Posted on 03/29/2005 11:21:03 AM PST by qam1
Fewer single women are waiting for Prince Charming to sweep them off their feet before they buy their first home.
The Wall Street Journal reports single women are buying homes in record numbers.
"It's like a dream,” said MiMi. “You are just not really there yet. It takes a few weeks to settle in, and say, ‘OK, this is my house!’”
MiMi, 29, isn't wasting anytime securing her future. She recently bought her first home.
Mimi is a part of a growing segment of single women, armed with buying power, that are unwilling to wait around for Mr. Right before investing in a house.
“If you keep waiting around and you keep renting, you're throwing away thousands of dollars each year that could be going towards equity,” MiMi continued. “So I wanted to make sure I was building something rather than throwing money into someone else's pockets."
The National Retail Association reports in 2003 single women bought one in five homes. That's close to two million homes.
The share of homes bought by single women has increased about 33 percent over the past decade, making single women the fastest growing segment of the home buying population.
"When I was a little girl we used to sing, ‘First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes whoever your friend is with a baby carriage.” I don't think kids are singing that song anymore,” said Triangle Realtor Linda Craft.
Craft says over the past ten years she's seen more and more single women wanting to buy a home. She says part of the reason is more women are thinking like business professionals nowadays.
“And the business professional says, ‘I don't want to waste money on rent, I want to own my own home. I want to start having a leveraged investment that is going to grow and protect my future,'" she explained.
Craft doesn't see the trend slowing down anytime soon. “I’ve been in business 20 years. I think 20 years from now, and I will still be in business, we will see more and more women, who are not only buying real estate, but own the majority of real estate."
Meantime, MiMi is enjoying her newfound independence, but is still open to meeting her knight in shining armor when the time is right. “Absolutely! You just have to take your time and do the responsible thing. The responsible thing is to watch out after your retirement and, like I said, investing in homes. Realty is one of the best ways to have a retirement or fixed income in the end."
Mortgage giant Fannie Mae expects single women to head 28 percent of all households by the end of the decade.
Too bad there aren't more cute conservative chicks like you around these parts...
< ducks as liberal girlfriend smacks me >
Time to leave Kalifornia.
I am striving to BE a landlord rather than RENT from one...
With renting --
A)The first time a neighbor wants to talk about gas mileage or patio decks or what to cover his driveway with -- I can move.
That's why even with a $65000/yr income I am looking at homes under $120000.
Yup.
And I'll mention, incidentally, that I (finally) bought a house last year at age 35. And I'm due to get married the end of May this year.
And my man's selling his house (a: he's had his for some years so it'll be a better deal b: it's a townhouse, rather small for both of us and esp. w/my dog).
I was doing a search in San Francisco for sh*ts and giggles...and the only homes under $150k were MOBILE HOMES for Pete's sake!
Around here, a good starter home is cheaper or the same as rent of a similar sized place.
If rent is half mortgage rates, why would landlords invest? They'd never make their money back!
GEE Whiz!
First you let women vote, then you let 'em buy a car --- now they want to buy a house! What's next?
So you're saying that if you aren't among the 0.3% of the population that can pay cash for their first home, don't bother???
Are you by any chance an owner of hundreds of rental properties???
;-)
My daughter is in her 11th year in a studio in SF west of downtown. Rent control of course. Started at $500 per month and now up to $610.
If rent is half mortgage rates, why would landlords invest? They'd never make their money back!
There have been a lot of broke landlords and real estate investors throughout history who have asked themselves that same question.
Of course there have. But a simple analysis of rental markets in a given area should help that decision!!
Many reasons. ESPECIALLY prior ownership to marriage.
If anything, I advise my male clients to buy a house before marriage. Thus they are on the hook for only 1/2 the increase in value.
In metro Akron, Ohio (in the suburbs) one can get a nice 1700 square foot ranch on an acre for under $180k if you're smart.
Rental markets fluctuate according to a number of hideously complex variables. People forget that any real estate purchase is a gamble. The best strategy, if you want to own a home, is to buy something and don't look at it as an investment. Real estate isn't an amateur's game.
SWEET!
If I rented, I couldn't have my two loud mouth dogs. I lived in various apartments for years all over Chicago. No thanks.
Thanks, that sounds nice. Unfortunately Ohio is nowhere near any family, which comes first for me. But there are other places that are more inexpensive that ARE near family, it's just a sketchy job situtation at the present moment in those areas. I'll probably take the plunge and move anyway.
sadly you prove the point.
I submit they should also look at the types of houses women buy. I can speak to women lawyers, they seem like town houses and houses with minimal yards.
As for your sentitivity to the "sexism", a woman who choose to live alone is "independent" but a man who makes the same choice has commitment issues. If a woman wants ahouse and a few cats instead of a family, her choice but don't disguise it as "independence."
The fact of life and nature is that the older a woman gets, the less likely she will be married.
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