The state of women’s finances: How homeownership is becoming the great equalizer

Finance is different for everyone. We all inhabit our own money realities: white people and people of color, Gen Z and baby boomers, high earners and those with lower incomes.

Women live in their own financial reality, too. One where the gender pay gap is a force holding back their progress, seeping into every aspect of their financial well-being. One where caregiving responsibilities often fall on their shoulders, affecting their careers.

Yet numbers show women’s resilience in the face of these obstacles. They routinely negotiate to earn more money. They buy more homes than men despite struggling with upfront costs, improving their long-term financial security. They might not always feel good about their finances, but they remain optimistic nevertheless.

We gathered Bankrate data from the past year to paint a financial portrait of today’s American woman. Learn about their struggles and how they overcome these challenges — from the statistics, financial experts and women themselves.

The pay gap has a ripple effect — and it’s growing again

On average, women make less money than men do for the same work. This fact has a snowball effect on their long-term financial security. And, despite all the progress, this issue has proven persistent.

For the first time since the 1990s, the gender pay gap has widened for two consecutive years, a Bankrate analysis of Census Bureau data found. In 2024, women working full time, year-round earned 81 cents for every dollar men earned — down from 83 cents the year before and 84 cents in 2022. 

Women working full-time lose $542,800 due to the pay gap over a 40-year career, according to the American Association of University Women’s analysis of Census Bureau data. That’s more than half a million dollars that could fundamentally change the financial fortunes of not just one woman, but could also lay groundwork for generational wealth in the form of long-term investments, retirement savings or purchasing a home that builds equity. Consider that the median sales price of a house in the U.S. is a little over $405,000, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. 

And the inequity often begins early in a woman’s working years, compounding the problem. At the critical step from entry level to manager, only 93 women are promoted for every 100 men, and the gap is wider for women of color (74 per 100 men), according to the Women in the Workplace 2025 report by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org. Further, women only make up 29% of C-suite roles, and their share shrinks with each leadership level. The study also found that while women remain as committed to their careers as men, they face persistent structural barriers that limit their advancement. 

“People make a lot of assumptions about women’s behavior… and treat them based on those assumptions,” says Kate Bahn, senior vice president and chief economist at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “People will assume that women aren’t as ambitious as men, and so they receive fewer mentorship opportunities and promotion opportunities, even if they actually are just as ambitious.”

But women advocate for higher earnings, and that ripples, too

The gender pay gap makes it all the more crucial for women to advocate for themselves and seek higher pay — and many women do. Forty-six percent of women said they had successfully negotiated a raise during their professional careers, according to Bankrate’s Financial Habits survey. That’s more than women who said they never had (36%). Moreover, 23% of women said they had negotiated a pay raise at least once a year.

Increasing your income needs to happen on a regular basis, says Rita-Soledad Fernández Paulino, founder and CEO of Wealth Para Todos, a financial coaching and education platform that works to remove barriers to financial security for marginalized communities.

“Inflation is going up, and a lot of times, our income isn’t keeping up,” she explains.

Besides leaving more room in the budget for everyday spending and long-term wealth building, a higher income can lead to a lower debt-to-income ratio (DTI) if you don’t increase your debt. A lower DTI can result in further savings as you’re likely to get better terms when qualifying for credit, whether it’s a mortgage or an auto loan.

Aleksa Diaz, 30, is a tech support agent in a tech company in Austin, Texas. She learned to negotiate straight out of college when she asked her first employer to add $5,000 to the offer. Today, she’s looking for a new role and utilizing AI to prepare for negotiations. 

“It gave me some really good prompts and asked me some really good questions to showcase the skills that I have that would give the most leverage for a successful negotiation,” she explains.

Being prepared is something Fernández Paulino also highlights. She recommends looking for data on salaries for specific positions within a field while keeping in mind the value of skills and expertise a woman can bring. Sources such as Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter and Indeed can be helpful in this kind of research.

