Is owning a home more valuable depending on your gender? According to a new report from RealtyTrac, it might be.
RealtyTrac today released a report showing that homes owned by single men on average are valued at 10 percent more and have appreciated $10,112 more since purchase than homes owned by single women.
According to RealtyTrac, the average estimated current market value of homes owned by single men was $225,226. That’s 10 percent higher than the average current market value of homes owned by single women, a figure that stood at $229,094.
Homes owned by single men have gained an average of $63,921 since they were purchased, a 33 percent return. That figure is 16 percent more than the average $53,809 gain from homes purchased by single women, a return of 31 percent.
What is behind these numbers? Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at RealtyTrac, said that women still earn less than men, 19 percent in 2015 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This gives them less purchasing power than men when it’s time to buy a home, Blomquist said.
Because women are buying less expensive homes on average, the residences that they own are not worth as much on average as the homes bought by men who average higher incomes.
The gender gap only widens the longer people own homes. RealtyTrac found that homes owned by single men for at least 15 years have an average current market value of $288,912. That is 17 percent higher than the average current market value of $240,166 of homes owned by single women for at least 15 years.
The gender gap in housing varies by state. The average values of homes owned by single men averaged 14 percent higher in the District of Columbia, the region of the country in which the disparity of home values of residences owned by single men was the highest. Wisconsin, where homes owned by single men averaged values of 12 percent higher than those owned by single women, had the fourth-highest gender disparity.
There were three states, though, in which the average values of homes owned by single women were higher than those owned by single men, and two of them were in the Midwest, Kentucky and Kansas.
