All the single ladies put your… keys up? That’s right! Single women are outpacing men in new home ownership in America’s 50 largest metro areas – despite earning just 79 cents for every dollar men made last year. Keep saving, ladies. Home ownership could be just around the corner!
This news comes from Lending Tree, an online lending marketplace. According to the study, single women currently own 5.1 million homes in the U.S., while single men own 3.5 million homes. Talk about girl power!
This isn’t a new trend, either: the trend follows the 2018 National Association of Realtors report, where single women made up 18% of overall homebuyer demographics. Only married couples outpaced women. Although single men came in third, they did tend to purchase more expensive homes (at a median price of $215,000) than women homebuyers (at a median price of $189,000).
While the cause of this rise in female homeownership remains a bit of a mystery, the increase is likely a result of women’s desire to nest and have their own place to truly call home. According to Pew Research Center, caregiving may be another significant factor. Approximately 21% of children live with single moms, while only 4% of kids live with single dads. Many women also care for aging parents and children age 18+, so a stable, secure home can be especially valuable. Who wants to risk being given 30 days’ notice to find a new place to live when caregiving already takes up so much time? Under the right circumstances, owning your own home can be a safer bet than renting.
In every single metro area Lending Tree studied, single women owned more homes than men. For a more Houston-local perspective, at the time of Lending Tree’s study, women owned 133,151 homes, while men only owned 111,975.
We aren’t sure if this trend will continue in 2020, but with nesting tendencies expected to remain the same, it’s safe to say there’s a strong possibility that women will continue to slay the home ownership game.