RALEIGH – The City of Oaks is the best city for working women, according to a new study from Apartment List and Fishbowl.
The rankings report, which incorporated data that reflects economic equity, business representation, affordability, and community satisfaction, according to a blog post releasing the report’s findings. Those measures are equally weighted, and added together to derive a composite score.
Raleigh took the top spot, with the composite score of 69.83, beating out Atlanta, Georgia, which scored 67.18.
“Higher scores indicate places that offer better economic outcomes for women, greater levels of gender equality, and higher community satisfaction,” the report reads.
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Strong economy, strong satisfaction
Raleigh’s ranking is helped by a strong ranking among each of the four indicators tracked by the study.
The city ranked 5th for community satisfaction, which the report says is a measure of identifying where women “thrive within their broader community,” and includes crime rates, school enrollment data, racial and ethnic diversity, and “female satisfaction with social and dating opportunities.”
Raleigh ranked among the top five for business representation, as well, finishing 5th in that category, which “identifies places where women are properly represented in key societal functions,” and incorporates data on female business ownership rates, the share of local physicians who identify as female, and the share of public administration jobs held by women.
The city also ranked highly for economic opportunity, finishing 7th. This category measured data such as female employment rate, college graduation rate for women, median female earnings, and the local earnings gap between women and men.
A February study from WalletHub ranked North Carolina the 21st worst state for women.
But there are affordability concerns
But Raleigh fell all the way to 52nd when it came to housing and affordability for working women, a category that includes homeownership rate among women who live alone, the median price of a one-bedroom apartment, and the “share of women who say they are satisfied with local affordability.”
A February report from the Inspection Support Network found that, in Raleigh, 22% of new home purchase loans in 2020 originated from single people who identify as female, slightly outpacing the national average of 21.4%. The report analyzed data from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council’s Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, which was released earlier this year.
And data from the National Association of REALTORS shows that the homeownership rate for women was around 61.2% in 2019, compared to 50.9% in 1990, with more single women as household heads.
“Single female and single male buyers were more likely to purchase a townhouse or condo than married couples and unmarried couples,” the summary of a National Association of REALTORS report reads.
The latest report from the Wake County Register of Deeds found that, for February 2022, the median price of a parcel of real estate in Wake County reached a new all-time high: $420,000. And data from the Triangle Multiple Listing Service shows that homes in the Triangle have never been less affordable than they are right now.
Median price of Wake County real estate soars to new high: $420,000
