Women play an increasingly important role in the housing market as homeowners and as participants in the construction workforce. As the housing market continues to grapple with affordability challenges and a persistent supply shortage, these shifts are increasingly relevant to both housing demand and supply.
On the supply side, women made up approximately 14.4 percent of the construction workforce in 2025, the highest share on record dating back to the 1960s. While still a small share overall, the steady increase signals meaningful, if gradual, progress in diversifying an industry long constrained by labor shortages. Even incremental gains matter in a sector where workforce availability directly affects the pace and cost of homebuilding. At the same time, on the demand side, women, particularly single women, are an increasingly important segment of homebuyers.
Single women have quietly become a dominant force in the housing market. Today, more than 20 million single women own homes, outnumbering single men homeowners. They also have a higher homeownership rate than their male counterparts. Even in a challenging affordability environment marked by elevated mortgage rates and home prices, single women have continued to make gains, underscoring both resilience and a sustained commitment to homeownership.
Several structural factors are driving this trend. Educational attainment among women has increased over time, supporting higher earnings and improving access to homeownership. Consistent with this, real median household income for single women has risen in recent years, strengthening their house-buying power. As a result, single women have been able to maintain and even expand their presence in the housing market despite broader affordability pressures.
According to analysis from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), lifestyle factors also play an important role. Single women are more likely than single men to have children under the age of 18 living at home and are slightly more likely to purchase multigenerational homes. These household dynamics reinforce the importance of homeownership as a means of providing stability and long-term security. Notably, NAR research also finds that single women are more likely to make financial sacrifices to achieve homeownership, highlighting the strength of their commitment, even in a challenging affordability environment.
While women are driving housing demand, their role in expanding housing supply remains more limited. Despite reaching a record share of the construction workforce, women remain significantly under-represented overall. Analysis of Current Population Survey (CPS) data shows that women’s gains in construction employment have been gradual and that their representation remains concentrated outside core construction and maintenance occupations.
In 2025, women accounted for about 4 percent of workers in construction and maintenance occupations, while sales and office occupations employed a higher number of women within the construction industry, with women making up 65 percent of these workers.
This imbalance has important implications. The construction industry continues to face a shortage of skilled labor, which acts as a key constraint on the pace of homebuilding. Expanding the labor force is critical to addressing the structural housing deficit and increasing participation among under-represented groups, particularly women, represents a meaningful opportunity to help alleviate capacity constraints.
While progress to date has been incremental, even modest increases in participation could help builders respond to housing supply shortages, particularly as demographic trends place additional pressure on the existing workforce.
These trends offer both a signal and an opportunity. On the demand side, single women represent a growing and resilient segment of buyers. This is consistent with demand for homes that can accommodate evolving household needs, including multi-generational living arrangements.
At the same time, labor constraints remain a key bottleneck to increasing housing supply. While women’s participation in construction has reached a record high, it remains low overall particularly in high-demand construction and maintenance occupations. Increasing participation in these roles could help broaden the labor pool and support increased housing production over time.
Taken together, women are becoming increasingly central to both sides of the housing market shaping who is buying homes and influencing who is building them. In a market defined by persistent supply shortages and affordability pressures, that dual role matters. Better aligning housing supply with evolving demand, while also expanding the workforce needed to deliver it, can help narrow the housing gap in the years ahead.
By Odeta Kushi. She is the deputy chief economist at First American. She can be reached at mginnaty@firstam.com
This story is featured in our July issue of Builder and Developer. Read the print version here.
