Is There a Gender Gap in Mortgage Knowledge?

When it comes to first-time homebuyers, a new LendingTree survey suggests that women lag behind men in understanding how the mortgage origination process works.

 

Using mortgage shopping activity taken from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s National Survey of Mortgage Originations, LendingTree found that 21 percent of female first-time homebuyers considered themselves very familiar with the different types of mortgages available, compared to 27 percent of men. For repeat mortgage borrowers, 47 percent of women said they were very familiar with the different types of mortgages, versus 56 percent of men. The widest knowledge gap for first-time buyers was mortgage rate familiarity, with 28 percent of women considering themselves familiar with the subject compared to 37 percent of men. And for knowing about the variety of mortgages available, 47 percent of women said they were very familiar with the products on the market compared to 56 percent of men.

 

Furthermore, 45 percent of women admitted to considering more than one lender for their mortgage, but only 21 percent of women applied with more than one lender. In comparison, 51 percent of men said they considered more than one mortgage lender and 23 percent applied with more than one lender.

 

“Taking the six million in total home sales in 2018, of which about 22 percent were to single women, extra costs are over $1 billion from not shopping around,” said LendingTree Chief Economist Tendayi Kapfidze. “Extra costs for men are about half of those for women.”

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