Of Mortgages and Marriage: Gender, Marital Status, and Homeownership in the United States

• In Event: 2183 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Issues of Class and Mobility

Abstract

This study uses data from the 2015 American Housing Survey (69,493) to analyze among single women, single men, and married couples the interactions between gender and demographic variables such as race, age, educational attainment, income, and children present in the household to explore the gender disparities in homeownership between single women and single men. Owning a home has been a key piece of the American dream for nearly a century, and according to the National Association of Realtors, while married couples purchase home at higher rates than do single individuals on the whole, among singles, women outpace men. The puzzle of single women outpacing single men in home-buying in the United States given gender disparities in wealth and income drives this research. Results of logistic regression on the effects of gender, marital status, and their interaction effects on the likelihood of owning homes in the United States show that net of controls, marital status matters more than gender or the interaction of gender and marital status. Looking at single women, single men, and married women, and married men as separate groups, income and educational attainment are the strongest correlates with homeownership for single women, and the magnitude of the effects of an MA, PhD, or professional degree is the strongest for single women.

Author

• Sarah Catherine Billups, University of Minnesota