More Single Americans are Buying a Home

A Home Buying Article Contributed by Elizabeth Fox-Wise

Historically, It Was Mostly Married Couples Choosing to Buy a Home

It used to be that the majority of home buyers were married couples; but that is a changing trend as more single people in America are buying homes.

Before the days of women's rights, most women did not work outside of the home. Therefore, they were not candidates to buy a home alone. Some single men did buy homes, but the majority of people buying a home were married couples raising families. The women would stay home and raise the family and take care of the home and the man would go out to work to pay for the home. That was the typical American Way.

Then as times changed and women started working outside of the home, so did the wants and needs of the American Family. The excess commercialism in the country and the fact that most people lived at or above their means, created an economic situation where two incomes were necessary to realize the American dream of buying a home. So still, the average home buyers were married couples.

The High Divorce Rate Started a Change in the Profile of the Average Home Buyer

In the late 1980s and all through the 1990s divorce rates in America hit an all time high. Record numbers of the baby boomer generation were deciding that they were not happy with their marriage decisions and divorce became the new American trend. As a result, there were record numbers of single, older, financially established people interested in, and capable of, buying a home alone with one income.

As the 1990s unfolded the profile of the average home buyer got much more fuzzy and unclear. Not only were any more single people were choosing to buy a home alone, but also various combinations of people were choosing to buy homes together. It became more common for two single women or men roommates to decide to buy a home jointly rather than keep paying rent to a third party.

Today Many Singles in Their Twenties are Buying a Home

Because the cost of rent keeps going up, and the price of houses does not always go up proportionately, coupled with the fact that the 2000s have seen record low mortgage interest rates, there is a new trend of single, never married people in their early - mid twenties deciding to buy a home alone.

This increased number of twenty somethings buying homes alone might also be partially spurred by the fact that more people are delaying marriage until their late twenties or even into their thirties. Giving them a chance to get their careers, and their lives, more established before getting married.

Another factor is thought to be the increase in the average income in America. Many low paying, factory and production jobs have been moved out of our country and have been replaced by more technical, higher paying positions, making buying a home on one income more realistic even in your twenties, when statistically, you are earning less that you will later in life.