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Home Economics Education: Preparation for a Sustainable and Healthy Future

• Helen Maguire &
• Amanda McCloat  

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Part of the book series: State of the World ((STWO))

As complex societal and ecological challenges increasingly jeopardize the future of the planet, it is critical that humans, and especially younger generations, develop new ways of being in the world. All global citizens urgently require new modes of thinking and doing. As we settle into the realities of the Anthropocene—an epoch in which human beings are changing the Earth in profound and potentially irreversible ways—fundamental transformations in learning are required to enable all citizens to adapt. People everywhere will need to develop applicable life skills, appropriate competencies in specific domains, and improved critical and reflective capabilities.

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Juliet Schor, “Foreword,” in Arjen E. J. Wals and Peter Blaze Corcoran, eds., Learning for Sustainability in Times of Accelerating Change (Wageningen, The Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2012), 15–18; Damian Carrington, “The Anthropocene Epoch: Scientists Declare Dawn of Human-influenced Age,” The Guardian (U.K.), August 29, 2016.

Amanda McCloat and Helen Maguire, “Reorienting Home Economics Teacher Education to Address Education for Sustainable Development,” in Miriam O’Donoghue, Global Sustainable Development: A Challenge for Consumer Citizens , e-book, 2008; Eleanore Vaines, “Wholeness, Transforming Practices and Everyday Life,” in Mary Gale Smith, Linda Peterat, and Mary Leah de Zwart, eds., Home Economics Now: Transformative Practice, Ecology and Everyday Life (Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press, 2004), 133–65.

Sue L. T. McGregor, “Everyday Life: A Home Economics Concept,” Kappa Omicron Nu FORUM (National Honor Society for the Human Sciences) 19, no. 1 (2012); Vaines, “Wholeness, Transforming Practices and Everyday Life.”

Sue L. T. McGregor, Locating the Human Condition Concept Within Home Economics , McGregor Monograph Series No. 201002 (Halifax, NS, Canada: 2010), 240; Irish Department of Education and Skills, Leaving Certificate: Home Economics Scientific & Social Syllabus (Dublin: The Stationery Office, 2001), 2; Irish Department of Education and Skills, The Junior Certificate Home Economics Syllabus (Dublin: The Stationery Office, 2002).

Roland Tormey et al., “Working in the Action/Research Nexus for ESD: Two Case Studies from Ireland,” International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 9, no. 4 (2008): 428–40; International Federation for Home Economics, “IFHE Position Statement: Home Economics in the 21st Century” (Bonn, Germany: 2008); Helen Maguire et al., “Images and Objects: A Tool for Teaching Education for Sustainable Development and Responsible Living in Home Economics,” in Ulf Schrader et al., eds., Enabling Responsible Living (Berlin: Springer, 2013).

Suzanne Piscopo and Karen Mugliett, “Redefining and Repackaging Home Economics: Case of a Mediterranean Island,” Victorian Journal of Home Economics 53, no. 1 (2014): 2; Japan Association of Home Economics Education, Home Economics Education in Japan 2012 (Tokyo: 2012); Finnish National Board of Education, “Part IV: Chapters 7.10–7.21,” in National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2004 (Vammala, Finland: 2004); Skolverket (Swedish National Agency for Education), Sweden: Curriculum for the Compulsory School, Preschool Class and the Recreation Centre 2011 (Stockholm: 2011).

Consumer Classroom, “Resources,” www.consumerclassroom.eu/online-teaching-resources .

University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, School of Human Environmental Sciences, Family & Consumer Sciences Extension, Building Strong Families for Kentucky: 2014 (Lexington, KY: 2014). Box 14-1 from the following sources: Isadore Reaud, personal communication with author, September 19, 2016; Pornpimol Kanchanalak, “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s the Bamboo School,” The Nation , October 9, 2014; Mechai Viravaidya Foundation, “Mechai Bamboo School,” www.mechaifoundation.org/index2.php , viewed October 15, 2016; Mechai Viravaidya, “Mechai Pattana Bamboo School – Buriram, Thailand,” video, September 14, 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpuPr54kJBU .

