Sustained low birthrates self-correct by easing housing costs

Evidence

One of the main drivers against families having children in Western Europe is the price of real estate. But the proposition that birthrates will remain extremely low inherently leads to the disappearance of this main driver: If populations shrink, the upward pressure on the cost of housing is alleviated, and conditions therefore improve for a recovery of higher birthrates. — Michael A. Reynolds and Thomas D. Grant, The Future of Europe and Its Muslims, 157

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A reflexive demographic mechanism: the predicted collapse undermines its own driver, which is a genuinely counterintuitive framing for population debates.
• SEED: Article angle: ‘Demographic doom scenarios contain their own correction’ — the housing-price feedback loop as the hidden brake on population decline.