Women have lower incomes than men, limiting their options when buying a house. But in some of the more pricey housing markets, single female homeowners outpace single male homeowners, which could suggest some tightening in the home value gap, according to Attom Data Solutions.
"According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women earn 80.5 cents for every dollar a man earns, which in turn gives them less purchasing power when it comes to buying a home," Jennifer von Pohlmann, director of public relations at Attom, said in a press release. "Therefore, it's not surprising to see almost a $30,000 home value gap between single men and single women homeowners."
"However, we do see that in some of those higher-valued markets, single women are owning more homes than single men, so hopefully it's just a matter of time before the gender of the housing market values balance out," she continued.
Single males own just over one million properties valued slightly upwards of $300,000, while single females own just below one million properties worth just below $300,000, according to Attom.
While on a national scale a $30,000 gap exists between the home values of single men and single women, this figure is more than double in certain housing markets.
In San Jose, Calif., single men have an $80,155 lead in property values on single women, the largest gap of any city. The gaps in Santa Cruz and San Francisco are also considerably high, at $59,515 and $52,831, respectively.
California is home to six of the top 10 markets with the greatest property value gaps of single females versus single males.