Presentation Secondary Mitchelstown, “Green Schools,” http://presmitchelstown.ie/?page_id=1805 .

Glenamaddy Community School, “Home Economics,” www.glenamaddycs.ie/index.php/subject-departments/home-economics .

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Adam Vaughan, “Failure to Teach Cooking at School ‘Contributing to £12bn a Year Food Waste,’” The Guardian (U.K.), July 13, 2016; Hedmark University of Applied Sciences, “The Partnership for Education and Research About Responsible Living (PERL/UNITWIN),” http://eng.hihm.no/project-sites/living-responsibly ; Little Flower Girls’ School, “Fair Trade Does Great Trade,” www.littleflowerschool.co.uk/about/latest-news/241-fair-trade-does-great-trade .

St. Aidan’s Comprehensive School, “First Year Textile Projects,” www.staidans.ie/first-year-textile-projects.html .

Heathcote High School, “Home Economics,” www.heathcote-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/curriculum-activities/faculties/home-economics .

Donna Pendergast, “Sustaining the Home Economics Profession in New Times: A Convergent Moment,” in Anna-Liisa Rauma, Sinikka Pöllänen, and Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, eds., Human Perspectives on Sustainable Future, Proceedings of the 5th International Household and Family Research Conference (Joensuu, Finland: University of Joensuu, 2006), 3–32; Donna Pendergast, “The Intention of Home Economics Education: A Powerful Enabler for Future Proofing the Profession,” in Donna Pendergast, Sue L. T. McGregor, and Kaija Turkki, Creating Home Economics Futures: The Next 100 Years (Samford Valley, Queensland, Australia: Australian Academic Press, 2012), 12–24; Terttu Tuomi-Grohn, “Everyday Life as a Challenging Sphere of Research, An Introduction,” in Terttu Tuomi-Grohn, ed., Reinventing Art of Everyday Making (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2008), 7.

Tuomi-Grohn, “Everyday Life as a Challenging Sphere of Research,” 9.

Box 14-2 from the following sources: World Health Organization (WHO), “Global Database of Age-Friendly Practices,” https://extranet.who.int/datacol/custom_view_report.asp?survey_id=3536&view_id=6301&display_filter=1 ; Tine Buffel et al., “Promoting Sustainable Communities Through Intergenerational Practice,” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 (February 21, 2014): 1,785–91; Ann Kristin Boström , Lifelong Learning, Intergenerational Learning, and Social Capital (Stockholm: Institute of International Education, Stockholm University, 2003); Alan Hatton-Yeo and Clare Batty, “Evaluating the Contribution of Intergenerational Practice,” in Peter Ratcliffe and Ines Newman, Promoting Social Cohesion: Implications for Policy and Evaluation (Bristol, U.K.: Policy Press, 2011); Mariano Sanchez et al., “Intergenerational Programmes: Towards a Society for All Ages,” Journal of Intergenerational Relationships 6, no. 4 (2008): 485–87; Judi Aubel, “Elders: A Cultural Resource for Promoting Sustainable Development,” in Worldwatch Institute, State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2010); Zohl de Ishtar, “Elders Passing Cultural Knowledge to Their Young Women,” Kapululangu Aboriginal Women Law and Culture Centre, December 9, 2012; Wendy Stueck, “Seabird Island Band’s Walks in Woods Aim to Pass Down Aboriginal Heritage,” Globe and Mail (Toronto), April 13, 2016; Jayalaxshmi Mistry and Andrea Berardi, “Bridging Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge,” Science 352, no. 6291 (June 10, 2016): 1,274–75; Ben Goldfarb, “Researchers Around the World Are Learning from Indigenous Communities. Here’s Why That’s a Good Thing,” Ensia , May 31, 2016; Nathalie Fernbach and Harriet Tatham, “Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science Unite to Save the Reef,” ABC News , June 2, 2016; Donald Huisingh, “New Challenges in Education for Sustainable Development,” Clean Technology and Environmental Policy 8, no. 15 (February 3–8, 2006); D’Vera Cohn and Jeffrey S. Passel, “A Record 60.6 Million Americans Live in Multigenerational Households,” Pew Research Center, August 11, 2016; International Longevity Centre Global Alliance, Global Perspectives on Multigenerational Households and Intergenerational Relations (London: International Longevity Centre–UK, March 2012); Sally Newman and Alan Hatton-Yeo, “Intergenerational Learning and the Contributions of Older People,” Ageing Horizons 8 (2008): 31–39; WHO, “WHO Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities,” www.who.int/ageing/projects/age_friendly_cities_network/en/ ; Tiffany R. Jansen, “The Nursing Home That’s Also a Dorm,” CityLab.com , October 2, 2015; Lacy Cooke, “New Dutch Housing Model Lets Students Stay at a Senior Living Home for Free,” Inhabit, September 23, 2016; European Map of Intergenerational Learning website, www.emil-network.eu ; Kyle Wiens, “Why Seniors Are the Heroes of the Fixer Movement,” iFixit.org , June 14, 2014; Martin Charter and Scott Keiller, Grassroots Innovation and the Circular Economy: A Global Survey of Repair Cafés and Hackerspaces (Surrey, U.K.: Centre for Sustainable Design, University for the Creative Arts, 2014); Repair Café, “About Repair Café,” https://repaircafe.org/en/about/ ; WHO, World Health Report: Research for Universal Health Coverage (Geneva: 2013); Donald Ropes, “Intergenerational Learning in Organizations: An Effective Way to Stimulate Older Employee Learning and Development,” Development and Learning in Organizations 28, no. 2 (2014): 7–9; Lisa Quast, “Reverse Mentoring: What It Is and Why It Is Beneficial,” Forbes , January 3, 2011; Jane Wakefield, “Technology in Schools: Future Changes in Classrooms,” BBC News , February 2, 2015.

