An analysis of more than 2.1 million single family homes across the country that were owned by either single men or single women produced results showing homes owned by single men are valued 10 percent more and have appreciated 16 percent more.
Currently, as RealtyTrac reports, the average estimated market value of homes owned by single men is $255,226, while the average market value for homes owned by single women is $229,094. Since purchase, homes owned by single men have gained an average of $63,921. For women, that number is $53,809.
West Virginia has the largest home appreciation gender gap at -72 percent. Wisconsin (-41 percent), Alabama (-40 percent), Maine (-35 percent), and Minnesota (-34 percent) round out the top five.
Single women also tend to live in neighborhoods with a higher density of registered criminal offenders with 8 percent more criminal offenders per capita than neighborhoods of single men.
However, women do tend to live in neighborhoods with a lower environmental hazard risk. Zip codes with a higher share of single women homeownership had a 23 percent lower Environmental Hazards Housing Risk Index than zip codes with a higher share of single man homeownership.
And for anyone hoping the numbers would begin to level out the deeper into homeownership one gets, it is actually the opposite. The housing gap between genders only appears to get worse the longer a home is owned. For a home owned less than ten years, the home value gender gap is 7 percent and the home value gain gender gap is 16 percent. For homes owned more than 15 years, those numbers jump to 17 percent and 21 percent respectively.
