Women become a force in home buying
By Steve McLinden • Bankrate.com

The antiquated notion that a "woman's place is in the home" now has a more modern twist.

Women are finding their places in homes, all right, and in record numbers. But this time, they're crossing the thresholds of single-family residences sans spouses.

In fact, single women have been out-muscling single men as first-time home buyers at a rate of about two to one over the past half decade, National Association of Realtors research indicates.

In 2002, approximately 18 percent of all first-home buyers in the U.S. were single women while just 9 percent were men, according to preliminary data from the National Association of Realtors' forthcoming Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers. Those numbers are up from 2001 tallies, when single women constituted 15 percent of the home-buying market and single men, 7 percent.

"Women need a sense of financial security and they obviously see a home as a sound investment," says Walter Malony, industry-trend specialist for the NAR. It's also far easier for single women to get a mortgage than two decades ago, he adds.

Setting the stage were several changes in lending standards, including a general relaxing of underwriting/down-payment requirements for home purchases and the FHA's push to allow single parents to count child support as income.

Protracted low interest rates and low down-payment programs also contribute to the trend, say analysts, as do chronically high divorce rates.

The single-woman home buying phenomenon is not just a U.S. phenomenon. In Great Britain, the same segment is forsaking rental flats for self-owned homes at an even higher rate. More than 21 percent of first-time home buyers in the U.K. in 2002 were single women, according to Her Mortgage, which specializes in women home-buyer services.

The rise in single female buyers
Back in the states, some of the country's top residential real estate firms have seen their customer base of single women buyer grow sharply in recent years, including Pittsburgh-based Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, which has 65 offices in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and New York.

Single women now comprise about 20 percent of the operation's first-time buyers system wide, said its president, Helen Hanna Casey.

"We see more families encouraging their daughters to own homes -- and not just be content to wait until they get married," she said. "Women are making more money and they are exerting more control over their destinies."

Single men, on the other hand, don't show the same nesting instinct, she said. "And their parents don't seem to be as concerned about the same type of security for them."

Women are also no longer bound by the notion that they must buy a house for life, so they are less apprehensive about buying a lower-cost abode because they realize they can sell with relative ease in this more transient, move-up society as their lives change, Casey said.

"We have women who might have rented for 20 to 25 years who are now buying in new (suburban) communities for a different lifestyle. Then we see a lot of young people who have moved back here from Washington, New York or Boston. They are buying new homes instead of moving back with their parents."

Casey said the single-woman home-buyer push began in earnest about eight years ago and has not abated.

Steven Lowenstein, a Realtor with Coletta & Associates of Cincinnati, said he too has seen an increase in the segment.

Women shop harder for homes
Lowenstein notes a distinct difference in the house-hunting habits of women which may contribute to the trend. "Women will go out and look at homes all day long, eight days a week," he said. "Men? Well, you have to just about drag them out."

He suggests that first-time women home buyers seek out a woman mortgage banker if possible. "Like a woman doctor, they may be more sensitive to a woman's needs," he said. It's odd, he notes, that while residential real estate is dominated by women, its chief funding instrument, mortgage banking, is still largely male dominated. That's slowly changing, but there are still be plenty of career opportunities for women in the mortgage business, said Lowenstein, who pens a regular local real estate column.

Lowenstein suggests that all first-time buyers get pre-qualified for a loan before starting their search, so they'll have a realistic price range to work with from the beginning and use their hunting time more efficiently.

"Single home buyers might give a little more thought to condominiums and townhomes because there will be other singles around, and a variety of community services such as exercise facilities," he added.

The National Association of Realtors estimates that 47 percent of condominium owners are single women.

Easing the intimidation factor
Doug Perry, first vice president of Countrywide Home Loans, said the home-buying process can be intimidating to first-timers of either sex. He said they should not hesitate to get free expert advice from lenders, either via phone or Web sites. "It shouldn't cost you a thing until you sign (for the loan)," he said.

Countrywide has seen an increase in first-time women buyers, in part due to low down-payment programs and other products that make buying easier, Perry said. "It helps buyers keep up with those rapidly rising home prices."

Perry has also seen women's earning and home buying power grow significantly in recent years.

Brian Sullivan, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said there is no gender-specific program available for first-time women home buyers, but HUD's American Dream Down Payment Initiative, plus its home-buying Housing Counseling program, as well as a proliferation of low down- payment programs are assisting new home buyers in unprecedented numbers.

"The down payment is the single greatest obstacle facing first-time buyers," said Sullivan. "But today, more Americans own their homes than at any time in the past."

Lenders notice the shift
Muriel Siebert, founder of the Women's Financial Network at Siebert, said banks are starting to cater more to female home buyers. "They know they're good customers, and we're seeing more people at these institutions who are tuned into women home buyers, and to women business owners."

Siebert's organization, which provides financial advice for women, cites a Long Island University study that says a woman's standard of living drops from 27 to 45 percent in the year following a divorce, while a man's rises 10 percent or more -- factors that obviously can make it tougher for the woman to buy and sustain a home.

"We have more women working today who are the key supporters of their family and they want to give themselves and their family stability," said Siebert, who was formerly banking superintendent of the state of New York and the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.

Women can face unique life-changing events, and may be more prone to drop out of the workforce to raise children or care for an aging parent. And that can drop pension and retirement benefits precipitously, said Siebert.

"Because women are living longer, their need for future financial stability is even more of a concern. Owning a home gives them that stability."

Steve McLinden is a freelance writer based in Texas.

-- Posted: July 1, 2003