The 10 Most Affordable Housing Markets for Single Women

In recent years, single women have been more likely to become homeowners than ever before.

By 2021, nearly as many single women owned homes as did single men, according to Zillow. The gap widened a bit last year, with female homebuyers falling behind their male counterparts. But the longer-term trend is unmistakable, with single women increasingly having the resources to purchase their own piece of the American dream.

Given that women still don’t earn as much as men on average — making about 82 cents for every $1 earned by men — which markets are most affordable for single women looking to buy a home?

Zillow crunched the numbers and found that the following cities have the highest percentage of listings that are affordable for single women based on the typical salary for a woman who is solo.

1. Pittsburgh

Home listings in this metro area that are affordable on the typical woman’s salary: 32.6% as of February 2023

The median salary for women in Pittsburgh is $25,000, but homes here are not as expensive as elsewhere in the country, with a median list price of just $184,652.

The Steel City is also among the “The 15 Most Stable U.S. Housing Markets.”

2. St. Louis

Home listings in this metro area that are affordable on the typical woman’s salary: 31.5% as of February 2023

In St. Louis, women earn a median income of $22,984, slightly less than in Pittsburgh. But homes here are even cheaper, listing for a median price of $172,838.

Those low home prices have landed St. Louis on the list of “The 10 Best Cities for First-Time Homebuyers in 2023.”

3. Detroit

Home listings in this metro area that are affordable on the typical woman’s salary: 30.3% as of February 2023

Women in Detroit earn a median income of $22,000, and homes in the Motor City are famously affordable, with a median list price of just $187,179.

Detroit recently finished at No. 1 on the list of “The 5 Most Affordable Housing Markets in America.”

The rest of the top 10

Here are the rest of the top cities that are affordable for a single woman making a typical woman’s salary:

• Buffalo, New York: 25.1%
• Cleveland: 24.4%
• Memphis, Tennessee: 21%
• Baltimore: 20.8%
• Birmingham, Alabama: 16.5%
• Milwaukee: 14.3%
• Philadelphia: 13.8%

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