Single Women Become
A Force in Home-Buying

Wendi Goldman, 40, is hoping to trade up -- way up. The Manhattan executive is in the market for a two-bedroom, two-bath co-op in the $1.5 million range. What sets her apart from other shoppers looking for a "classic six" in a full-service building is that she does not have children who've outgrown their room or a husband who needs an office. She is single and just wants more.

"I want something fabulous, a nicer, bigger place that I can be in for a while. I want to move only once in the foreseeable future," says Ms. Goldman, executive vice president of design for Limited Design Services, a division of Limited Brands Inc. She bought her current apartment, a one-bedroom co-op, for $117,000 eight years ago and hopes to sell in the $700,000 range.

Ms. Goldman is part of a wave of single women who aren't waiting for marriage to settle down and start nesting. Armed with buying power and investment prowess, they are buying condos, co-ops, townhouses and single-family homes in record numbers.

The percentage of women home buyers had held steady in a range of 15% to 17% since about 1993, but jumped to 21% in 2003. It's a "substantial increase, especially when you consider that the overall number of home sales also jumped from five million to six million," says Cathy Whatley, immediate past president of the National Association of Realtors, which conducts biannual surveys of the home-buying market.

This jump makes single women the second-biggest category of buyers, says Ms. Whatley, behind married couples, who make up 59% of homebuyers, but well ahead of single men, who make up only 11%.

Ms. Whatley and other real-estate analysts cite women's delayed plans for marriage, greater financial savvy and a better home-buying market as factors contributing most significantly to the trend, although high divorce rates also add to the single-woman homeowner population.

"Women are not seeing marriage as a first step to buying a home, and they are marrying later," says Rachel Drew, research specialist for the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. She says that women are not necessarily buying at younger ages, but that they are taking the real-estate plunge before the relationship leap.

According to the U.S. Census, the median marrying age in 2000 was 25.1, a considerable increase when compared with 20.8 in 1970, says Ms. Drew, who has been studying the rise in unmarried female homeowners. More significantly, she says, the prime years for first-time home buyers are between ages 30 and 35, the years when many professional women are beginning to hit their stride and have the financial ability to buy a home. "Education and income have increased for women, and they feel like they're in a better position to buy a home," she says.

Women's evolving role in the work force also has given them more financial agility, says Pam Liebman, president and chief executive officer of The Corcoran Group in New York. "They are a significant part of the work force, and they're staying a significant part of the work force. Women have always been primarily responsible for home-buying decisions, whether they're buying alone or with someone. Now, they are just more financially responsible," says Ms. Liebman, whose clientele of single women has increased sharply over the past few years.

Ms. Liebman says that much of her company's outreach to the women's market happens through women's professional groups. Significantly, more women are shopping in the upper price ranges alongside families and professionally established men, and more women are buying second homes on their own.

"We're not just marrying any guy who comes along. It's this sense of empowerment, because you're relying on yourself, and there's not this concept of having to be married first," says Pamela Emery, a Realtor at Jameson Realty in Chicago. Ms. Emery bought her first condominium in 1997 for $140,000. She sold it for $241,000 in 2002 and bought a two-bedroom duplex in a mixed-income development and subsequently became involved in the real-estate business, earning her license earlier in the year.

She says that five of her six current clients are single women in their 30s looking for first homes, trade-up properties and investment opportunities. "Once you own something in real estate, it draws you into more financial planning," she says.

Ms. Whatley says many women are buying their first home as a residence and then building real estate into their long-term investment strategies.

In addition to women who have never married, divorced and widowed women are also a growing segment of the market, says Ms. Whatley. "Where there was hesitancy before, where a divorced woman may not have felt she could purchase a home on her own, there is now a level of confidence that we haven't seen before," she says.

But even if they are making high incomes and buying second homes or investment properties, single women in the upper price ranges still endure more scrutiny for their lifestyle choices than single men, brokers say.

"There's this sense of disbelief that this highly successful, unmarried woman, who is not unhappy, by the way, wants a big apartment," says Lisa Lippman, a broker and senior vice president with The Corcoran Group in New York whose clients are shopping in the $1.5 million to $6 million range.

She says that when she takes single-women clients to see large apartments, the sellers always want to hear about a husband or they ask how many children she has.

"It's a double standard. If I have a single man, an investment banker, who wants to see the apartment, they are not surprised. But if it's a woman, it's seen differently," she says.

-- Ms. Lisle is a free-lance writer in Los Angeles.

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