The survey, entitled ‘Buying For Themselves: An Analysis of Unmarried Female Home Buyers’ pointed out the changing social demographics, behavioural differences and economic characteristics that differentiate single females from their unmarried male and married counterparts.
The survey reported that although unmarried female buyers vary in age, most home buyers are more likely to be older. The results showed 44 per cent of unmarried American female home buyers are at least 45 years old, and of that amount, two out of three had been previously married. They also tended to have lower incomes.
The report also concluded that relative to married couples, unmarried male and female home buyers were more likely to purchase homes in central cities than suburban areas. They were also more likely to choose their location based on proximity to friends and family, and less likely to do so because of proximity to work or school. In addition to this, they were more likely to compromise on the size and cost of their home in order to get the attributes most important to them and less likely to compromise on location and neighbourhood quality.
However, perhaps the most surprising difference single females demonstrated in their home purchasing habits was despite tending to opt for smaller modern homes with theoretically less maintenance, they were still more likely to live in structurally inadequate housing compared to other groups in the market.
John Charcoal, senior technical manger, Ray Boulger, commented: “I don’t think it’s an issue being married or not, the majority of first-time buyers are couples. Peoples’ buying habits also depend on their job prospects. Subject to that I think a lot of those broad conclusions I’d agree with, a lot of it is common sense.”
