Single women are winning Chicago real estate
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Women, especially singles, are making up a larger share of the real estate market.
Why it matters: Sixty years ago, women couldn't even get a credit card or a mortgage without a male cosigner. Now, single women own more homes than single men.
Driving the news: Solo women homebuyers keep rising in share, accounting for over 18% of mortgage applications in 2023, according to mortgage platform Maxwell.
- That's up from 17.3% in 2021, when Maxwell started tracking applicants' gender and marital status.
- Also, one in three women with partners bought alone because they were in a stronger financial position to do so, the platform found.
Zoom in: Census data show 13.8% of homes in Illinois were owned by single women in 2021, compared to 10.1% by single men.
What they're saying: "One of the hardest parts of buying solo is not having a partner to work through decisions with that is as invested as you," Lauren Worth tells Axios.
- "I had to get over a lot of inner dialogues that ran along the lines of, 'this is accepting never finding a spouse to do this life event with,"' says Victoria Sterling, who bought her first home in her late 30s.
- Also, consider choosing a woman real estate agent: Barbara Pinto says hers "intrinsically got the safety considerations," such as no ground floor condos and good outdoor lighting.
What's happening: We're seeing a rise in the number of women homeowners — and a strong shift toward women-led households, Urban Institute researcher Jung Hyun Choi tells Axios.
By the numbers: In 1990, less than a third of total households (married and single) were headed by females. In 2021, the majority (51%) of households reported being female-headed, per the Urban Institute's analysis of census data.
- That increase was mostly driven by married households, Choi says.
- Among married households, 43% said they were female-headed in 2021, compared to 8% in 1990.
Of note: In most age groups, women outnumber men. "This is more a reflection of strength in numbers than economic vitality," Pew researcher Richard Fry says.
Be smart: Opportunity isn't equal. Single Latina and Black women have the lowest homeownership rates of any group in the U.S.
- "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 to other groups, including single men with children, Choi's research shows.
The intrigue: Maxwell's report shows Gen Zers and millennials made up the largest share of single women mortgage applicants in 2023.