Unmarried female homebuyers have become fast-growing real estate customers in recent years, accounting for almost double the number of home purchases when compared to unmarried men.
It’s a trend in Rhode Island as well as nationally, real estate professionals assert. .
"It’s definitely getting stronger," said Joe Tucker, a Realtor from the Cranston branch of the DeWolfe Companies. "I believe it’s a really good market for women right now."
Women accounted for 18 percent of all homebuyers, while single men only account for 9 percent, National Association of Realtors statistics show.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
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Meg Chapman, a Realtor at Bristol-based Harper, Ramos & Sheridan, has been dealing with both divorced single women and women who have never been married. She said lending institutions have been approving a lot more single female homebuyers for loans lately.
"I’ve been seeing it more over the past 12 months," she said. "And it has changed so dramatically. It used to be a matter of even if they knew your credit was good, they still wouldn’t touch it. Especially if you were a single woman."
Mortgage originator Doris Doyle said automated underwriting has a lot to do with the homebuying heat up. Doyle, who works in the Warren-based Columbus Credit Union said she approves about 30 loans per month and about eight are for single women.
"I’m also seeing it more because of interest rates. And with the automated underwriting I can just do it on the computer while they’re sitting right there," she said.
Tucker said the market isn’t necessarily better for women than for men as much as more women are taking advantage of it.
"I think women tend to look more toward the future for security," he said. "They just seem to prioritize things differently."
In a recent report by the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, it was stated that rising incomes, the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act, a trend toward marriages later in life, and divorce are some of the reasons more single women are turning to homeownership.
The report also found that the typical single, female homebuyer is 41 years old, that 27 percent of the women have children under 18, and that single women tend to purchase homes in the suburbs.
Farriba Goldberg fits this profile. At the age of 39, she is the owner of the Bristol antique store Basically British and bought a home nearby last year. Divorced and the mother of a five-year-old and a seven-year-old, Goldberg said buying a house was the best thing she has ever done.
"The rents are getting so ludicrous," she said. "People are looking at $800 to $900 per month. You add a couple more hundred on top of that and you’ve got yourself a mortgage. It just seems to make more sense"
She said getting a mortgage as a single businessperson was not exactly easy, but eventually Columbus Credit Union put her in touch with a mortgage company that would take her seriously.
Laura Mullen, a Web designer, bought her Providence house in 1998 when she was 24.
"The market was great for me," she said. "It was a little bit of a risk to do it, but as each month goes by, I feel confident that I made the right decision."
Mullen said homeownership has changed the way she deals with her surroundings.
"It’s nice to have some investment in the neighborhood," she said. "It changes your relationship with neighbors in such a positive way."
And because she owns a duplex, Mullen rents the other apartment in her house to friends. Their rent checks help her pay her mortgage, in the time-honored fashion of first-time homeowners in Rhode Island and other states where multi-level and multi-family housing is abundant..
But most single women homeowners buy single-family homes. The National Association of Realtors found that 63 percent of women buyers buy detached, single-family homes, 20 percent buy condos and 13 percent buy townhouses.
Chapman said equity and independence are the things single women seem to appreciate most about home ownership.
"My market has had quite a few single moms," she said. "And it is really refreshing to see them paying their own mortgage rather than somebody else’s," she said.
