Though single women are more likely than single men to be homeowners, they are also more likely to be denied a mortgage, according to a recent LendingTree study.
Specifically, sole female mortgage applicants are 29.8% more likely to be denied a home loan compared with their male counterparts. That’s despite single women owning about 2.72 million more homes than single men, per a previous LendingTree analysis released in January.
“Women tend to have smaller incomes than men, and that can create homebuying challenges,” observes Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief consumer finance analyst. “While income doesn’t factor into your credit score, it massively affects your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, your ability to save for a downpayment and your comfort level with a long-term financial commitment like buying a house.”
Schulz adds that other factors come into play, “including sexism, but it’s hard to overstate how important income is to the homebuying process.”
The largest disparities in female versus male mortgage denial rates are in Louisiana (29% vs. 18.1%), Mississippi (29% vs. 19.8%) and Alabama (21.9% vs. 14.8%). Denial rates among sole male mortgage applicants exceed those among sole female borrowers in Washington, D.C., and five states: Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island.
In 2024, sole female mortgage applicants originated a total of 600,817 loans worth $173.3 billion, according to LendingTree. Sole male borrowers combined to originate $328.7 billion in mortgage debt from 949,477 loans.
