Home Buying by Unmarrieds Surges in State

Unmarried Californians are doubling up in growing numbers to buy houses in the slumping California market, a real estate trade group said Wednesday.

The California Assn. of Realtors said households of two or more unmarried individuals accounted for 12% of all California home sales last year--double the level in 1986.

“The surge in the number of nontraditional households buying homes over the past five years was sparked by the state’s continuing affordability crisis,” said Mack Powell, president of the trade group. “Affordability pressure has forced some unmarried individuals to form nontraditional households to make homeownership possible.”

The California housing market, which accounts for as much as a fifth of the national activity, has been stagnant since the summer of 1989, when housing prices peaked. Demand began vanishing as inflated prices, fueled by sellers’ unrealistic expectations, forced many potential buyers out of the market.