Researchers at the Housing Finance Policy Center of the Urban Institute found that single women default on their mortgages less often than men, but are charged more for loans and are denied credit more often.
The Washington Post reports that single women exhibit “weaker credit characteristics” at the application stage and are more likely to have subprime financing.
Focusing on three distinct sets of years — 2004-2007, 2008-2010 and 2011-2014 — the researchers found that single women defaulted at lower rates than single men in all three periods, which represented sharply different economic environments. The years 2004-2007 were prime boom times; 2008-2010 encompassed the housing bust and global financial crisis; and 2011-2014 were post-recession recovery years.
Single women are now the second-largest group of buyers in the U.S., accounting for around 15 percent of purchases in recent years.
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