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Maguire, H., McCloat, A. (2017). Home Economics Education: Preparation for a Sustainable and Healthy Future. In: EarthEd. State of the World. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-843-5_14

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Hearth - home economics archive: research, tradition, history, about: home economics, what is home economics.

The term "home economics" may call up stereotypical images of girls busily sewing and cooking in 1950s classrooms, images that have led many people to view this field as fundamentally narrow, dull, and socially conservative. In the 1960s and 1970s, the women's movement was often critical of home economics, seeing it as a discipline that worked to restrict girls and women to traditional domestic and maternal roles. More recently, however, researchers in the field of women's history have been reevaluating home economics, developing an understanding of it as a profession that, although in some ways conservative in its outlook, opened up opportunities for women and had a broad impact on American society. There was always a significant degree of disagreement among home economists, and among the legislators, policy makers, and educators who supported them, about what the field's mission should be. Some were focused on the home, while others were more concerned with the broader social environment. Some saw home economics as a vehicle for creating vocational and economic opportunities for girls and women and for educating boys and men about domestic skills, while others sought to enforce traditional models of sex roles and family life. However, even the most conservative models of home economics offered some women a path to careers as teachers and researchers. The books and periodicals that are being made available through the Core Historical Literature of Home Economics project document the history of this field in all of its ambiguity and complexity.

Although the term "home economics" did not come into wide usage until the early twentieth century, efforts to formalize and teach principles of domesticity go back to the mid-1800s. Increases in literacy and in the availability of printed materials during the nineteenth century made possible the emergence of a literature on homemaking. One of the most influential early examples was the Treatise on Domestic Economy for the Use of Young Ladies at Home (1841), written by Catharine Beecher (1800-1878), an educator and social reformer who was a half-sister of the abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe. Beecher argued for the importance of domestic life and sought to apply scientific principles to childrearing, cooking, and housekeeping, and she also advocated access to liberal education for young woman, although she opposed female suffrage on the grounds that women should leave the public sphere to men.

Other forerunners of home economics were the cooking schools that began coming into being in the 1870s. Women such as Maria Parloa and Fannie Farmer, both of whom taught at the famous Boston Cooking School, offered instruction in preparing healthful, low-cost meals. At first they provided training mainly for professional cooks, but over time they opened up their classes to an eager general public. Teachers during this period also published some of the first cookbooks directed at a large popular audience.