Adena DeMonte, a 42-year old marketing professional in San Jose, California, also understands the importance of negotiation. In the past, she had opportunities where she increased her salary by $10,000 to $20,000 or had benefits added.

“Once a company decides they want you, you really have to just look at the job market and what your value is,” she says. “Things have definitely changed over time, and I look at that too, but most companies won’t offer you the most that they can offer.”

Still, difficulty saving plagues women on their path to wealth building

Even if women successfully negotiate for raises, their lifetime lower earnings have a snowball effect on their financial lives. A lower income means less money to cover everyday expenses, which can easily lead to debt. It’s no wonder that half of women who have credit cards (50%) carry a balance month to month, according to Bankrate’s Credit Card Debt Report. And while men and women equally cite emergency expenses as the most common reason they carry a carry card balance, female cardholders who carry a balance are more likely than their male counterparts to say their debt is mainly due to day-to-day expenses such as groceries, childcare or utilities (35% vs. 29%).  

When money goes toward basic necessities and debt repayment, saving money becomes challenging. In the absence of emergency funds, long-term goals like homeownership and retirement savings can take a backseat. Besides, a high credit card balance can have a negative impact on your overall credit health. Credit utilization is the second most influential credit factor after payment history. Using a high percentage of your credit line is likely to have a significant negative effect on your scores. Plus, it raises your DTI, which in turn impacts the terms of other credit you apply for, including your mortgage rate.

Once again, however, some women are making sacrifices in other areas of their lives to save for retirement, emergencies or homeownership. Still, sometimes it’s the feeling of financial security that’s missing regardless of the numbers.

“Does anyone have enough savings right now?” DeMonte asks. 

A homeowner and a mother of three, DeMonte feels good about where she is financially but recognizes she’s been fortunate to save and invest in her 20s. Plus, the shifting job market creates a degree of uncertainty, and the question of having savings to live off of still concerns her.

“It’s taken me a long time to get to a place where I feel like I have decent savings, but it’s not the type of savings that will last forever,” she says.

Diaz doesn’t feel like any number would be enough. Since she’s dealing with chronic health conditions, she relies on her health insurance heavily. Without it, she’d have to go back to her home country of Mexico where her current savings would last her eight to 10 months, she says — as opposed to four to six in the United States.

“Maybe if I had like $200,000 in savings, I would feel like that’s enough for me. But I’m not at that number yet.”

Alyssa Armstrong, 29, is an outlier. Armstrong lives in Port Townsend, Washington, and owns an email and retention agency. She feels she has enough savings, but admits that mentally, it has been an ongoing battle.

“If you’re someone who has a frugality mindset… you can fall into the slippery slope of feeling like you never have enough,” she says. “For me, I started to feel that way when we were preparing to have our firstborn a year ago. It was really easy to start to feel like we just don’t have enough… But when I look back and reflect back on my actual history as an adult, we’re covered in case of emergency and then some.” 

The feeling of never having enough savings despite the actual number is your bank account might be a sign of financial trauma, Fernández Paulino says. Some women witnessed financial struggles their family members went through, whether it was foreclosures, bankruptcies or health issues that caused their loved ones to stop working. Such experiences can lead to a money hoarding mindset and failing to invest.

“If the money is not going to be used for more than three years, you should be investing that money and watching your money make money while you sleep,” Fernández Paulino says.

Homeownership remains a path to wealth and women are taking advantage

One of the pillars of long-term security for many Americans is homeownership. The median net worth of renters is $10,400, which is about 39 times lower compared to homeowners’ median net worth of $396,200, based on the most recent data from the Federal Reserve.

For women, home equity can provide a security net to rely on later in life, which is significant considering the pay gap makes it harder to save for retirement. But buying a house is a huge undertaking, and one full of financial challenges. The initial costs can be an especially tough barrier. Three in 4 women who are aspiring homeowners (75%) see expenses from down payments and closing costs as a significant obstacle to buying, according to Bankrate’s Down Payment Survey.

