Single Women are Becoming a Major Source of Home Buyer Prospects

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently reported that single women are quickly becoming a significant percentage of the total nu,mber of home buyers in the U.S. real estate market. Last year 20% of all home buyers were single women.

According to the NAR, single women aren’t just purchasing more homes. They are growing savvier about the whole home buying process, being much more likely to ask piercing questions and demanding straight answers to their questions regarding prices, features, financing options, etc. And it is not just young single professional women who are buying homes, the range of single female buyers varies all the way from young singles to post-retirement women.

Due to the increasing number of single women buying homes, both builders and real estate brokers are "stepping up their game" to appeal to this large new segment of the buyer market. Builders are increasingly offering new homes with more extensive security features, low- or no-maintenance yards, gourmet kitchens, more spacious bathrooms, softer color schemes - all features that appeal much more to female than to male buyers.

“When a woman is shopping for a home with a man, she tends often to defer to the man's desire for a garage, a workshop, or a work-at-home office,” says Rich Stover, a noted Sarasota Florida real estate agent. Conversely, says, Judie Berger, another respected Sarasota real estate associate broker, “when a woman is buying a home for herself, she tends to be more interested in how she may be most easily tailor the home to fit her own personal lifestyle, interesta and needs."

As the real estate market continues to bump along without much actual growth, it behooves every real estate professional to pay attention to trends like this and tailor their marketing plans and actions appropriately.