Jan 30, 2024 Single women are winning real estate in Michigan
February 10, 2024
AXIOS
Jan 30,2024
Brianna Crane,
Annalise Frank
Single women in Michigan own more homes than single men.
Why it matters: Sixty years ago, women couldn't even get a credit card or a mortgage without a male cosigner. Now, the share of the single woman in the U.S. ellipse that of the single men.
Driving the news: Nationwide, solo women mortgage applicants made up 18% of the market in 2023 — a share that's slowly grown since mortgage platform Maxwell started tracking applicants' gender and marital status in 2021. One in three women homebuyers who have partners purchased solo because they were in a stronger financial position to do so, Maxwell's annual Single Woman Homebuyer Report found.
State of play: Census data shows 13.2% of housing units in Michigan are owned by single women, compared with 11.4% by single men.
What they're saying: We're seeing a national rise in the number of women homeowners — and a strong shift toward women-led household Urban Institue researcher Jung Hyun Choi tells Axios.
By the numbers: In 1990, less than a third of total U.S. households (married and single) were headed by females. In 2021, 51% reported being female-headed.
That increase was mostly driven by married households, Choi says.
In married U.S. households, 43% claimed to be female-headed in 2021, compared with just 8% in 1990.
That increase was mostly driven by married households, Choi says.
In married U.S. households, 43% claimed to be female-headed in 2021, compared with just 8% in 1990. In most age groups, women outnumber men. "This is more a reflection of strength in numbers than economic vitality," Pew researcher Richard Fry tells Axios. Opportunity isn't equal. Single Latina and Black women have the lowest homeownership rate of any group in the country. "39% of Latinas who are single and live alone owned a home in 2021, compared to close to 62% of non-Hispanic white women in similar circumstances," Axios' Astrid Galván reports. Single women with children also face low homeownership rates compared with other groups, including single men with children, Choi's research shows.
