BAM Key Details:
- Mortgage Research Network analyzed 2025 HMDA data across the 50 largest U.S. metros and found nearly 360,000 single women purchased homes on their own, accounting for 11.4% of all home purchase mortgages nationwide.
- In the top-ranked metros, single women represented close to one in six buyers, with New Orleans leading at 17.4%.
Nearly 360,000 single women purchased homes on their own in 2025, accounting for 11.4% of all home purchase mortgages nationwide.
In the top-ranked markets, they represented close to one in six buyers.
A new Mortgage Research Network study analyzed HMDA data across the 50 largest U.S. metros to find out where single women are buying at the highest rates.
Affordable cities in the South, Midwest, and Northeast dominate the top 10, while some of the country’s most expensive markets sit at the bottom of the rankings.
Here’s what the data shows.
The Top 10 Cities (and What They Have in Common)
New Orleans claimed the top spot in the Mortgage Research Network rankings, with single women accounting for 17.4% of all home purchase loans in 2025.
The full top 10:
- New Orleans, LA (17.4%)
- Hartford, CT (16.2%)
- Buffalo, NY (15.5%)
- Baltimore, MD (15.2%)
- Birmingham, AL (14.6%)
- Memphis, TN (14.5%)
- Cleveland, OH (14.4%)
- Atlanta, GA (14.3%)
- Pittsburgh, PA (14.2%)
- Philadelphia, PA (14.2%)
Eight of the top 10 metros are in the South or Midwest, with two Northeastern cities rounding out the list.
The common thread running through all of them is affordability.
The average home price across the top 10 was approximately $309,000, less than half the national average for the bottom 10 markets.
Atlanta stands out as the largest metro in the rankings, where nearly 10,000 single women purchased homes in 2025. Pennsylvania put two cities in the top 10, with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia both landing at 14.2%, notable given that the average home price between them sits around $307,000, well below what single-income buyers face in most major metros.
Why Affordability Is the Real Driver
The gap between the top and bottom of these rankings comes down to home prices.
In the top five metros, single women averaged a 15.8% share of home purchases. In the bottom five, the average dropped to 7.6%.
The markets where single women are struggling the most to buy are concentrated on the West Coast:
- San Jose, CA (6.5%, avg. home price $1,627,300)
- San Diego, CA (6.9%, avg. home price $943,055)
- San Francisco, CA (7.8%, avg. home price $1,145,541)
- Los Angeles, CA (9.2%, avg. home price $969,589)
- Seattle, WA (8.9%, avg. home price $755,116)
Formerly affordable boomtowns have also lost ground.
- Phoenix, AZ, ranked 44th with a 9.1% share and an average home price of $448,933.
- Dallas, TX, ranked 39th at 10.3%, with an average home price of $366,743.
Rising prices in both cities appear to be squeezing out single-income buyers.
The study’s lead analyst Tim Lucas put it this way:
“Where women are buying on their own varies dramatically by market, and affordability appears to be one of the strongest drivers…. 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.”
Who These Buyers Actually Are
Single women homebuyers consistently earn well above the median income for single women in their local market. That pattern holds across every city in the study:
- New Orleans: homebuyers earned $74,000 vs. $36,428 for single women overall
- Hartford: $88,000 vs. $46,260
- Buffalo: $75,000 vs. $41,682
- Baltimore: $92,000 vs. $50,613
- Birmingham: $67,000 vs. $40,717
- U.S. overall: $112,000 vs. $40,685
Still, income is only part of what’s driving this. Women are buying earlier because they’re building financial independence earlier.
The median age of first marriage for women has climbed to 28, up from 21 in 1975. Women now earn the majority of both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the U.S. Among Gen Z, single women are outpacing single men as homebuyers by nearly two to one, 35% vs. 18% of their respective age group.
As Lucas noted in the report:
“For generations, homeownership often followed marriage, but that timeline is changing. 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.”
What This Means for Your Business
Single women are already a significant slice of the buyer pool in markets across the country, and their share is growing.
If you’re working in the South, Midwest, or Northeast, pay attention to this data. These buyers tend to be financially prepared and motivated. They’re not waiting on a co-borrower or a life event to pull the trigger. They’ve done the math and decided homeownership makes sense on their own terms.
Single women buyers are making one of the largest financial decisions of their lives without a partner in the room.
They want an agent who takes their timeline seriously and knows the market cold.
Make sure that’s you.
