The growth trend is reversing for young single female homeowners

Women have returned to the workforce in numbers close to pre-pandemic, but home ownership remains elusive for those who are single

• The homeownership rate for young single women declined in 2022 for the first time in six years after peaking in 2021.

• The top three metropolitan areas with the highest share of listings available to single women are Pittsburgh, St. Lewis and Detroit.

• Women face the greatest gender-based disparities in housing affordability Cincinnati, Kansas City and Oklahoma City.

SEATTLE, March 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Single men have long been more likely to own a home than single women, but that gap has narrowed sharply in recent years, nearly closing in 2021. However, new Zillow^® analysis shows it widened again last year, shedding light on home-buying challenges single women face, including lower wages and a more volatile workforce experience.

In 2016, 19.4 percent of young single women owned a home, compared to 29.6 percent of young single men—a difference of 10.1 percentage points. The gap narrowed over the next five years as more and more women entered the workforce — leading to record high numbers in 2020 – and women’s incomes begin to rise. By 2021, that gap was just 1.8 percentage points.

But that progress was erased in 2022. In the first year of the pandemic, a huge share of women left their jobs to take on caregiving responsibilities as childcare and elderly care options changed. Women also continue to earn significantly less than men on average, getting approx 82 cents to every dollar won by men. As a result, young single women have fewer options when it comes to affordable housing listings than young single men.

“Single women have made great strides in closing the home ownership gap, but the pandemic has reminded us that progress is not always linear,” said Skyler Olsen, chief economist at Zillow. “Although women have shown remarkable resilience in returning to the workforce, the rate of single female homeowners took a hard hit in 2022. With rising and volatile mortgage rates exacerbating affordability challenges, the road to affordable housing remains a difficult one battle and may require creative solutions or even doubling up on a home to achieve that dream.”

The story continues

After rising to 28.6% by 2021, the single female home ownership rate fell to 24.5% last year, erasing almost half of the gains made since 2016, when single female ownership was at its lowest all-time high of 19.4%. At the same time, the homeownership rate for single men increased by 2.7 percentage points in 2022 to 33.1%.

Single women looking to buy a home Pittsburgh, St. Lewis or Detroit — which are among the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas — will find the highest share of affordable listings. Single women in Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington, DCand Roley are best able to compete with single men in the sale market; single women in these urban areas can afford, on average, at least 2% of all active listings and at least 90% of listings that single men can afford. On the other hand, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Minneapolis, Jacksonville and New Orleans we see the largest gender-based disparity in housing affordability, with single women able to afford less than 70% of the homes that single men can afford.

Like market changesZillow has put together tools for first-time buyers to take the leap into homeownership an easy to navigate web page. Here are five quick tips for aspiring buyers:

• Accessibility: Use Zillow mortgage calculators and accessibility tools find out what you can afford, including hidden costs of home ownershipsuch as property taxes, insurance and HOA fees.

• Financing: Get pre-approved for a mortgage to gain a competitive advantage as most sellers prefer buyers who have been pre-approved rather than pre-qualified.

• Hire the right agent: Hire an experienced agent who knows the local market and can help you make strategic decisions and leverage Find real estate agents on Zillow to find the right one.

• Shop smarter with technology: Use real estate technology like Zillow’s multi-location search filter, Homes to comparevirtual 3D home tours and interactive floor plans shop more confidently and make faster decisions.

• Unexpected costs: Include important contingencies in bids to potentially save money in the long run, such as inspection contingencies to identify expensive repairs and financing or appraisal contingencies to protect hard-earned money.

Sources and methodology
Labor force participation rates for working-age adults (ages 16–64) are produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and are derived from FRED API. Annual home ownership the percentages of households headed by 25- to 35-year-olds (annually from 1980 to 2022) and disaggregated by employment, marital status, and lifestyle were estimated by Zillow Economic research using individual records from the current population survey provided by IPUM CPS, on University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org. Information on gender pay equity was obtained from the Pew Research Center, www.pewresearch.org.

The number and proportion of active listings on Zillow that are available to single women and single men (restricted here to employed singles between the ages of 18 and 44) ​​were calculated using all listings that were ever active on Zillow during February 2023 and median individual incomes by gender, calculated by Zillow Research using individual responses to the American Community Survey, also provided by IPUMS at University of Minnesota. The home is considered “affordable” in this case if the expected mortgage payment listed takes up no more than 30% of income. We base the mortgage rate for this analysis on the average weekly mortgage rate reported by Freddie Mac for February.

About Zillow Group
Zillow Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: H and Z G) is rethinking real estate to make it easier to unlock the next chapter in life. As the most visited real estate site in United States, Zillow^® and its affiliates offer customers an on-demand selling, buying, leasing or financing experience with transparency and ease.

Zillow Group affiliates and brands include Zillow^®; Premier Agent^®; Zillow℠ Home Loans; Zillow Closing Services℠; Trulia^®; To the east^®; StreetEasy^®; HotPads^®; and ShowingTime+℠, which includes ShowingTime^®Bridge Interactive^®and dotloop^® and listing media services. Zillow Home Loans, LLC is an Equal Home Lender, NMLS #10287 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org).

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SOURCE Zillow Group, Inc.