DeMonte and her husband bought their home in 2020. She had a role at a company that offered restricted stock units which she said did well for a couple of years. Plus, the family had lived in a one-bedroom rental apartment until DeMonte was pregnant with her second child, and that helped them save a lot over time.

“That got me to a place with my husband where we could put the down payment down,” she says. “We have a relatively low payment compared to if we were to buy the same house today.”

The housing market today is vastly different from what it was during the pandemic when mortgage rates fluctuated at around 3%, according to the Bankrate data. For the past three years, they’ve rarely dipped below 6%, exacerbating the affordability issue.

Still, despite all the obstacles, women remain a powerful force in the homebuying market. To them, homeownership may feel like a milestone to achieve, Fernández Paulino says. Financial independence was out of reach for women for a long time in American history. But many modern women grew up on media that showed them they didn’t have to depend on anyone. They had role models who made financial goals like buying a house appear more accessible. Forty years ago, only 11% of first-time homebuyers were women (only 9% were men), according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). In 2025, women made up 25% or first-time homebuyers, compared to just 10% of single men. Overall, 21% of all homebuyers are single women, compared to only 9% of single men.

Several factors that might be contributing to these statistics. For instance, women are still more likely to be caregivers in their families and purchase a house to be near their loved ones, the NAR writes. Another potential factor is kids. Single women are more likely to have children in the home and slightly more likely to buy a multigenerational home.

Additionally, women appear more prepared to make financial sacrifices to purchase a home. Forty-one percent of women make financial sacrifices compared to 31% of men who buy homes, according to the NAR.

To women who want to join the ranks of homeowners but struggle with homebuying costs, Fernández Paulino recommends looking at down payment assistance programs. Possible options vary by state and specific area, as well as qualification terms. 

“One that I personally had looked into is called the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America,” Fernández Paulino shares. “They don’t require you to put the whole 20% down. They support you in terms of [getting] a lower interest rate and all of that.”

Women feel financially insecure — but also optimistic

With the persistence of the gender pay gap and anxiety about not having enough savings, it’s no wonder that about 3 in 5 working women (62%) feel behind where they should be with their retirement savings, according to Bankrate’s retirement savings survey. These worries are more than legitimate, considering more than 4 in 5 retired women (82%) are likely to rely on Social Security benefits, according to Bankrate’s Social Security Survey.

The prevalence of worries about long-term financial security takes its toll: Money is a stressor for a lot of women. Forty-five percent of women say money negatively impacts their mental health at least occasionally, according to Bankrate’s Money and Mental Health Survey.

This kind of anxiety may be especially intense for women who don’t own a home. Having enough equity provides an opportunity to borrow money at a low interest rate through a home equity loan or home equity line of credit. While using a home as collateral carries certain risk, equity can still be a financial cushion for a woman later in life.

“I think everybody feels stressed about money,” DeMonte says. Her family lives rather frugally, flying with Frontier when it saves money and driving a 2005 Prius with 260,000 miles on it. 

“We recently bought a 2021 Honda Odyssey to fit our third kid,” she says.

DeMonte feels good about where her family is financially, and she is grateful. Still, money is a stress, and she worries about the job market and how it’s shaped by the growing influence of AI.

Still, despite all the difficulties and worries, many women remain optimistic. Forty-five percent of women believe they will feel financially secure one day, Bankrate’s Financial Freedom Survey found.

Armstrong is one of the women who can say she feels financially secure. Even though money is inherently stressful, she has no high-interest debt, feels good about her savings and is positive about where her retirement account balance is. The best thing you can do, she says, is to stop comparing yourself to the people around you. 

“It can be really easy to feel overwhelmed with things about personal finance,” she says, “or you can feel like you have to rely on someone else to tell you what to do. But you’re so much more capable than you think you are.”