Key Takeaways

• Communio founder J.P. De Gance published a new op-ed in Townhall arguing that America’s housing affordability crisis and its family formation crisis are not separate problems — they are the same crisis, viewed from different angles.
• Research from the JPMorganChase Institute found that first-time homebuyers aged 25 to 44 are now spending an average of 58% of their income on mortgage payments, a figure that has doubled in just five years.
• Nine out of 10 parents list financial independence and job satisfaction among the top priorities for their children, according to Pew Research — but only one in five say the same about their children getting married and having a family. Young adults are following their parents’ priorities.
• America has quietly rewritten the purpose of marriage. For generations, marriage was how two people built economic security together. Today, young adults are told to achieve financial stability first — and then consider marriage. That sequence is historically backward and producing measurably worse outcomes.
• The goal was never simply to help more Americans buy houses. It was to help more Americans build homes, places where marriages flourish, children are raised, faith is passed on, and communities grow stronger.

The Story: A Housing Argument That Points Straight to the Church

On August 1, 2026, J.P. De Gance published an op-ed in Townhall that begins with a housing crisis and ends with a challenge to the entire cultural framework within which young Americans are being raised to think about marriage, family, and the purpose of adult life. The piece is published at a moment when housing affordability headlines are impossible to avoid. Soaring prices, rising mortgage costs, and the shrinking prospect of homeownership for millions of young Americans have become fixtures of the national conversation. Policy proposals proliferate. The debate is real and the need is urgent. But De Gance’s argument is that if we stop at the housing problem, we have only diagnosed part of what is wrong. And the part we are missing has profound implications for every pastor, parent, and church leader in the country.

The Core Finding: Housing Costs Are Rising. But So Are the Expectations Surrounding Marriage.

The JPMorganChase Institute data De Gance cites is striking: first-time homebuyers between the ages of 25 and 44 are now spending an average of 58% of their income on mortgage payments. That figure has doubled in five years. The income now needed to purchase a typical home has soared, placing what De Gance calls a formidable obstacle in front of millions of young people seeking the American dream. America needs more starter homes. That argument is straightforward and De Gance makes it plainly. But then he makes a second argument that is less comfortable and more important. Pew Research found that nine out of ten parents list financial independence and job satisfaction among the top priorities for their children. Only one in five say the same about their children getting married and having a family of their own. And young adults, as De Gance notes, are following their parents’ priorities. Marriage rates are falling. Fertility rates are falling. The sequence young adults have been given — finish your education, establish your career, pay off your debts, get the down payment, buy the house, and then think about marriage — is producing exactly the outcomes you would expect from that sequence. Here is the data point that should give every parent and pastor pause: young marriage tends to boost incomes and makes achieving financial security easier, not harder. The sequence America has adopted is not just culturally corrosive. It is economically counterproductive.

The Counterintuitive Angle: Marriage Was Never the Reward for Financial Security. It Was the Means of Achieving It.

Here is the reframe at the heart of De Gance’s Townhall op-ed — and it is one that reshapes the entire conversation about housing, marriage, and the American dream. For generations, marriage was understood as one of the principal ways two people built economic security together. Young couples did not wait until every financial goal had been achieved before making a lifelong commitment. They combined incomes, shared expenses, encouraged each other through setbacks, and built savings while raising children along the way. Marriage was not the capstone of financial achievement. It was often the means by which financial achievement became possible at all. Somewhere along the way, America quietly rewrote that story. The new narrative tells young adults that marriage belongs at the end of a long checklist of individual accomplishments. And the evidence of how that narrative is playing out is visible in every metric that tracks family formation: delayed marriage, falling fertility, rising loneliness, and the happiness crash that economists like Sam Peltzman have documented across the broader population. De Gance’s argument is both historical and urgent: the life goal has never simply been to help more Americans buy houses. It has been to help more Americans build homes — places where marriages flourish, children are raised, faith is passed on, love is replicated, and communities grow stronger. Policy must address housing affordability. But culture must address the story we are telling young adults about what life is for.