An important event in the development of home economics as an academic field was the passage of the Morrill Act in 1862, which led to the establishment of land-grant colleges in each state. Until that time, American higher education had focused largely on teaching the classics and on preparing young men for white-collar professions such as medicine, law, and the ministry. The Morrill Act mandated a wider mission for the institutions it funded, covering not only the traditional curriculum, but also research and instruction in practical areas of endeavor. These included what were called the "mechanic arts," but the major emphasis was on agriculture, given that the United States was at that time still a predominantly agrarian society. Unlike most private colleges, the land-grant schools were open to women, and, over time, a belief emerged that farmers' wives were also in need of scientific training in order to carry out what was then understood to be their role in rural life: management of the household. Activities such as cooking, housecleaning, sewing, laundry, care of the sick, and sanitation were all to be transformed and modernized through the application of scientific theories and techniques. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, the land-grant schools, along with a few private institutions, established courses of instruction in what was generally called "domestic science."

Ellen Richards (1842-1911) was one of the major figures in the emergence of home economics as a profession. As a young woman who had grown up in modest circumstances in a small town in Massachusetts, she defied convention by leaving home to attend the newly founded Vassar College, from which she received a bachelor's and later a master's degree. She went on to be the first, and for many years the only, woman to earn a degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduating, she taught at M.I.T. as an instructor of sanitary education. She was also active in public health and social reform efforts in the Boston area. Throughout her career, she emphasized the influence of environment on health and well-being.

Beginning in 1899, Richards, along with Melvil Dewey and other educators and activists, organized a series of annual gatherings that became known as the Lake Placid Conferences, because the first of these, and several of the later ones, was held at Lake Placid, New York. Out of these conferences, a movement took shape that slowly defined itself and began pursuing specific goals. At the first conference, participants agreed on the term "home economics," which was held to be sufficiently broad to cover a wide range of concerns, and they began energetic and successful efforts to promote the teaching of home economics in secondary schools and in colleges and universities. (Attentive readers will notice that the conference proceedings use unfamiliar spelling-a product of Dewey's spelling reform efforts.)

In 1908, conference participants formed the American Home Economics Association. This organization effectively lobbied federal and state governments to provide funding for home economics research and teaching, including adult education work through agricultural extension services, leading to the rapid expansion of educational programs. Over the following decades, home economists worked as homemakers and parents, and also played significant roles in diverse areas of public life. Many pursued careers in business, including the food industry, textiles and clothing, hotel and restaurant management, and interior design. Home economists also often found jobs in public-sector and nonprofit organizations in such fields as public health, institutional management, social work, housing, and, of course, education. In addition, home economists contributed heavily to public debate on a variety of policy issues, including social welfare, nutrition, child development, housing, consumer protection and advocacy, and standardization of textiles and other consumer products. The many facets of home economics are explored in more detail in the short essays that accompany each of the subject bibliographies on this web site.

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Home Economics Education: Addressing Concerns of the Filipino Family

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2024 Realtor.com Housing Market and Electric Vehicle Report

• Markets with higher electric vehicle ownership rates see higher shares of EV-friendly homes for sale. San Jose, CA, saw the highest share of EV-friendly listings on Realtor.com® in 2023 (4.9%), five times as high as the national share of 0.9%. 
• Markets with higher EV ownership rates and crowded public charging facilities will see higher demand for EV-friendly homes, such as Oxnard, CA; Stockton, CA; Riverside, CA; Urban Honolulu, HI; and Portland, OR.
• Markets with a higher share of EV-friendly listings and less crowded public charging facilities are considered EV-friendly housing markets. Specifically, San Jose, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; San Francisco, CA; Boston, MA; and Seattle, WA, topped the list of most EV-friendly housing markets. 
• 31.7% of EV-friendly homes listed on Realtor.com in 2023 were built after 2020, but a notable share of 17.8% were built before 1970.
• 29.6% of EV-friendly listings are homes without garages. 
• Renters living in multifamily dwellings face bigger challenges in getting access to near-home chargers, but luxury rental communities are more likely to be EV-friendly.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are important for tackling climate risks because they provide a cleaner and greener alternative to regular cars. 1   As consumer demand for EVs has risen significantly over the past few years , it will not be surprising to expect an increasing demand for EV-friendly homes in the housing market.

