The tendency for Americans to form households is driven largely by the age distribution of the population, slowly changing social norms, and the pace of immigration. In the decade ahead, the aging of the echo boomers into young adulthood, longer life expectancies of baby boomers, and projected annual immigration of 1.2 million all favor increases in net household formations (Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University: The State of the Nation’s Housing 2008).
