These Couples Wanted to Have Children. Rising Costs Are Stopping Them.

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These Couples Wanted to Have Children. Rising Costs Are Stopping Them.

High mortgage payments, higher child care costs and economic uncertainty are making some people rethink their plans on starting a family.

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Brock Goodwin, left, and Rilee Stewart had long expected that they would have several children. But after weighing all the costs, they decided not to have children at all.

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Lindsay D'Addato for The New York Times

By

Kailyn Rhone

April 26, 2026,

5:01 a.m. ET

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Growing up in Utah, where big families are part of the culture, Rilee Stewart and Brock Goodwin always imagined having several children. Ms. Stewart has four siblings and Mr. Goodwin has two, so having three or four children felt like the natural next step after getting married last year.

But that vision shifted once they settled into their new home in Mapleton, about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City. The 2,000-square-foot house came with a $20,000 down payment and a $3,200 monthly mortgage. That financial pressure, combined with other rising costs such as gas and groceries, made them rethink parenthood. They realized that even with one child, they would most likely need more space, and moving to a bigger house in their price range would probably mean leaving Utah and their families behind.

Mr. Goodwin, 25, works as a firefighter, and Ms. Stewart, also 25, is a nail technician. Adding a child would push them into living paycheck to paycheck, they said. Ms. Stewart said she would need to take on extra shifts, and Mr. Goodwin would have to give up hobbies he enjoys, like golfing. One of them might even need to stay home full time to care for a child.

After weighing all the costs, they decided not to have children at all.

“It’s just crazy right now,” Ms. Stewart said. “I have always told my husband, like, if we were rich, I would definitely have kids.”

Across the country, many households are struggling to pay for health care, education and housing.

Child care costs

in most states have risen more than twice as fast as overall prices,

according to the Century Foundation

, a left-leaning think tank.

Home prices

, adjusted for inflation, have surged about 60 percent over the past decade.

Grocery prices

have climbed more than 25 percent in the past five years.

In turn, many couples who once imagined larger families are scaling back or deciding to remain child free. About three in five Gen Zers and millennials said financial concerns influenced their choice not to have any or more children at this time, or caused them to be unsure about it, according to new data from Credit Karma and the Harris Poll that surveyed adults ages 18 through 45. Sarah Hayford, the director of the Institute for Population Research at Ohio State University, said that while many people in their teens and 20s still reported

wanting two children

, falling short of that goal suggested that external factors were making parenthood more difficult to attain.

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