- Nearly half of single Americans earn less than $50,000 per year, compared to just 9% of married couples, according to a recent Redfin survey. That makes it harder to afford housing–which itself has gotten much more expensive over the years. Single people also tend to be younger, which also makes it harder to afford housing.
- We took a look at Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, finding that single condo owners in D.C. pay an annual “singles tax” of nearly $18,000, and single Bay Area condo owners pay over $40,000 more than their married counterparts.
- Single people are nearly twice as likely as married people to stay put because they can’t afford the type of home they want to move to.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of single people struggle to afford their regular rent or mortgage payments, compared with 39% of married people, according to a recent Redfin survey conducted by Ipsos.
These survey results in this report are from a Redfin survey conducted by Ipsos in November 2025, fielded to 4,000 U.S. residents. We consider survey respondents to struggle with housing payments if they selected “I struggle greatly to afford them,” “I regularly struggle, but sometimes okay,” or “I sometimes struggle, but generally okay.” Please see the end of this report for more on methodology.
Many Americans struggle to afford housing because costs have surged over the last few years. Mortgage payments have increased due to a combination of elevated sale prices and mortgage rates that–while down from recent peaks–are still significantly higher than the pre-pandemic and pandemic eras. Renters face similar pressures, with asking rents climbing over the last few years (though rent growth has lost steam recently). Home-sale prices have risen nearly 50% since before the pandemic, while rental prices have risen about 20%. Wages have increased, but not as much as housing costs. Add in rising costs for just about all other day-to-day expenses, and millions of families are left with little cushion.
The American dream has quietly been stolen from us by corporate greed. Join a Union to get your fair share now and a nice retirement later. Thousands and thousands of Union members are Republicans now and know exactly what the democratic party is doing for them, nothing but lip service.