10 Cities Where Women Are Buying Homes

This story originally appeared on SmartAsset.com.

A National Association of Realtors report shows that single females accounted for 18% of home purchases in 2019 (whereas single males made up only 9% of purchases in the same year). Within two age groups – 54-63 years old and 73-93 years old – single women represented a higher percentage of total homebuyers (25%).

In this study, SmartAsset took a closer look at where women were buying homes the most. Using 2019 data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), we compared the number of approved mortgages for women with the number of approved mortgages for all homebuyers in almost 400 U.S. metro areas. For details on our data sources and how we put all the information together to create our final rankings, read the Data and Methodology section at the end.

This is SmartAsset’s 2021 study on where women are buying homes. Check out the 2020 version here.

1. Vineland-Bridgeton, NJ

The Vineland-Bridgeton, New Jersey, metro area claims the top spot out of all 395 metro areas in our study. In 2019, 32.23% of all new mortgages were owned by women homebuyers. Specifically, women without co-signers took out 39 out of 121 total mortgages that year.

2. Goldsboro, NC

Data from 2019 shows that women homebuyers took out 82 of a total 273 mortgages in Goldsboro, North Carolina. This means that 30.04% of mortgages were approved for women without co-signers.

3. Warner Robbins, GA

The Warner Robbins metro area is located roughly two hours southeast of Atlanta, which ranks in the top 10 of SmartAsset studies on the cities where women are most successful and the best places for women entrepreneurs. The metro area had 454 total mortgages approved in 2019, and women without co-signers took out 136 of them.

4. Las Cruces, NM

In 2019, women without co-signers represented 29.44% of those approved for mortgages in the Las Cruces, New Mexico, metro area. Data shows that 53 out of 180 mortgages were approved for women without co-signers.

5. Rocky Mount, NC

The Rocky Mount, North Carolina, metro area had 28.99% of its mortgages approved for women homebuyers in 2019. CFPB data reveals that 120 out of 414 mortgages were taken out by women without co-signers.

6. Santa Fe, NM

In 2019, women represented 28.94% of all those approved for mortgages in the Santa Fe, New Mexico, metro area. Of the total 463 mortgages approved, 134 were for women without co-signers.

7. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-MD-VA-WV

The Washington, D.C., metro area had 1,530 mortgages approved for women in 2019. That means 28.44% of 5,379 total mortgages were taken out by women without co-signers.

8. Dalton, GA

Dalton, Georgia, claims the eighth spot out of all 395 metro areas in our study. In 2019, 30 approved mortgages were for women without co-signers, making up 27.78% of the total.

9. Anchorage, AK

In Anchorage, Alaska, 455 out of 1,653 mortgages in 2019 were for women. This means that women without co-signers make up 27.53% of the total new homebuyers.

10. Flint, MI

The Flint, Michigan, metro area rounds out our top 10. In 2019, 27.32% of approved mortgages, or 241 out of a total of 882, were approved for women without co-signers.

Data and Methodology

To find the places where women are buying the most homes, we looked at data for 395 metro areas and compared them across the following two metrics:

• Mortgages approved for women in 2019
• Total number of mortgages approved in 2019

Data comes from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s Home Mortgage Disclosure Act database. For each metric, we counted only mortgages that were used to purchase homes rather than refinance an existing mortgage or those used for home improvements. We also only included conventional, first-lien mortgages. To isolate homes bought by single women, we analyzed home loans secured by women without a co-signer.

To rank metro areas, we divided the number of mortgages originated to women by the total number of mortgages approved in 2019. We then ranked places based on this figure.