2020: Year of the Woman (Homeowner)

A report from real estate tech companies Better.com and Compass finds homeownership for women is on the rise, thanks to recent advances in technology during the home buying, selling and financing processes have helped eliminate bias and discrimination women have historically faced on the journey to homeownership.

The report (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005161/en) found women are not only buying more homes, they’re boosting higher scores:

–58% of surveyed Compass agents reported that a majority of their clients (primary or sole buyer/seller) were women. 83% of agents said that they have seen this number increase over the past five years.

–The mortgage arm of Better.com reports 23% of its borrowers were single women over the past year with an average credit score being 770.

–Industry-wide, the number of single women buying homes has grown from 15 to 18 percent, or one in five homebuyers. “This suggests the rise of digital in real estate is attracting well-educated and tech-savvy female borrowers,” the report said.

The report also noted single women are opting for mortgages before marriages:

–71% of surveyed Compass agents said that single women were entering the housing market earlier than their single male counterparts.

–Over the past year, the mortgage arm of Better.com saw a 4.5x increase in single women between 30-40 who make between $10-20K a month2 and a 5x increase in single minority women independent borrowers. Out of the single female demographic, the average credit score was 767.

“This suggests the rise of fintech and rules-based machine learning is helping to empower single women, who historically have been discriminated against and asked to provide co-signers for all loans, including ones for very small amounts,” the report said.

Additionally, the report noted married women are increasingly out-earning their spouses:

–80% of surveyed Compass agents reported a rise in women as the primary source of income in relationships when buying a home.

–Over the past year, Better reported the majority of women who are married co-borrowers outearn their male married co-borrowers on the same loan, with the women earning an average monthly salary of $5,666 vs. $3,035 for men.

–1 in 3 married women who secured a loan from Better.com over the last year did not put their spouse on the application.

“Women are often dissuaded from participating in the home purchasing process,” said Sarah Pierce, Head of Sales with Better. “When applying for a mortgage a few months ago, I personally had mortgage brokers asking me presumptuous questions about my job – and I even had a few who didn’t believe me. These types of questions and others like it are as outdated as the phone book and make women feel like they are not welcome to participate in the home purchasing process.”