Best Florida Realtors & Real Estate Professionals

Single Females - A Rapidly Growing Factor Among Sarasota Home Buyers

Posted October 14, 2011

    The National Association of Realtors (NAR) just announced that single women are quickly becoming a significant percentage of the total number of home buyers in the U.S. real estate market. Last year 20% of all home buyers were single women. The steady increase in the number of women in the workplace, including those in the top management ranks, has helped to shift the balance of home buyers toward a higher participation among homebuyers by single females according to The Business Report.

    According to Andree Huffine, a well-known Sarasota luxury homes realtor, single women aren’t just purchasing more homes than ever before. They are also understanding the whole home buying process. They ask questions and demand straight-forward answers. And, they are even more aggressive than many men in negotiating the sale price, demanding features and warranties, and exploring financing options in more depth. Further, it is not just young single professional women who are buying homes. The range of single female buyers also includes widows and female retirees seeking a lower-maintenance lifestyle and the warmer climate offered here in the Sarasota and Bradenton Florida area.

    Due to the increasing number of single women buying homes, Florida home and condominium builders are "stepping up their game" in their product offerings and advertising to appeal to this growing segment of huyers. Builders here and across the U.S. are increasingly offering homes with extensive security systems, low- or no-maintenance yards, gourmet kitchens, more spacious bathrooms, and softer color schemes in their model homes. - all features more appealing to female than to male buyers.

    Research has shown thatg female home buyers have a different priorities from men. “When a woman is shopping for a home with a husband, she may tend to defer to the man's desire for things like a big garage, space for a workshop, or a work-at-home office,” says Judie Berger, an established Sarasota Florida real estate agent. Married women tend to be more interested in the suitability and attractiveness of the kitchen and baths. But, he adds, "when a woman is buying a home specifically for herself, she tends to be at least as interested in other factors like whether or not she will need to make major changes to the home to make it fit her personal lifestyle, interests and needs." Just the need to re-paint the entire interior of a home to make it more neutral can be enough to exclude a home from consideration by a single female. Conversely, a man may be more likely to see that as something that can be deferred or just ignored.

    As the Florida real estate market continues recovering from the worst housing market in decades, Florida real estate professionals would be well-advised to pay attention to trends like this one and more finely focus their skills, marketing plans and actions to focus on the interests of single-females and other unique home buyer groups.

    Forward-thinking Florida Realtors like Brian Ward have earned the prestigious Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR) designation enabling them to be more responsive to the needs and desires of today's more sophisticated single buyers like single females.