The rate of single women becoming homeowners grew by leaps and bounds in recent years, but during 2022, some of those gains were wiped out, a Zillow analysis found.
As a result, the gap compared with single men owning a house widened.
The homeownership rate for single women dipped to 24.5% from 28.6% the year prior, while for single men, the rate grew by 2.7% to 33.1%, a report from the real estate company said.
Last year's decline – the first in almost six years – was a result of an outsized share of women leaving their jobs to take on caregiving responsibilities and continued wage disparities between males and females, Zillow's report argues.
"Single women had made great strides in narrowing the homeownership gap, but the pandemic reminded us that progress is not always linear," said Skylar Olsen, chief economist at Zillow, in a written statement. "With rising and volatile mortgage rates furthering affordability challenges, the road to affordable homeownership remains an uphill battle, and it may take creative solutions or even doubling up in a home to achieve that dream."
For context, as of March 23,
In 2016, the gender disparity in homeownership was notable, with 19.6% of single women in the age group of 25 to 35 owning a home, compared to 29.6% of similarly situated men. From that time, the difference shrank as more women entered the workforce and saw their income increase, resulting in the rate almost leveling out in 2021.
The results published Friday shine a light on "the homebuying challenges single women face, including lower salaries and a more volatile workforce experience," Zillow's report said.
Women receive approximately 82 cents to every dollar earned by men, which contributes to them having fewer options when it comes to finding affordable home listings, the analysis said.
For single women looking to buy a home, the brokerage recommends Pittsburgh, St. Louis or Detroit, which have the highest share of affordable properties for sale.
Meanwhile, Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington, and Raleigh, North Carolina are metro areas where women are most able to compete against single men in the for-sale market. On average, single women in those metros can afford at least 2% of all active listings and close to 90% of the listings single men can afford.
Cities with the largest gender-based disparity include: Cincinnati, Kansas City, Missouri, Oklahoma City, Minneapolis, Jacksonville, Florida and New Orleans. Females in these metro areas can afford fewer than 70% of the homes that single men can afford, Zillow's analysis found.
