By LESLIE BERKMAN
The Press-Enterprise
Special Section: Census 2010
Today there are more people living in each house than there were a decade ago.
That is because declining incomes, foreclosures and the cultural influence of immigrants have prompted families to double up.
For homebuilders, this phenomenon could portend good fortune in the future, when the economy improves and many of these extended households are expected to disperse.
New census data shows that since 2000 the average number of people living in a home in Riverside County has increased from 2.98 to 3.14, and in San Bernardino County from 3.15 to 3.26.
“The consensus is that in this economic crisis there is a doubling up of not only the immediate family but extended family like uncles, nieces, nephews, even friends” under the same roof, said Boyd Martin, chief executive of Market Profiles, a Santa Ana-based consultant to homebuilders.
“A whole set of people are reaching out to others to help,” Martin said.
Anna Ramirez, 34, said her family lost their home in foreclosure after her husband was laid off at a janitorial company. Now she, her husband and their three children rent a house in Perris with Ramirez’s 53-year-old mother who has health problems and was struggling to live alone on disability benefits. Mother and daughter are combining their financial resources so both can get by.
Millie Oliveros, an agent with Prudential California Realty in Riverside, said she recently sold a 3,400-square-foot house in Temecula to a man who planned to move in with his wife and children, his brother’s family who lost their home in foreclosure and his parents, who are planning to babysit. They all say they will pitch in to pay the household bills, Oliveros said.
Results from the 2010 census released last week show Riverside County in the past decade had the most growth in household size among California counties and San Bernardino County came in fourth, after Kern and San Joaquin counties.
Beyond reasons of economic necessity, Inland household size is growing because Southern California serves as an immigrant gateway to the United States, said David Swanson, a demographer in the sociology department at UC Riverside.
He pointed out that immigrant Latinos tend to have high fertility rates. Those rates decline among the children and grandchildren of immigrants as they are absorbed into American society, Swanson said.
Also, he said Asian immigrants, who have been steadily moving into San Bernardino and Riverside counties from the San Gabriel Valley, come from cultures that value living in extended families.
Relatives, however, are not the only people in today’s expanded households.
Joel Toscano said he could no longer afford the $1,300 a month rent on the house his family rented in Moreno Valley because his overtime was eliminated at a furniture warehouse in Colton where he operated a forklift. He said neighbors saved the day by allowing him, his wife and their three children to rent two bedrooms in their home for $600 a month.
In Riverside County, relatives other than the owner’s immediate family of spouse and children comprised 10.3 percent of households in 2010, up from 7.8 percent in 2000. In the same time nonrelatives as a percent of households grew to 6.3 percent from 5.5 percent.
The census found a similar shift in household composition in San Bernardino County, where the extended family accounted for 11.3 percent of the household population in 2010, up from 8.5 percent in 2000, and nonrelatives represented 6.1 percent, up from 5.3 percent.
Not all the doubling up is permanent. Toscano said he hopes that in six months he will find a second job and then his family can rent their own home. He said he feels some urgency to have more space because his children are getting older and will need privacy.
Ashley Troy, 22, said after her fiancé was laid off at a medical supply company they no longer could afford to rent a house. They each moved back with their parents while her fiancé hunted for another job and they paid down their bills. She said now they are ready to rent again, although this time they plan to lease a less-expensive one-bedroom apartment.
‘UNCOUPLING’ A-COMING
Boyd at Market Profiles said he expects that when the economy rebounds and incomes rise, many households that grew through necessity will disperse and adult children yearning for independence will leave, triggering the Inland Southern California’s next home construction boom.
“One of the great opportunities in the real estate business will come when these families uncouple,” Boyd said.
Jeff Meyers, a real estate consultant in Newport Beach, said he believes the initial response of the building industry will be “one of the biggest apartment booms we have seen,” followed in a few years by a resurgence of home buying once the young adults build their credit and save for down payments.
But even when jobs are more plentiful, the cultural preference of larger households will remain strong among some ethnic groups, especially immigrants, Swanson observed. Some building industry experts said that will provide demand for something other than apartments and small, efficient homes for first-time buyers.
In today’s almost moribund new home market, Asians are “the strongest demographic of buyers” because of their good credit and habit of saving, Meyers said. In addition, real estate experts said Asians in the United States in some cases are obtaining funds to buy homes from relatives on the China mainland.
Some builders taking advantage of the Asian niche market include MBK Homes, which has attracted Asian buyers to its Sancerre development in Eastvale by offering extra-large homes to accommodate multigenerational families.
“Only about a third of the household growth in the next decade will come from the white population and two-thirds will be from minorities,” said John Martin, a real estate market analyst based in Newport Beach, who tells builders to expect higher demand for multigenerational housing.
Martin predicted that because of increased longevity, more white families will be providing space in their homes for aging parents. Also, he said, there is a good chance that some grown children who moved back with parents during the economic recession “will stay longer than we suspect.”
The Lewis Group of Companies, an Upland-based land developer and a builder of apartments, is responding to the demographic changes by offering more apartment floor plans, including some with more bedrooms, said company Executive Vice President Randall Lewis.
“What (the census data) tells us is we need a wide variety of housing options for our customers,” Lewis said.
Staff writer Jim Miller contributed to this report.
Reach Leslie Berkman at 951-368-9423 or lberkman@PE.com