In honor of Earth Day 2024, Realtor.com® collaborated with Cox Automotive Inc. to study the current landscape of EV-friendly homes and to identify markets with higher demands for EV-friendly homes. For this research, we define EV-friendly homes as those featuring at-home EV chargers or equivalent attributes explicitly in their listing descriptions on Realtor.com.

Markets with higher EV ownership rates see higher share of EV-friendly homes for sale

An important f actor determining the number of EV-friendly homes for sale is the ownership rates of electric vehicles (Figure 1).

For example, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA , where 1 in 5 households has an electric vehicle, saw the highest share of EV-friendly homes listed in 2023 (4.9%) among all the metros. In addition, in various California metros such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oxnard, San Diego, and Santa Cruz, approximately 1 in 10 households owns an electric vehicle, and EV-friendly home listings are also above average.

Figure 1: Markets with higher EV ownership rates see higher share of EV-friendly home listings, top 300 metros 

In fact, 0.9% of for-sale homes listed on Realtor.com in 2023 were described as EV-friendly. While the share was slightly below 1%, it has been growing rapidly as the rate was only 0.1% five years ago (Figure 2).

In addition to Californian metros as mentioned above, Boulder, CO (3.4%); Seattle, WA (3.3%); Bloomington, IL (2.2%); Urban Honolulu, HI (2.1%); Bend, OR (2.1%); Trenton, NJ (2.0%); and Austin, TX (2.0%), all saw a higher than average share of EV-friendly homes listed for sale. However, large metros such as Birmingham, AL (0.1%); Milwaukee, WI (0.2%); and Memphis, TN (0.2%), saw a lower than average share of EV-friendly listings in 2023.

Figure 2: Share of EV-friendly homes among homes listed on Realtor.com

Markets with crowded public charging stations could see higher demand for EV-friendly homes

In addition to the growing use of electric vehicles, the limited availability of public charging stations will drive the demand for EV-friendly homes. Therefore, we consider public charging stations as potential alternatives for at-home charging. These include charging stations with ports accessible to the general public, such as those in shopping mall parking lots and those at workplace settings where only employees have access.

Specifically, if public charging stations are frequently congested, electric vehicle owners are more likely to demand at-home charging to avoid long waiting times. To measure this effect, we calculated the ratio of EVs to public charging ports within each metro, interpreted as a congestion index. 2 A higher index value indicates more crowded public charging stations, strengthening the case for prioritizing in-home charging and potential higher demand for EV-friendly homes.

Within the top 100 metros, the congestion index varies from 4 to 62, with an average index of 19. Notably, Albany, NY, exhibits the lowest ratio, with just 4 electric vehicles per public charging port, while McAllen, TX, experiences the highest ratio, with 62 EVs per public charging port.

Table 1 shows the list of metros with the highest congestion index, suggesting higher potential demand for at-home charging. 

Table 1: Metros with the most crowded public charging ports, top 100 metros

However, some of the markets with the most crowded public charging infrastructure have relatively low overall levels of EV ownership.

Specifically, i t is interesting to see metros such as Oxnard, CA; Stockton, CA; Riverside, CA; Urban Honolulu, HI; and Portland, OR, pop up on the list where we see higher EV ownership rates and crowded public charging facilities, suggesting higher demand for at-home chargers.

Top EV-friendly housing markets

Table 2 shows a list of the top EV-friendly housing markets among the top 100 metros, characterized by a favorable combination of EV-friendly housing supply and demand.

The supply of EV-friendly housing is measured by the share of EV-friendly homes listed on Realtor.com in 2023, and the demand is assessed by the congestion index as calculated by EVs per public port. A higher share of EV-friendly listings implies greater availability of homes equipped with at-home chargers on the market. However, a higher congestion index signals a demand for more EV-friendly homes due to crowded public charging facilities, indicating demand surpasses supply.