What This Means for Your Church

At Communio, De Gance’s Townhall op-ed names something we see playing out in congregations across the country: young adults who are waiting. Waiting for the right financial moment to pursue marriage seriously. Waiting for the house before the wedding. Waiting for security before commitment. And in the waiting, losing years, losing opportunities, and losing the very formation that marriage itself was designed to provide. The church is the institution most capable of offering a different story. Not a naive story that ignores economic reality, but a historically grounded, data-supported, theologically rich story about what marriage actually is and what it has always been capable of producing in ordinary people’s lives. De Gance makes this point directly: marriage has never been reserved for people who already have everything together. At its best, it is how two imperfect people begin building a future together. The couple who marries young, combines incomes, and builds together is not making a financially reckless decision. According to the research, they are often making the financially wiser one. Think about the young adults in your congregation right now. The ones who want marriage but have been told — directly or indirectly — that they are not ready yet. The ones who have absorbed a checklist of prerequisites that no previous generation applied to itself. These young people do not primarily need a government housing subsidy. They need a community that holds out a compelling, honest, hopeful vision of what marriage is for — and that surrounds them with the support, formation, and encouragement to pursue it. That is the work the local church is built to do. And it is the work Communio helps churches do, equipping congregations to build the relational culture where young adults are formed for commitment, supported toward marriage, and equipped for the life together that the data consistently shows is the path most likely to lead to flourishing. America needs to build more houses. It also needs to reclaim the vision of what makes a home. The local church is the institution best positioned to do both — not through policy advocacy, but through the pastoral work of forming people for the commitments that have always been the foundation of the good life.

Take the Next Step

Communio partners with churches to build marriage and relationship ministry that forms young adults for commitment and equips couples for the life together that leads to flourishing. ► Read J.P. De Gance’s full Townhall op-ed → townhall.com ► Explore Communio’s resources for churches → communio.org

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the connection between America’s housing crisis and its family formation crisis? J.P. De Gance argues that the housing affordability crisis and the family formation crisis are the same problem viewed from different angles. Rising housing costs contribute to delayed marriage and falling fertility, but so does a broader cultural shift in how young adults think about the relationship between financial security and marriage. Both the policy problem and the cultural problem must be addressed together. What does the JPMorganChase Institute data show about housing affordability? Research from the JPMorganChase Institute found that first-time homebuyers between the ages of 25 and 44 are now spending an average of 58% of their income on mortgage payments, a figure that has doubled in just five years. The income needed to purchase a typical home has soared, placing a significant obstacle in front of millions of young Americans who would otherwise be entering homeownership and family formation at the same time. Why does De Gance say the sequence we tell young adults about marriage is historically backward? For most of American history, marriage was understood as one of the primary ways two people built economic security together — not the reward for achieving it first. Young couples combined incomes, shared expenses, and built savings together. Research suggests that early marriage tends to boost incomes and improve financial outcomes. The modern sequence — finish everything first, then consider marriage — is not only historically novel but is producing measurably worse outcomes in terms of happiness, health, and financial security. What does the Pew Research data show about parental priorities? Pew Research found that nine out of ten parents list financial independence and job satisfaction as top priorities for their children, while only one in five say the same about their children getting married and having a family. De Gance notes that young adults are following their parents’ priorities — which helps explain why marriage rates and fertility rates are both declining even among people who say they want to be married and have children. What can the local church do to address the marriage formation crisis? The local church is uniquely positioned to offer young adults a different cultural narrative — one rooted in the historical reality that marriage has never been reserved for people who already have everything together, and that two imperfect people building a future together is both the design and the beauty of covenant commitment. Communio helps churches build the relational culture and young adult ministry that forms people for commitment and supports them toward marriage at every stage of the journey. Credit: This post draws on J.P. De Gance’s op-ed published in Townhall on August 1, 2026, data from the JPMorganChase Institute, Pew Research Center, and research by Brad Wilcox at the University of Virginia. Read the full Townhall op-ed here.