Rather than waiting for the traditional act of marriage to settle down, a growing number of single women are buying homes on their own. Affordable metro areas in the South, Midwest, and Northeast dominate the ranks for single female homebuyers, with significant diversity across the country’s biggest housing markets, according to a new report from Mortgage Research Network.
In 2025, single women made up 11.4% of all home purchase loans nationwide, but in the top metro areas, they made up almost one in six home purchasers, underscoring the influence of regional housing costs on homeownership prospects.
“Where women are buying on their own varies dramatically by market, and affordability appears to be one of the strongest drivers,” said Tim Lucas, Lead Analyst and Report Author at Mortgage Research Network. “For generations, homeownership often followed marriage, but that timeline is changing.”
The Top 10 Cities for Single Female Homebuyers in 2025:
| Rank | Metro | Percent of purchases by a single female | Average home price | Single female homebuyer income |
| U.S. | 11.4 % | $368,198 | $112,000 | |
| 1 | New Orleans | 17.4 % | $261,919 | $74,000 |
| 2 | Hartford, CT | 16.2 % | $394,221 | $88,000 |
| 3 | Buffalo, NY | 15.5 % | $282,896 | $75,000 |
| 4 | Baltimore | 15.2 % | $402,887 | $92,000 |
| 5 | Birmingham, AL | 14.6 % | $259,928 | $67,000 |
| 6 | Memphis, TN | 14.5 % | $245,951 | $71,000 |
| 7 | Cleveland | 14.4 % | $248,141 | $71,000 |
| 8 | Atlanta | 14.3 % | $381,835 | $90,000 |
| 9 | Pittsburgh | 14.2 % | $228,113 | $70,000 |
| 10 | Philadelphia | 14.2 % | $386,647 | $88,000 |
“Nearly 360,000 single women purchased homes nationwide in 2025, and in many markets they are increasingly choosing not to delay buying while waiting for a partner,” Lucas continued. “In the top metros, they account for nearly one in six buyers, compared to a much smaller share nationally, underscoring how sharply outcomes differ based on local housing costs.”
Affordability & Income Driving Single Women Homeownership
As data shows, affordability is the primary distinction between the metro areas at the top and bottom of the rankings. In the top ten markets, the average home value was almost $309,000. The average home value in the bottom ten markets exceeded roughly $818,000.
Consequently, the rate at which single women purchase homes in the top five metro areas is almost twice that of the bottom five. In general, the nation’s priciest housing markets did the poorest. San Jose, CA, came in worst, with only 6.5% of home purchase loans coming from single women. Near the bottom were San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, WA, Riverside, CA, and Los Angeles.
Income continues to play a significant role in determining who can buy a home, even while affordability helps explain where single women are buying. Single female purchasers often made far more money than the average single woman in each of the top-ranked metro areas. For instance, the typical income of a single female homebuyer in New Orleans was $74,000, whereas the median income of all single women was about $36,000. The trend indicates that although more women are independently joining the housing market, those who are successful in doing so typically earn significantly more than the local average.
The Midwest and South accounted for eight of the top 10 metro areas. Among the top ten metro areas, Atlanta was the largest, with 14.3% of homebuyers being single women. In 2025, almost 10,000 single women bought homes in the Atlanta region. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia both finished in the top 10, while Pennsylvania also stood out.
Further, boomtowns that were once reasonably priced suffered in the meantime. The popular Dallas metro scored 39th, and the notable Sun Belt Phoenix metro ranked 44th nationally, indicating that single-income buyers may find it more difficult to compete due to growing housing costs.
Note: Mortgage Research Network analyzed 2025 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data and ranked the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas by the share of home purchase mortgages made to women under age 45 buying on their own. The findings show significant geographic variation in single female homebuying, with affordability and local market conditions playing a major role in where women are most likely to purchase homes independently.