The top EV-friendly markets were determined by calculating percentile levels for each metric and subsequently deriving a weighted average between the two to come up with an EV-friendly housing score for each market, forming the basis for market rankings.

Table 2: Top EV-friendly housing markets

It is very interesting to see non-California markets like Salt Lake City, UT, near the top of the list. The higher share of EV-friendly listings and the less crowded public charging facilities suggest that the housing market in Salt Lake City has a great combination of supply and demand for EV-friendly homes.

In fact, Salt Lake City, UT; Denver, CO; and Durham, NC, are the metros with the highest share of young households (with head of household aged 25 to 34). In addition, many of these top markets either are important tech hubs or have rising tech sectors. 

At-home EV charging is accessible to many older homes

The significance of having an at-home EV charger is growing for both homebuyers and sellers, particularly in markets with a higher prevalence of EVs but limited public charging infrastructure. For buyers, the availability of home charging options can save considerable time and money, and enhance overall convenience. Sellers stand to benefit by showcasing an EV home charger as a notable feature, attracting a broader pool of potential buyers. However, a common misconception about home chargers is that they are exclusively applicable to recently built homes. 

It is generally true that at-home EV chargers are more common among newer homes. The typical EV-friendly home was just 6 years old versus 29 years for the typical home without such a feature. 3 In addition, among all the EV-friendly homes listed in 2023, 31.7% of them were built after 2020 and 47.3% of them were built in or after 2010. Put another way, nearly one-third of EV-friendly home listings in 2023 were built within the past four years while nearly half were built in the past 14 years.

Specifically, among all these EV-friendly homes built in or after 2010, the greatest share of them were in Riverside, CA (5.6%); Atlanta, GA (5.1%); Los Angeles, CA (5.0%); and Seattle, WA (4.9%).

Looking ahead, there will be more new homes that are EV-friendly, especially driven by supportive policies promoting EV adoption. For example, as of September 2022, California building codes require that “new one- and two-unit single family dwellings or townhouses with attached private garages must have electrical conduit installed that is capable of supporting a Level 2 EV charging station.”

Figure 3: While more common among newer homes, properties of any age can be EV-friendly

Nevertheless, it does not mean homeowners of older homes will not have access to home charging. In fact, 17.8% of EV-friendly homes listed on Realtor.com in 2023 were built before 1970 (i.e., 54 years ago).

Specifically, among all these older but EV-friendly homes, the greatest shares were in Los Angeles, CA (14.5%); San Francisco, CA (8.3% ); New York, NY (7.0%); and Washington, DC (5.3%). While it might be expensive to upgrade the electricity system in older homes, many states provide funds or rebates for energy improvements , including purchasing and installing electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), which could help homeowners save some costs. 

Garages are common for EV-friendly homes but are not a must

Owning a home with a garage appears to enhance the practicality of having an in-home charger, with approximately 70.4% of homes deemed EV-friendly on Realtor.com in 2023 featuring “garage” in their listing descriptions.

Notably, the significance of having a garage is more pronounced in EV-friendly homes located in markets with colder climates, such as Colorado Springs, CO; Chicago, IL; and Denver, CO, where over 90% of the listed EV-friendly properties include garages. Meanwhile, warmer metros such as Cape Coral, FL; Oxnard, CA; Phoenix, AZ; and Riverside, CA, also see around 80% of EV-friendly listings equipped with garages.

Figure 4: Markets where EV-friendly listings often include garages

Nonetheless, the absence of a garage does not imply a lack of access to at-home chargers, as 29.6% of EV-friendly listings are without a garage.

Specifically, homes without garages accounted for 57.5% of EV-friendly listings in Urban Honolulu, HI; 52.5% in Miami, FL; 46.4% in Seattle, WA; 45.7% in San Antonio, TX; 41.9% in New York, NY; and 41.5% in Boston, MA.

Figure 5: Markets where EV-friendly listings are often without garages 

Renters face bigger challenges in accessing EV charging facilities

Renters (0.25%) are more than three times less likely than homeowners (0.87%) to own an electric vehicle, according to an empirical study from the University of California, Berkeley.

