Single men, single women and house buying
A home inspector of my acquaintance wrote to ask me this:
It recently struck me that most of my clients are part of a couple. Two people buying a home. That makes sense. It pretty much takes two incomes to support one for most folks.But when I have a single client who is buying a home, it is almost always a single woman. I work with very few single men.
SO I have two questions:
1) Does that mirror your experience?
2) If so, why do you think that is?
I took a quick look at my client list over the past three years and replied:
Yes, single women outstrip single men for buying solo by 3:1 or so, depending on the year. Couples outstrip singles by 3:1 or 4:1.
Looking beyond my little office, the National statistics look like this for 2010:
First time house buyers: 48 percent married, 12 percent unmarried couples, 23 percent single women, 15 percent single men.
Recent buyers (not first timers): 68 percent married, 4 percent unmarried couples, 17 percent single women, 9 percent single men.
I am not going to venture a guess as to why single women buy independently more than men do. In my experience, the pattern holds for always-single and newly single. Here are some broad generalizations:
Both men and women site "growing out" of the age for sharing an apartment. The cost of living alone gets on his/her nerves. That rental restlessness is tinted with emotional/personal themes.
From single women, I tend to hear themes of economic independence: “I have worked hard and can have my own place.” I also hear a desire to build a home where she can express her own taste and style. “I’ve always wanted to have a kitchen where I could hang all my cookware.” These women want a home with or without Mr. (or Ms) Right. I find on follow-up that single women are more likely to have repainted and redecorated early in their residency at the new place. Their goal is to have a house and make it a home.
For men, location is important -- whether urban or more landed. The emotional pull seems to be to set down roots, with or without Ms (or Mr.) Right. I find on follow-up that outdoor space is improved early in the residency. For men, I sense a drive to have a house – with ownership somehow reinforcing independence and stability.
Divorced people that I have worked with had similar patterns. The men rented longer than women after divorce. Some women felt compelled to buy immediately. (I try to talk them out of that, since I think that is too stressful a time to make a good decision. But, I have worked with many newly-divorced women who bought the second they could.) I have yet to work with a guy doing that.
How do these generalizations match up to your experience of single house buyers?
Single homeowners, why did you buy on your own? What are the pluses and minuses of this decision?
