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Bloomberg) Frances Janisch had a daughter five years ago. Now she and her husband may not have a second child because income from their photography business in New York City is erratic.
“I always imagined I would have two, so it bothers me that I don’t,” said Janisch, 41, who grew up with a large extended family in South Africa. “It has everything to do with economics.”
Similar decisions to postpone or forgo having babies may delay the recovery from the five-year U.S. housing slump and restrain future consumer spending on goods and services from child care to diapers, soaps and toothpaste. Expenditures associated with one child for a middle-income family are $226,920 over 17 years, with housing the biggest expense, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated in June.
The number of births fell to an estimated 4 million last year, the fewest since 1999, according to National Center for Health Statistics data. American families -- whose finances have been hurt by high unemployment, falling home prices and low pay raises -- lack confidence to plan for “explosions in spending” required by a new child, says Peter Francese, a demographic- trends analyst in Exeter, New Hampshire, for the MetLife Mature Market Institute. U.S. births may not recover until 2013, he predicts. .......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-21/births-at-11-year-low-may-extend-u-s-housing-slump-amid-consumer-cutbacks.html#