Do you know what the fastest-growing group of homebuyers in the country is? It's single women. In fact, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported in 2006 that one in five homebuyers was a single woman. They are buying homes in greater numbers than single men: 21 percent female versus 9 percent male.

Researchers report that women want to nest earlier than men and are increasingly getting the financial power to do it. Women are narrowing the wage gap and today are much more likely to have a college degree than men. In 2005, government data shows women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings of $585, or 81 percent of the $722 median for their male counterparts, up from about 63 percent in 1979.

So what about married couples? They make up 60 percent of homebuyers, according to the NAR, but that figure is sliding. Current figures are down from 70 percent only twelve years ago. Those who are getting married are doing so later. The average age of marriage in 1960 was twenty-three for American men and twenty for American women. In 2005, it was twenty-seven for men, twenty-six for women.

According to a 2002 Rutgers University study, divorced women are less likely to remarry than divorced men, and if they do remarry, they tend to wait a lot longer. That gives them more time to become homeowners. And a 2003 Sears, Roebuck and Company survey showed that 92 percent of the women surveyed viewed their homes as an investment rather than a drain on their financial resources. The survey also said that 13 percent of women are buying second and vacation homes. Also rising is the number of single women buying older homes, renovating them, and selling for a profit.

The news is not good for all demographic groups. A December 2006 study by the Center for American Progress said homeownership growth slowed markedly for newer, younger homebuyers. Compared to the late 1990s, increases in homeownership rates after 2000 dropped by about three quarters for African Americans, by about half for whites, and by about one quarter for Hispanics. Since the end of 2004, U.S. Census Bureau data shows that homeownership rates, particularly for African Americans, actually declined. The main reason was sky-high home values, which haven't really fallen all that much — despite general slowdowns in regional housing markets.

Women are still outliving men, surviving their spouses and continuing to make their own real estate decisions into their seventies, eighties, and nineties. As more single women at all stages of their lives move into real estate, they're expected to drive change in late-life housing patterns as well.

So, what does that mean for their luck in getting a mortgage? Unfortunately, the news there has been not as good, and that's why it's particularly important to shop around. According to the Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union, women are prime targets for unscrupulous real estate lending and sales tactics.

In a December 2006 survey, the Consumer Federation of America reported that women are significantly overrepresented in the pool of subprime mortgages. Although women make up 30 percent of borrowers for mortgages of all types, they make up 38.8 percent of subprime borrowers — a 29.1 percent over-representation. Further, it found that women are more likely to receive subprime mortgages of all types regardless of income, and the disparity between men and women is highest at the highest levels of income. These findings come despite the fact that women tend to have slightly higher overall credit scores than men.