Forget cheesy pickup lines. The sexiest thing you can say to a potential mate in 2019? "I own my own house."
A recent survey suggests that owning a house makes you more attractive to potential mates.
Conducted by real estate listings site Realtor.com, the study finds that nearly 60 percent of millennial singles agreed that homeownership boosts attractiveness. More than any other generation, 26 percent of the age group also indicated it was either important or very important for their significant other to own a home.
Of the 500 people who identified as single in the survey, nearly half felt that homeownership made would-be partners attractive.
"This survey data suggests that many ... perhaps (use) it as a signal for financial savviness and success," said Danielle Hale, Realtor.com's chief economist in a statement.
If home ownership is hot right now, then Baltimore women are on fire.
Single female homeowners make up more than 21 percent of all women in the metro area, according to the study. Baltimore ranks second behind Detroit among the top cities with the highest shares of single female homeownership, according to Realtor.com.
The survey suggests that other markets in the South and Midwest with strong job opportunities, growing economies and affordable home prices tend to attract young female professionals seeking to buy a home and take on a mortgage, citing Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia and Minneapolis as the cities behind Detroit and Baltimore with the largest shares of unmarried female homeowners.
Realtor.com also notes that single women are one of the fastest growing demographics in the housing market.
Detroit also leads the way in single male homeownership, followed by St. Louis, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. These mostly Midwestern cities share relatively low listing prices as well as high volumes of young people mixed into the population, according to the survey.
More women than men acknowledged a correlation between homeownership and attraction, at 48 percent to 43 percent, respectively. Women also were more likely to answer that it was important or very important for their partners to own homes compared to their male counterparts, 29 percent to 19 percent.