One important factor leading to this gap is the accessibility of charging facilities. Unlike the homeowners who can charge at home, renters, especially those who live in apartment buildings, largely rely on public charging facilities. While chargers at workplaces and public parking lots could be good options for many, a recent University of California, Los Angeles report found that residents who live in multifamily dwellings showed strong preferences for near-home charging. 

Some rental communities are responding to consumer demand for EV charging facilities. Renters in Austin, TX (1.7%), and Los Angeles, CA (1.7%), faced the largest share of EV-friendly rental community listings on Realtor.com in 2023 across the top 50 metros, followed by San Jose, CA (1.4%); Orlando, FL (1.4%); Atlanta, GA (1.3%); Phoenix, AZ (1.1%); San Francisco, CA (1.0%); and San Diego, CA (1.0%). However, there are few details about how many charging ports or stations are available within these rental communities, which limits the ability of potential tenants to use this information to make decisions. In addition, EV-friendliness is a more popular feature among rental communities with “luxury” included in their listing descriptions.

For example, 6.7% of luxury rental communities in Los Angeles, CA, listed in 2023 were considered EV-friendly, and the EV-friendly share was 5.5% among luxury rental communities in Austin, TX, and San Francisco, CA.

Meanwhile, things might get slightly easier for renters living in new multifamily homes. As of September 2022, building codes require new multifamily dwellings in California to have 10% of parking spaces be EV-capable and 25% of parking spaces be EV-ready. New multifamily dwellings with more than 20 units must install Level 2 EV charging stations in 5% of all parking spaces.

Methodology

The homes considered in this study are single-family homes and condos/townhomes/row homes/co-ops listed for sale on Realtor.com in 2018–23. EV-friendly homes are properties featuring terms such as “electric vehicles” and “240-volt outlet” in the listing descriptions.

To understand the relations between EV ownership rates and EV-friendly homes, property-level data was consolidated into metro-level and matched to electric vehicle and public charging ports data from S&P Global and U.S. Department of Energy Alternatives Fuel Data Center , both aggregated from the ZIP code level to t he metro level. 

Top EV-friendly markets were first determined by calculating percentile levels for 1) share of EV-friendly listings and 2) congestion index (EVs per public port). Then a weighted average was taken between the two metrics to come up with an EV-friendly housing score for each market, forming the basis for market rankings. As, according to a study from the U.S. Department of Energy, 80% of EV charging is done at home, we assign 0.8 as the weight to the home metric and 0.2 to the public charging metric.

Rental communities refer to rental properties managed by property management companies listed on Realtor.com in 2023. EV-friendly rental communities are those featuring terms such as “electric vehicles” and “240-volt outlet” in the listing descriptions. For this research, we focus only on rental communities within the top 50 metros. 

• For this research, electric vehicles include battery and plug-in hybrid models.
• We use public ports in the calculation because a public station can have multiple charging ports. More details can be found here .
• Among all the homes listed on Realtor.com in 2023, the built year for a typical EV-friendly home is 2017 while the built year for a typical non-EV-friendly home is 1994.

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Economic conditions outlook, March 2024

Executives’ latest views on the global economy and their countries’ economies lean much more positive than they did at the end of 2023.

In the latest McKinsey Global Survey on economic conditions, 1 The online survey was in the field from March 4 to March 8, 2024, and garnered responses from 957 participants representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, functional specialties, and tenures. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP. the outlook on domestic conditions in most regions has become more hopeful, despite ongoing shared concerns about geopolitical instability and conflicts. In a year brimming with national elections, 2 Katharina Buchholz, “2024: The super election year,” Statista, January 19, 2024. respondents increasingly see transitions of political leadership as a primary hazard to the global economy, particularly in Asia–Pacific, Europe, and North America.

Furthermore, respondents now view policy and regulatory changes as a top threat to their companies’ performance, and they offer more muted optimism than in December about their companies’ prospects.

