Interesting Housing Dynamics

Before we dig too deep into the numbers, we would like to remind our readers about statistics and how they work. Statistics are only as good as the sample they were taken from and the methodology used for analysis. There's a reason that sayings like "that's like comparing apples to oranges-we want apples to apples" exist. It is very easy to take a number and misrepresent what that number actually means. While we are not planning to explicitly comment on the manner in which data was collected or used, we do encourage our readers to check out any sources we list within the article (ie: "According to the Pew Research Center...").

Keeping that in mind, it has been reported that more women are filing as head of household and are becoming homeowners than in prior years. According to the National Association of Realtors, single women are the second-largest group of homebuyers as of home purchases made in 2019. Single women were responsible for 20% of home purchases during that time period. Of course, the number one group of home buyers is married couples. That overall trend seems to have held through to last year, despite the percentage dropping from 20% to 17%.

What is happening? Are single women making more on average? Or are they finding better deals or opportunities to settle? The reasons driving this trend aren't apparent, but it would make sense if the median or average income in the population of single women (or people identifying as women as we are not sure how women are defined in the study) has risen.

What are some other interesting demographics that were observed? Well, according to the Pew Research Center, as of 2019 homes are owned mostly by people identifying as white and married couples (those two stats are not collected together, though based on percentages, it would be no surprise to see a lot of overlap). Another interesting piece of information is most people who rent live alone, and while the largest race/ethnic group who rents is white, they make up about 58% of renters which is staggeringly lower than the 75% of them who make up the homeowner population.

When breaking down the numbers by income, renters make less and have less wealth than homeowners. Which makes sense logically-why would someone not opt to own a house? Financial reasons, more than likely. If a person has neither the income nor the savings to purchase a home, it makes sense that they would rely on renting.

The bigger question is who are the owners of the rented properties? It turns out that it's an odd, but semi-expected mix. According to the Census Bureau data from 2018, individuals owned about 71.6% of the properties which make up about 41.2% of the units. Which leads us to believe that individuals are more likely to own single family homes than they are to own multi-family units. Meanwhile, for-profit businesses owned 18.8% of properties, but roughly 45% of the units - which translates to companies owning relatively large housing complexes.

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