Single Female Buyers Outpace Men for Third Straight Decade

In 2021, female home buyers were second only to married couples in the housing market, a demographic trend that has lasted over three decades. According to the National Association of Realtors, today’s home buying shares stand at 60% married couples, 19% single women, and 9% single men.

Though more single women are purchasing homes than single men, females are largely underpaid in comparison to their male counterparts, and as a result, many are forced to make financial sacrifices to compete with dual-income couples and higher paid males for homeownership. Despite being at a financial disadvantage, women continue to outpace men in the hunt for a home with a rising share of new buyers.

Women have been second only to married couples in the home buying market since NAR started data collection on the topic in 1981. What is striking about this statistic was that it wasn’t until 1974 that women were legally protected to obtain a mortgage without a co-signer. Prior to the passage of the Fair Housing Act’s 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. Women had no legal recourse under federal law for this or any other kind of lending discrimination.

In 1981, 73% of home buyers were married couples, 11% were single women and 10% were single men. Today those shares stand at 60% married couples, 19% single women, and 9% single men. The highest share of single women buyers was in 2006 when the share stood at 22%. After 2006, the share of single women buyers dropped incrementally to a recent low of 15% in 2015. Since 2015, the share of single women has risen to a recent high of 19%.

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