As its been for thousands of years, men may think they rule the world, however it's the women who are receiving the royal welcome and treatment from the housing industry. Housing market watchers have noticed that more and more builders are now trying to win the hearts, as well as the checkbooks, of women buyers. And single women have particularly become a very important force to be reckoned with because single women now sign nearly one quarter of all home deals nationally which is up from 14% in 1995 as reported by the National Association of Realtors.
A company in Omaha called "Design Basics" trains and certifies "woman-centric" builders and the number of participating firms has more than quadrupled just in the past four years since the program was launched.
Nationwide developers are designing homes that have features that address what they think women buyers are looking for in a home which is more security, less maintenance, more organization with amenities that include walk-in pantries and "drop areas" for groceries. However, builders have taken note that men are just as likely as women to want roomy closets or sleek countertops too.
Furthermore, builders are also trying to catch women's eyes by using aesthetically pleasing features that include small touches like brass cabinet knobs rather than where the flat screen is going to go for male home buyers.
Home-marketing consultants have reported that other selling tactics are also being explored including paint-color psychology as well as reducing the intimidation factor.
Some critics feel that this is just marketing fluff in an industry that is starved for sales. To some home builders this is just smart design taking into account that today women are getting married later as the earn higher degrees and are working very hard to close the salary gap. Today, single women are now earning 94% of what single men do. Today's economy has given women, particularly younger ones, a bigger opportunity at buying a home.
Even as more and more single women are buying real estate, real estate experts say understanding and meeting the needs of single women does take work. There is a concerted effort to study what women want through in-home observations as well as focus groups.
Builders wanting to be certified as woman-centric must go through a two-day seminar. They are given a lot of white-paper research and are also taught how to retool their blueprints and their marketing plans. Some of the program's classes teach how to design homes with feminine features including wall-mounted gift-wrapping stations with retractable shelves, noise-muffling walls that drowns out operating laundry machines as well as hidden storage in bathroom walls that store reading materials and feminine products.
Other features home builders are being shown; women are looking for security such as gated communities as well as convenient, walkable neighborhoods. Also some of the home's design should have a bit of "romance" to it as well.
Women home-buyers are a relatively new phenomenon considering that about a generation ago women couldn't get a mortgage without obtaining a male cosigner. Things changed of course as divorce rates began to soar which prompted the passage of equal-lending laws. Today 21% of borrowers are women up from 17% in 1998.