The article compares data from 1990 and 2020, yet doesn’t mention covid as a confounding variable (while talking a lot about housing).

I think the more telling numbers will be over the next few years. Will there be a post-covid bump and then normalize back to pre-covid levels? Will things just stay the same with incredibly low covid-level birth rates?

Only time will tell, but this article is sloppy. The economist can do better.