Single women are likelier than single men to be homeowners, according to a new report from LendingTree. The report found that this was likely to be the case among younger women with better educational pedigree than their older counterparts. Despite the fact that women’s median take home pay is still 83.6% that of men (per the report), the demographic shift from younger women has single women more likely to be homeowners than single men.
The report found that across the nation, single women own 11.14 million homes, compared with 8.42 million for single men—a difference of 2,719,923. As a total share of the homeownership market, single women comprise 13.01%, while single men account for 9.83%.
The report also found that the gap between single women homeowners and single men homeowners has slowly expanded since 2022—when single women homeowners owned 10.95 million homes, compared with 8.24 million homes for men (a difference of 2.71 million homes). That represents an increase of 14,780 housing units in the gap between single men and single men.
The report went on to note that the reasons for this gap are still unclear, but offers “a few possible explanations.” One is that single women are more willing to make sacrifices to achieve homeownership compared to single men, though the evidence for this is “sparse,” the report admitted.
Another possible explanation is that women live longer and are more likely to be widowed compared to men, meaning the gap could be at least partially explained by women who outlived their spouses. On the other hand, there is little indication that single women are beating single men in homeownership due to “disproportionately” benefiting from divorces, or through closing the earnings gap, according to the report.
The homeownership gap was most pronounced in Delaware and Connecticut. Although neither state has the highest volume of single women homeowners, they were the two states with the highest disparity between the genders. Delaware had a 5.23% difference between the total share of single homeowners, while Connecticut’s figure clocked in at 5.06%.
As far as the states in which single women saw their highest percentage of overall homeownership, New Mexico, Mississippi and West Virginia led the way according to LendingTree, with 15.26% of the share of homeowners being single women in New Mexico, compared with 15.07% in Mississippi and 14.73% in West Virginia. States with single women homeowners as higher percentage shares of overall homeownership tended to be in the Southern and Midwestern regions, with New Mexico being the geographic outlier. Rounding out the top 10 states after West Virginia were Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio and Maryland.
Single men made up the highest percentage of overall homeowners in North Dakota, South Dakota and Alaska. The share of single men homeowners in North Dakota is 13.52%, with South Dakota at 13.10% and Alaska having 12.79%. In addition to being the states with the highest proportion of single male homeowners, these were the only three states in which single men homeowners outnumbered single women homeowners. States with the highest percentage of single male homeowners tended to be clustered in the Northern region of the U.S. After Alaska, the rest of the top 10 states with the highest share of single male homeowners were West Virginia, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Louisiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.
LendingTree also found that the states with the highest gaps between single women and men homeownership were mainly located along the Eastern coast of the U.S. After Connecticut, these were Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, South Carolina, Florida, New York, Massachusetts and Mississippi.
As far as practical advice, the report recommends that women carefully vet different lenders to find the best deals, and also understand that it is illegal for lenders to discriminate against them based on gender.
“While single women may be more likely to be homeowners than single men, that doesn’t mean buying a house is easy,” the report said.
