WOMAN OF THE HOUSE
In 2022, single women owned 58% of the nearly 35.2 million homes owned by unmarried Americans. This represents a significant portion of the total homeownership population and highlights the increasing role of single women in the housing market. According to one in every 10 homebuyers is a single female, and a majority of women prioritize homeownership over marriage. Over the past 30 years, the marriage rate has declined, and more single women are heads of household. From 1990 to 2019, the share of households headed by single women increased from 17.6 percent to 22.6 percent.
The number of single women homeowners has been steadily increasing throughout the past three decades reflecting the changing demographics and dynamics of the housing market. Single women, including millennial women, are taking on homeownership as a means to build wealth, establish stability, and create a place to call their own. Single women are one of the fastest growing demographics in the housing market.
In 2018, the National Association of Realtors (NAR), estimated single women will makeup up 18% of home purchases. The pattern holds across all age brackets including the under 35 segment. While baby boomer and silent generation women are driving the trend for a myriad of reasons including, moving closer to children, downsizing after loss of spouse through death or divorce and more. The trend in the younger age groups is attributed to increasing levels of higher education and advancement in the workforce.
Increased homeownership rates for women who are heads of household reflect relative gains in education. Over the past 30 years, the share of women who are heads of household and have a bachelor’s degree increased from 17% to 35 %. Currently, 37% of men who are heads of household have a bachelor’s degree, leaving very little difference in educational attainment.
This holds for all racial and ethnic groups. In fact, more Black women are statistically the most educated demographic in America. This relative increase in women’s educational attainment is consistent with their increase in headship and homeownership rates.
Women's homeownership has been influenced by various factors, single women and women of different racial and ethnic groups, are contributing to the growing number of female homeowners in the U.S. According to a 2023 report released by NAR, female Black homeownership had an average year-over-year growth rate of 10.4% between October 2018 and September 2021. Although the COVID-19 pandemic saw a spike in house prices, Black women recovered and continued buying properties. Between June 2020 and September 2021, Black female buyers surged 18.1% despite the Black Americans having the highest denial rates for purchase and refinance loans. Black Americans were denied applications for nearly 17% of loans for a home purchase, 17% of loans for refinancing and 51% of loans for home improvement.
In the face of the longstanding patriarchal standards, it's important to note women continue to experience challenges in the homeownership process, such as the gender wage gap, student loan debt, discrimination, and access to affordable housing and mortgage credit but still have crossed the homeownership threshold faster than their single, male neighbors. Considering how expensive it is to buy a house, that’s quite the statistic, particularly since the average woman in the U.S. only makes 80% of what the average man does. Across racial and ethnic groups, a gulf of earnings separate Black and Hispanic women from the earnings of the average white male, who despite his patriarchal head start is statistically coasting on mediocrity. In 2022, Black women earned 70% as much as white men and Hispanic women earned only 65% as much. Addressing these challenges and promoting equitable access to homeownership opportunities for women should be an important goal to further increase homeownership for women in the U.S.
Another red-line single women homeowners face is paying more for their mortgages than male-only borrowers, because they have weaker credit characteristics and a higher percentage of those loans are subprime. Analysis shows weaker credit characteristics do not accurately predict how well women pay their mortgages. Instead, female-only borrowers are doing a better job of paying their mortgages than their credit characteristics predict. Overall, female-only borrowers have a higher denial rate, suggesting we need to develop more robust and accurate measures of risk to ensure that we aren’t denying mortgages to women who are fully able to make good on their payments. This is particularly important because more than one-third of female-only borrowers are minorities and a large percent are considered to live in low-income communities.
Single women have been second only to married couples in the home buying market since NAR compiling data on single women in 1981. Women had no legal recourse under federal law for this or any other kind of lending discrimination before the 1974 Fair Housing Act’s was passed, there were prohibitions against “sex” discrimination in housing-related transactions, and the protections of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, it was commonplace for a widow to need a male relative as a co-signer. Again, less than 50 years ago, during the era of Studio 54 and four years before Grease was filmed, in 1974 women finally got the right to get a mortgage without a co-signer.
The highest number of single women homebuyers was in 2006 when 22% of people purchasing homes were single women. An explanation for the rise in single women buyers was the decrease in women getting married. However, single women buyers are more likely to purchase a home with a child under the age of 18 and are more likely to purchase a multi-generational home (housing adult siblings, adult children, and/or grandparents). Family obligations may make purchasing a home more attractive to a single woman buyer as she has the need for stable housing on a continual basis.
Given the financial pressures of children within the home and their lower household income, women do make more financial sacrifices when purchasing. 42% of women make financial sacrifices like vacations or large leather goods purchases to save for homeownership. These sacrifices only underscore how important homeownership is to women and also highlight the significance in closing the wage gap. First-time women buyers are 34 compared to men at 31. Single women are out there, and are successfully making home purchases.
Single female homeownership trends:
Columbus, Ohio has the most single female homeowners compared to male homeowners
New Orleans and Memphis, Tennessee came in second and third, with a difference of 8% and 7% respectively
In New Orleans, 27% of owner-occupied homes were owned by single women, the highest rate in the nation
Portland, Oregon has the smallest gender gap between single female and male homeowners
According to the National Association of Realtors, the median age of today’s single female home buyer is 54
Boomers are buying alone, either as divorcées, widows or having never been married
34% of women surveyed by Marie Claire and House Beautiful purchased their homes between ages 18 and 29, 40% of women surveyed purchased their homes between ages 18 and 29 between 30 and 39
72% of single woman home buyers purchase single family homes
49% of single woman home buyers purchase in suburban areas, 26% urban and 25% rural areas
In every major U.S. metropolitan area, single women outpace single men in homeownership
Single women are not a monolith, their home needs and life’s desires look much different than the stereotypes historically assigned to them. For single women, acquiring their first home signifies economic prowess, financial stability and independence defying patriarchal norms.