A joint study compiled by PropertyShark and RENTCafé examined how the gender pay gap translates into a gender gap in the housing market by comparing home prices and rents across the 50 largest cities in the US to the average incomes of both genders. It found that in 9 of these cities single men can afford to buy a home, while women cannot, including Chicago, Seattle, and Denver.
Even more, 14 cities have completely locked out all singles looking to buy or rent. There’s good news however for singles who want to live on their own as 26 cities are still affordable, and Tucson housing ranked 7th most affordable city for single women when it comes to buying a home.
The monthly mortgage payment here would take 16% of a single woman’s income, though renting is out of reach without being burdened, the monthly rent accounting for 37.4% of total income.
The best cities to buy in for both genders
There’s also good news out there. In just over half of the cities analyzed the average one-bedroom or studio apartment is still affordable for single people of both genders. Even pricey California offers would-be home buyers a refuge in Fresno, where both men and women would have to spend less than 20% of their monthly income on mortgage – a rate unheard of elsewhere in the state.
Urban Texas fares pretty well, by comparison. Mortgage payments on small apartments in Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio and Arlington are within budget for single-person households. However, home prices in Texas have been rising fast over the past year, and Dallas is starting to look extra-costly for single women, who currently have to pay an average of 29% of their income if they wish to own a one-bedroom or studio apartment.
Some of the lowest costs of housing can be found in Wichita and Indianapolis – single women here pay an average of 10% of their income on mortgage. Several other Midwestern cities give a green light to single women buyers – Minneapolis, Omaha, Kansas City and Columbus – as do Baltimore, Virginia Beach and Jacksonville on the East Coast.
Atlanta remains affordable to both genders, though barely – women pay a full 30% of their income on mortgage. However, the pay gap here is wide, with women making $10,000 less than men on average.
Las Vegas and the three largest cities in Arizona – Phoenix, Tucson and Mesa – also score well on gender equality, and have home prices that are balanced with the income levels of both men and women. As elsewhere, though, the larger the city the higher home prices go, while income doesn’t rise as fast – therefore, residents of Phoenix and Las Vegas pay proportionally more on housing than those living in smaller cities, whatever their gender.
Methodology:
Home prices were based on median asking prices for starter homes (studios and one-bedrooms). Average monthly payments were calculated on the assumption of a standard 30-year mortgage, with a 20% down payment and a fixed yearly interest rate of 4%. We defined affordability in the starter-home market based on the industry standard that sets the upper limit on monthly mortgage payments at 30% of monthly income. Everything above this threshold was labeled unaffordable.
Median rents on starter units in each city were compiled by RENTCafé using data provided by sister company Yardi Matrix – an apartment market intelligence source which researches and reports on all multifamily properties of 50+ units across 124 markets in the United States. Rental rate coverage is for market rate properties only. Fully affordable properties are not included in the Yardi Matrix rental surveys and are not reported in rental rate averages.
Data on median incomes for men and women comes from the US Census Bureau database for 2015. The analysis was of the top 50 largest cities in the US, excluding St. Louis where incomplete data on rents and home prices was found.
See full study here.