Single women buying houses at double the pace of single men

All the single ladies, put your hands (and your house keys) up.

Despite earning less, single female homebuyers double that of single men, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The 18% share of single women who purchased a primary residence between July 2017 and June 2018 outpaced the 9% share of single male homebuyers. About 63% of homebuyers in that time frame were married couples and nearly 8% were unmarried couples.

NAR

It's often cited a woman earns 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. However, when measured by total earnings across the previous 15 years (for all employees working at least a year), the figure is much smaller — with women today earning just 49 cents to a typical male's dollar, according to the Institute of Women's Policy Research.

Two groups of buyers between the ages of 54 and 63, and 73 and older, made up the largest shares of single women who recently bought a house. The largest percentage of unmarried couples who made a home purchase were 28 and younger.

Overall, buyers between the ages of 29 and 38 comprised the largest cohort of homebuyers, with a share of 26%. Purchasers between the ages of 39 and 53 followed, representing 24% of recent house shoppers.

Millennials accounted for 37% of all purchasers on the market, making them the most active home buying generation for the sixth straight year, according to NAR. At 24%, Gen-Xers were the second largest group of buyers, followed by younger and older boomers, at 18% and 14%, respectively.

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Purchase First time home buyers Housing markets Real estate NAR
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