This paper examines the impact of increasing housing prices on the delay of marriage in China where people normally expect to own a home before marriage. This study provides a theoretical model to illustrate that in response to housing price increases, people would delay marriage partly involuntarily because they must accumulate more saving due to increasing downpayments of buying a home, and partly voluntarily because they would mitigate the crowding out effect on non-housing consumption. The study further provides an empirical analysis of the impacts of rising housing prices on the age of the first-time marriage based on China’s 2010 National Population Census data from 2006 to 2010. Using instrumental variables from the supply side of housing markets, our estimation shows that a 10 percent increase in housing prices delays the age at the first marriage by 0.73 months for urban hukou holders. Furthermore, women experience a more pronounced delay in marriage than men. Additionally, rising housing prices also delay the age at the first childbirth for urban females, which is a direct consequence of the delay in marriage.

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