake of news that the U.S. birth rate continues to decline, a Zillow analysis found that birth rates dropped the most in counties where home values grew the most. A new look at Census and Zillow data shows that for many people, the decisions to move and to have kids are intertwined – and that many families move toward lower-cost housing markets when they have children.

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