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'All The Single Ladies' Living Alone

With Linda Wertheimer

Women living alone. The numbers are up and so is their happiness. We’ll unpack reasons why and why they’re liking it.

Guests

Ashley Fetters, staff writer for The Atlantic. (@AshleyFetters)

Diana Olick, real estate reporter for CNBC, and author of the Realty Check column (@DianaOlick)

Kathleen Gerson, professor of sociology at NYU. Author of, “The Unfinished Revolution: Coming of Age in a New Era of Gender, Work, and Family.” (@KathleenGerson)

Michelle Singletary, personal finance columnist for The Washington Post. (@SingletaryM)

From The Reading List

Curbed: Living Alone And Liking It — “There are, in other words, more women living alone in America than ever before. The male bachelor pad—that is, the home that’s specifically, lavishly outfitted for a single man to relax, entertain, and possibly seduce female guests in—doesn’t occur in nature as frequently as some like to imagine, says Charles A. Waehler, author of Bachelors: The Psychology of Men Who Haven’t Married. But by now, it would seem, we should still have some kind of familiarized term for a woman’s spin on the bachelor pad.”

CNBC: Twice As Many Single Women Are Buying Homes As Single Men — “Primarily, older women are choosing to invest in real estate. The largest percentage of single female buyers is found in the 72 and older age group, the NAR reports. And while the number of single women buying houses goes up with age, it drops for single men. Single women comprised 20 percent of homebuyers between the ages of 51 and 60 in 2016, but single men only made up 10 percent.”

The Washington Post: Black And Single In The Suburbs — “The sociologist in me wondered if my singleness would be undesirable in places usually populated by middle-class families. But to my surprise, my immediate neighbors were also single, professional, middle class households like mine. When we think about black middle class neighborhoods and the type of families we expect to see in these communities, we are drawn to the depiction of the Huxtable family from “The Cosby Show.” While this has been the historical picture of the black middle class, this is no longer the case. Instead single adults living alone are increasing their share of the black middle class – a group that I have coined the Love Jones cohort.”

80 years after the self-help book Live Alone and Like It came out, more women than ever before are doing just that. Last year, single women bought homes at twice the rate of single men. Women are also more likely to live alone later in life. Despite expectations, many women are finding sanctuary rather than loneliness in the solo life. This hour, On Point: why more single women are living alone and liking it. — Linda Wertheimer. 

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