"Single men and women make up about one-third of the nation's 111 million households. Toss in unmarried moms and dads living with children younger than 18, and singles account for almost half.But when it comes to housing, about the only thing the 55 million single households have in common is that they are not married.Face it: Men and women are different. And when housing is concerned, the incongruities rise to the same level as how the two genders use TV remote controls, ask for directions, judge distances and hunt or gather.For example, they operate differently in the buying process. Guess which sex wants to make a decision as quickly as possible and which one wants to take more time?
According to a small survey taken early this year by Countrywide Home Loans, men run while women saunter. In fact, nearly half the women polled said they did not take enough time when they bought their current residence while almost a quarter of the men surveyed said the process took way too long.Countrywide's findings are based on a telephone poll of just 219 owners, so they are not statistically significant. But plenty of other evidence shows how differently the genders approach housing and homeownership. And none of it surprises Wanda McPhaden, a partner in BCA Real Estate Investments, a female-centric company in New York City.BCA, which stands for believe, create and achieve, was created to show women how they, too, can create wealth by investing in real estate."Women usually don't think about the benefits of homeownership until they are older," says McPhaden, a 20-year real estate veteran whose new company is working with a female builder in Westport, Conn., and is backed by several women investors. "Men get it because they are taught very early on. Women aren't."Perhaps that's why male buyers tend to be younger than their female counterparts. The median age of single men who purchased houses between 2000 and midyear 2003 was 37, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In the same period, the median age of single female buyers was 42.An even deeper look at the numbers shows that men account for the largest share of single buyers younger than 25, while women make up the largest share of single purchasers in the 45-to-64 age group and the older-than-65 set."My theory is that women don't think they can be homeowners until they are older," says McPhaden, who is also starting a small investors club for women with less than $50,000 to put into real estate."
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