Cities are pricing out the one demographic that could save them

U.S. cities are hollowing out. Between 2020 and 2024, New York City lost 18% of its population under age 5. Chicago’s Cook County shed 15%. Los Angeles County, 14%. These aren’t marginal shifts, and they represent a wholesale abandonment of urban cores by the demographic cities need most: families with children.

The exodus is no mystery. U.S. cities have spent decades optimizing for young professionals. They’ve built bike lanes, dog parks, co-working spaces, and entertainment districts, using zoning and permitting to court one vibrant demographic while ignoring another. Meanwhile, the residents who often anchor communities — parents raising children, investing in schools, organizing block associations, and voting in local elections — have been systematically priced out.

The result is a crisis of urban sustainability, and the primary culprit isn’t crime, failing schools, or suburban nostalgia. It’s housing costs.

CAN WASHINGTON DELIVER HOUSING FOR FAMILIES?

In major U.S. cities, housing consumes up to 36% of median household