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.

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

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In major U.S. cities, housing consumes up to 36% of median household income, well above the recommended 28% threshold for financial stability. Nationally, median home prices in 2024 stood at roughly six times the median income, up from four to five times two decades earlier. For families, whose incomes often contract and expenses spike with each new child, these numbers are prohibitive.

Washington, D.C., illustrates the squeeze. From 2020 to 2023, D.C. lost 9% of its population under 5. Meanwhile, average........

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