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Single women in the U.S. own more homes than single men, study shows
Although U.S. women still trail men when it comes to pay, they are pulling ahead financially in one important way of building wealth: homeownership.
A recent study from LendingTree shows that single women own 2.7 million more homes than their male counterparts, with roughly 13% of those women holding the titles to their homes, compared to 10% of men.
“A home for most people is going to represent the biggest portion of their overall net worth,” Jacob Channel, senior economist at LendingTree and author of the report, told CBS MoneyWatch. “Owning a home helps you access considerably more wealth.”
Women have historically faced social and economic barriers to wealth creation, and they continue to earn an average of just 82 cents for every dollar men earn for the same work, according to the Pew Research Center.
LendingTree’s study is based on an analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey and accounts for demographic factors including homeowners’ age, income, education and racial background.
According to LendingTree, single female homeowners outnumber their male peers in 47 states, with the rate of female homeownership as high as 15% in states like Delaware and Louisiana. However, single males owned more homes than single women in Alaska, North Dakota and South Dakota, likely because of the prevalence of male-dominated industries in those states, Channel said.
Home equity accounts for nearly 28% of household wealth on average, according to a 2020 U.S. Census Bureau report. Channel notes that most homes are owned by couples and families. And overall, American women’s net worth still falls well below that of men. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the median wealth of women-headed households is 45% lower than those headed by men.
“If there’s one really important thing about this study, it’s that there’s a lot going on here that’s influencing women’s wealth, and we’ll need a lot more information before we can really definitively say why things are the way they are,” Channel said.
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Boeing’s 33,000 unionized machinists on Wednesday voted to approve the plane manufacturer’s latest contract offer, ending a seven-week strike that had halted production of most of the company’s passenger planes.
The union said 59% voted to accept the contract. Members have the option of returning to work as soon as Wednesday, but must be back at work by Tuesday, November 12, the union said in a statement.
Union leaders had strongly urged members to ratify the latest proposal, which would boost wages by 38% over the four-year life of the contract, up from a proposed increase of 35% that members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) had rejected last month.
The revised deal also provides a $12,000 cash bonus to hourly workers and increased contributions to retirement savings plans. The enhanced offer doesn’t address a key sticking point in the contentious talks — restoration of pensions — but Boeing would raise its contributions to employee 401K plans.
Average annual pay for machinists, now $75,608, would climb to $119,309 in four years under the current offer, Boeing said.
The vote came after IAM members in September and October rejected lesser offers by the Seattle-based aerospace giant.
“In every negotiation and strike, there is a point where we have extracted everything we can in bargaining and by withholding our labor,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers stated last week in backing Boeing’s revised offer. “We are at that point now and risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future.”
Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su has played an active role in the negotiations, after recently helping to end a days-long walkout that briefly closed East and Gulf Coast ports.
The Boeing strike that began on Sept. 13 marked the latest setback for the manufacturing giant, which has been the focus of multiple federal probes after a door plug blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The incident revived concerns about the safety of the aircraft after two crashed within five months in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
Boeing in July agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.
During the strike, Boeing was unable to produce any new 737 aircraft, which are made at the company’s assembly plants in the Seattle area. One major Boeing jet, the 787 Dreamliner, is manufactured at a nonunion factory in South Carolina.
The company last month reported a third-quarter loss of $6.1 billion.
contributed to this report.
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