Optimism builds over global and domestic conditions

Respondents share much brighter assessments of the global economy and conditions in their countries than they did at the end of 2023, and views of the global economy are the most positive they’ve been since March 2022 (Exhibit 1). In the December survey, respondents were equally likely to say the global economy had improved and worsened. Today, respondents are twice as likely to report improving rather than deteriorating conditions. Looking ahead to the next six months, respondents are also more optimistic than they were last quarter. Forty-six percent expect the global economy to improve—nearly double the share expecting worsening conditions—while 37 percent expected improvement in the previous survey.

Likewise, respondents offer hopeful views when asked about the most likely near-term scenario for the global economy, suggesting confidence in central banks. They are more likely to expect a soft landing overall—with either slowing or accelerating growth compared with 2023—than a recession (Exhibit 2). The largest share of respondents expect a soft landing, with slowing growth relative to 2023.

Respondents’ views on their own economies have also become more upbeat. Nearly half of respondents say economic conditions at home are better now than they were six months ago, up from 41 percent in December, while just 22 percent say conditions have gotten worse. Respondents in Europe—who offered the most negative assessments of any respondents in September and December—are now nearly twice as likely as in December to say conditions have improved in the past six months, though it is unclear what has prompted that change and whether it is a durable finding.

McKinsey’s original survey research

More than half of respondents expect their economies to improve over the next six months. It’s the first time in two years that a majority of respondents have said that. In most regions, larger shares of respondents express optimism about economic conditions at home now than in December (Exhibit 3).

Geopolitical instability remains top of mind as concerns over political transitions rise

Geopolitical instability and conflict continues to be the most cited risk to global growth, selected by two-thirds of respondents for the second quarter in a row (Exhibit 4). Yet in this first quarterly survey of 2024—a year in which more than 60 countries will hold national elections 3 Katharina Buchholz, “2024: The super election year,” Statista, January 19, 2024. —transitions of political leadership have jumped from the fifth-most-cited to the second-most-cited threat to the world economy. The share of respondents in Europe reporting political transitions as a top threat is 2.4 times the share in December, while the shares in North America and Asia–Pacific have nearly doubled. 4 Prior to the latest survey, respondents in Mexico were included in Latin America in analyses but are now included in North America. We see a smaller uptick in concern about supply chain disruptions, which is cited as a threat by the largest share of respondents since December 2022.

Looking at risks to growth in respondents’ countries, geopolitical instability and conflict remains the top perceived threat, cited by a larger share than in any quarter since March 2022. Uneasiness about domestic political conflicts and transitions of political leadership, now the second- and third-most-cited risks, have overtaken concerns about inflation, which was the second-most-cited risk in December. Among respondents in North America, transitions of political leadership are cited nearly twice as often as in December (Exhibit 5). In Greater China, multiple risks now appear to carry equal weight, whereas in December, inflation was the top concern.

Policy and regulatory changes top the list of cited threats to companies’ growth

As respondents’ concerns about inflation as a domestic threat wane, the survey results suggest that companies are holding off on price increases. For the first time since we began asking about companies’ prices in September 2022, less than half of private-sector respondents in the latest survey—45 percent—say their companies increased the price of their goods or services over the past six months, down from 56 percent in December.

For five quarters, respondents’ most cited risk to their companies’ performance in the next 12 months was weak customer demand. Now, they most often point to policy and regulatory changes as a threat. In December 2023, policy and regulatory changes weren’t even one of the top five perceived risks. This increased wariness of policy changes cuts across most regions, though we see the largest increase in Europe.

Even though weak demand is no longer the most cited risk for companies, optimism over expected demand has tapered  since December. Fifty-one percent of respondents expect an increase in customer demand over the next six months, down from 57 percent in December. Yet expectations about profits remain upbeat: about six in ten respondents expect increasing profits in the months ahead, in line with expectations in much of 2023.

The survey content and analysis were developed by Jeffrey Condon , a senior knowledge expert in McKinsey’s Atlanta office; Krzysztof Kwiatkowski , a capabilities and insights expert in the Boston office; and Sven Smit , chair of insights and ecosystems, chair of the McKinsey Global Institute, and a senior partner in the Amsterdam office.

They wish to thank Jan Mischke for his contributions to this work.

This article was edited by Heather Hanselman, a senior editor in the Atlanta office.

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