Which segment of the population is buying more homes than any other? These days, single women are leading the charge with home ownership.

Today, I have three statistics for you to frame our whole conversation:

In 2016, an estimated 5.5 million single-family homes, condos, and townhouses were bought and sold, one of the most robust sales years in the last decade. 

There are about 109 million unmarried adults 18 or over in the United States.

About 53% of all single people in the U.S. are female, adding up to almost 58 million women.

So what do they all have in common?

It turns out that not only are women buying homes at record rates, but single females are purchasing real estate more than any other segment of the population.

Since homeownership is a gateway to a better financial life, it’s encouraging and endearing that so many independent, solo women are choosing to buy their own home.

Let’s examine these trends:

First off, we can look at the instance of married versus unmarried homebuyers:

Percentage of homebuyers

54% Married couples

44% Unmarried couples

2% Other

That means more than 4 out of every 10 home buyers is unmarried, a statistic that backs up the basic demographic trends in our country, as people are getting married later and not necessarily waiting to buy a home.

Now, let’s add gender to that matrix of current homebuyers:

                                                   Women     Men

First-time homebuyers:                23%        15%

Repeat homebuyers:                   15%          8%

Women that live

alone and own a home:                56%        47%

Spend ½ of their income

on housing:                                  25%        10%           

So we see that 23% of first-time homebuyers are women while only 15% of first-time buyers are men.

Even more pronounced of a gap, 15% of repeat homebuyers are single females, compared to only 8% of men – a rate almost double.

In fact, single women are the second largest group of recent homebuyers, behind only married couples and even ahead of unmarried couples such as boyfriends and girlfriends.

According to data from the New York Times, that mirrors the trend of single women owning their own home at a higher rate than single men over the last 30 years.

Here are some other statistics and trends about women and homeownership:

Female homeownership rates grew slowly but steadily over the decades but saw a big jump in the eight-year period from 1994-2002, when the number of unmarried females owning homes grew from 13.9 million to 17.5 million.

36% of single women live at home with their parents or relatives, the highest percentage since 1940.

The median age for single female first-time homebuyers is 32 years old.

The median income for single women who are first-time homebuyers is $49,000.

Bucking public perception, more women are now living alone than men by a significant margin; 15.5 million (women) to 11.8 million (men).

Of these single people that live alone, women were also more likely than to own their home (56%) compared to men (only 47%).

While women have come a long way when it comes to owning our own homes, we also have some progress yet to be made when it comes to financial independence.

About one-quarter of the eight million single mothers spend more than half of their monthly income on housing.

However, only one-tenth of single fathers pay more than half of their income on housing - a profound difference.

Another head scratching disparity between the genders is the fact that homes that single men buy appreciate faster than single female-owned homes. In fact, single men see their homes appreciate by 16% more than those belonging to single women.

The downside of single woman homeownership – less equity:

However, studies show that single women actually build less home equity over time than their male homeowner counterparts. In a study of almost 80,000 homes purchased in 2012, women earned a median home equity of $171,313 over five years, while men accumulated $186,403 equity in the same time.

That’s a significant difference of $15,090 or 8.1 percent or, framed another way, women amass 92 cents in home equity for every dollar that men gain.

Reportedly, there are several factors that may explain this equity gap.

On average, women are spending $25,000 less than men when buying their homes, which means that they start out with less equity. In high-cost areas like San Francisco, that gap goes up to $52,000 or more, which means that men have a larger asset to appreciate to begin with.

Women are also putting a smaller down payment into their purchase by a significant margin, as women are more likely to use an FHA loan with only 3.5% down.

Women still lag behind in income, and their income growth rates have effectively flatlined since 1979.

The positive side of this is that women are far more likely to go to college than en these days. However, that also comes with more student loan debt, as 65% of the U.S. $1.3 trillion student loan bill is owed by females. This equates to a skewed Debt-to-Income ratio and less spending power when buying a home, and therefore less equity.

Women are also far more likely to have children than single men, with 82.5% of single custodial parents being female. That means costs are higher and there is less money available for a down payment, house payments, or paying down a mortgage loan than for men.