Single female homebuyers outnumber male counterparts
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR’s) 2022 profile of home buyers and sellers released last November (https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/highlights-from-the-profile-of-home-buyers-and-sellers), single women homebuyers outnumbered single male homebuyers by a factor of almost 2 to 1. While that’s undoubtedly a major milestone, there was a time when it was nearly impossible for female homebuyers to obtain home mortgages on their own.
Prior to passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974, banks would not make mortgage loans to single, widowed or divorced women unless they had a male cosigner, regardless of their income. To add insult to injury, even with a cosigner, banks would only give women partial credit for the income they earned. Banks would also routinely deny credit to women who were pregnant because at the time it was legal to fire a pregnant woman from her job, which, in bank-think, would most likely result in a loss of income and a mortgage delinquency.
When lenders did agree to grant a mortgage to a woman, they required her to sign an affidavit attesting to the fact that she was not pregnant at the time she signed the documents. It wasn’t until Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978, which made it illegal to fire a woman because she was pregnant, that the pregnancy factor was eliminated from the credit calculations made by banks.
Men were still able to take out second mortgages on their homes without their wives’ knowledge, however. The U.S. Supreme Court remedied that situation in 1981 when it ruled in Kirhberg v Feenstra that husbands did not have the right to unilaterally take out a second mortgage on a property if the ownership was held jointly with their wives.
So, how far have women’s rights advanced when it comes to homebuying? Well, as the slogan in a well-known 1967 cigarette commercial once bragged: “You’ve come a long way baby!” Today, NAR reports that 17 percent of home sales in 2022 were made to single women, up from almost zero percent 45-years ago. At the same time, single men were responsible for just 9 percent of home sales. Unmarried couples accounted for an additional 10 percent of purchases.
Closer to home, Teri Baca, Homeownership Representative for the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority (MFA), reported that women were the primary borrowers in just under 49 percent of the loans made during MFA’s 2022 fiscal year. A year earlier, the percentage was just over 47 percent. MFA is best known for providing financing to first-time buyers throughout New Mexico.
Statistics show women performed better than men in the delinquency sector. A 2022 report from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development revealed that single females who obtained one of the 7.4 million mortgages FHA insured between 2010 and 2019 had fewer delinquencies than their male counterparts. During the period, 8.5 percent of single male borrowers defaulted on their loans while just 8.3 percent of single female borrowers failed to pay as agreed.
New Mexico addressed the rights of women prior to passage of the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act, when in 1972 voters approved The New Mexico Equal Rights amendment to the state constitution, saying: "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor shall any person be denied equal protections of the laws. Equality of rights under law shall not be denied on account of the sex of any person”. The change removed or modified language that could have been discriminatory, put husbands and wives on a level playing field and changed labor laws to mandate equal rights and protection for both men and women. The amendment also prompted changes to some 60 other laws.
A report on women in real estate wouldn’t be complete without looking at the Realtor side of the equation. According to a recent NAR report (https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/quick-real-estate-statistics), women currently account for 66 percent of all Realtors nationwide. That’s 66 percent of 1.5 million Realtors, or 1,005,000 agents. The report also revealed that the typical Realtor is a 56-year-old female who attended college and is a homeowner.
So, there you have it. Women continue to be a force to reckon with in real estate irrespective of which side of the negotiating table they sit. The trend gives a whole new meaning to the term “sales force”.
See you at closing!
Gary Sandler is a full-time Realtor and president of Gary Sandler Inc., Realtors in Las Cruces, NM. He loves to answer questions and can be reached at 575-642-2292 or Gary@GarySandler.com.
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This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Single female homebuyers outnumber male counterparts
