Gender Plays a Role During Raleigh’s Housing Boom, Data Shows :: WRAL.com
Kellie Corwin bought her house in Raleigh last summer.
“It was stressful,” Corwin told WRAL.
She and her partner were renting the house when they started their housing search. After opportunities presented themselves, they talked to their landlord and bought the house from him. Although she lives with a partner, she took out a loan for the house on her own.
“It made sense, with our income, that I was the only one financially responsible,” she said.
The Buffalo transplant moved to Raleigh permanently during the pandemic. She was working as a nurse in New York City in 2020, but chose to leave town and her intensive care career behind and open a boutique fitness studio here.
“Obviously I love the weather. And it feels like a booming city because of the growth, but it’s not so huge that you can’t drive, you can’t get around. I can always have a garden and have a dog.
Over the past 30 years, homeownership among women has increased, now reaching 61.2%. Yet single women remain underrepresented in the real estate market.
In Raleigh, 22% of homebuyers were single women or two co-applicants, according to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Data. Although this number seems small, it is actually higher than the national rate which stands at 21.4%.
Meanwhile, men alone account for 31.4% and co-applicants maintain the majority with 39.9% of the market nationwide. Less than 8% of applicants did not disclose identifying information such as gender.
Outside of Raleigh, other areas in North Carolina have some of the highest in the nation for female shoppers. Lumberton, Rocky Mount, and Fayetteville rank in the top 5 small and medium-sized metropolitan areas; women represent respectively 30%, 28.8% and 27.3% of the share.
“I think low interest rates are the reason a lot of single-income buyers are very interested,” said Rebecca Meschio, realtor at Hunter Rowe. “It’s a more palatable loan than something with a higher rate.”
Meschio says Raleigh’s competitive seller’s market is a challenge for all buyers.
Although gender should not be considered, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data on financing available to homebuyers shows that women have different buying experiences than their male counterparts and co-applicants.
On average in Raleigh, female loan applicants receive a median home loan of $235,000, which is $30,000 less than a typical loan for male applicants and $70,000 less than co-applicants.
The average loan-to-value ratio for women is also higher, suggesting that they invest less money when buying a home compared to their male or spouse counterparts.
“It’s not that all hope is lost for a single income buyer,” Meschio said. “It’s just that you have to be creative and patient and really work with experts.”