All the single ladies … are buying property.
Indeed, a recent study found that single women are outpacing single men in homeownership.
This new trend has come as a shock to many — and is bound to have long-term effects on the financial market and generations to come.
Single women own roughly 10.7 million homes in America, compared to 8.1 million owned by single men, according to a recent analysis from LendingTree that looked at 2021 census data.
The surprising development has spread nearly all across the country, with single women being more likely to own a home in 48 of 50 states — all but North and South Dakota.
This development was first noted by LendingTree in 2018, and experts are curious to see the full effect of the pandemic’s impact on home buying when more recent census data is released.
Women dominate ownership at the highest rates in southern states like Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina, which typically have cheaper home prices.
Meanwhile, Florida, Delaware and Maryland reported the widest gender gap among single homeowners. The Sunshine State has a 4.55% gap equating to 262,000 more single women owning homes than men.
North Dakota and South Dakota, the sole states where single men own more homes than single women, are known to be homes to job markets saturated with male-dominated professions, such as oil rigging and construction.
This recent discovery has shocked many who note the financial and societal setbacks that women in America face. Research has shown that women are also more likely to be skipped over for promotions, not taken seriously at work and forced out of the workforce.
Women make an average of 83.1 cents for every dollar a man makes, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But women are continuing to make strides in other capacities. More women are enrolling and graduating from college than men — and some are defying the pay gap by out-earning men in 22 states across the country.
As women are working to catch up to (or finally surpassing) their male counterparts, they are taking measures to set themselves up for success, even amid a tumultuous housing market.
Buying a home is often touted as one of the best financial investments a person can make.
The average American homeowner who purchased a home in 2011 accumulated an average $225,000 in housing wealth by 2021, according to the National Association of Realtors in 2022.
On a more morbid note, researchers also pointed to women’s longer life expectancy explaining that the reasons for unequal homeownership vary by age group.
Despite the increasing rates of single women signing onto their dream home, the majority of owner-occupied homes in the US belong to couples.
This all comes as interest rates on mortgages are at an all-time high after years of millennials struggling to become homeowners.
