22% of homes purchased by single women

From the Phily Daily News:

Single women, looking to buy, turn to condos

BACK IN the day, women thought homeownership came with a husband and 2.5 kids. Not any more.

At least 22 percent of all homes sold in the U.S. last year were purchased by single women – the not-yet-marrieds, divorcees and widows. And most of these independent ladies bought condominiums.

A report – “Buying for Themselves: An Analysis of Unmarried Female Homebuyers” – by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, characterizes unmarried female buyers as “a diverse and highly segmented group comprised of single mothers, young singles, middle-aged divorcees and seniors” who purchased more than $550 billion in real estate between 2000 and 2003.

“The findings are striking: Not only are unmarried women a larger segment of the home-buying population, but they are fast-growing, increasing their share of home buyers by 50 percent in eight years,” the report says. Single men account for just 9 percent of home purchases.
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While unmarried women capturing a larger share of housing sales is a national trend, Westley says it is more marked here than in other markets where Urban Residential is working.

The Harvard report gives several reasons for the national trend:

* A 20 percent increase in the number of unmarried women in the past decade, partly due to women delaying marriage in favor of education and careers.

* Fewer adult women than men chose to live with their parents, opting to form their own households instead.

* The economic upside of owning, which has been emphasized heavily by the media, enhances the view of a growing number of women that marriage is no longer a prerequisite to buying a home.

* Divorced women have accumulated equity in homes they owned with spouses and can use that wealth to buy their own homes as they set up their own households.