GEOFF BENNETT: Nationwide, 20 million single women own homes in the U.S.

That's almost three million more than single men.

Our economics correspondent, Paul Solman, looks at why women are deciding to buy and the unexpected fallout some face.

MAYA DANTZLER, Homeowner: Paul, welcome to my home.

(LAUGHTER) PAUL SOLMAN: Thirty-one-year-old Maya Dantzler just closed on her very first House in Charlotte, North Carolina.

She's been living in a very cool apartment in a converted cotton mill, but this is now home.

MAYA DANTZLER: This is my primary.

Look at this, Paul.

PAUL SOLMAN: A spacious main bedroom.

MAYA DANTZLER: I have two closets.

PAUL SOLMAN: A sole homeowner.

MAYA DANTZLER: You see this.

Beautiful.

I graduated from Emory with my MBA.

I'm two years out of school, I'm making good money now, and I want to just generate some more wealth.

PAUL SOLMAN: Dantzler is hardly an outlier.

The share of homebuyers who are single women has just about doubled since 1981.

Last year, there were 20 million of them.

ODETA KUSHI, First American Financial Corporation: The increase over the last decade has really been for all categories of single women.

So that's never married, that's divorced, that's separated.

We have seen growth among all of those different components.

PAUL SOLMAN: Economist Odeta Kushi says young women like Dantzler are often buying homes once they get a degree.

ODETA KUSHI: Their income has grown alongside that higher educational attainment, and so they're using it to purchase that first home.

PAUL SOLMAN: Now, it wasn't until 1974's Equal Credit Opportunity Act that women could reliably even get a mortgage.

But now that they can: ODETA KUSHI: The homeownership rate for these women over the last 40 years has surpassed that of single men.

MAUREEN MAHOOD, Owner, SellYourHomeCharlotte: I think a lot of single women really want a place to call their own.

And so they're not waiting to get married anymore.

PAUL SOLMAN: Realtor MAUREEN MAHOOD his a single homeowner herself.

She says it makes sense that single women outpace single men as homebuyers.

MAUREEN MAHOOD: We love our home.

We want to decorate it.

We want to do the things.

And men in some instances don't want to be that domestic.

They want to live in an apartment, where everything's taken care of.

Maybe they want to invest their money, instead of buying a home.

PAUL SOLMAN: And apartment living can be, well, intrusive.

JENNIFER NELSON, Homeowner: I was on a fourth floor with someone above me.

PAUL SOLMAN: Making noise.

(LAUGHTER) JENNIFER NELSON: Yes.

I found out he was a very small man who walked around like he was a very large man.

PAUL SOLMAN: So, last December, Jennifer Nelson bought her own place.

JENNIFER NELSON: My mortgage, my property tax, and my insurance are like $400 less a month than I was paying just for rent.

PAUL SOLMAN: Nelson, who lost her husband six years ago, is still unpacking in a house that's finally given her a fresh start.

JENNIFER NELSON: I think it's helped me with like my confidence.

And I call myself Jennifer 2.0, my life the second time around and what I'm doing moving forward.

PAUL SOLMAN: So the fact of owning your own home after your husband passed is a positive emotionally?

JENNIFER NELSON: Yes, absolutely.

For me, it's been very empowering and definitely helped me feel like I'm getting back to, like, myself and figuring out who I am moving forward.

PAUL SOLMAN: But for some women homeowners, there's a surprising downside.

TIFFANY TATE, Homeowner: Sometimes, guys, especially here in the South, feel like having a house or owning a house is what a man does for his presumed wife.

PAUL SOLMAN: Tiffany Tate made that discovery in her twenties when she went on a date in Charlotte.

TIFFANY TATE: I knew pretty quickly he wasn't a match because I mentioned, hey, I think I'm going to start looking at houses.

I'm tired of paying rent.

I don't have many other financial obligations, so I'm going to start that process and just see what's out there.

And I will never forget that he basically said, well, why would you want to buy a house?

What would a guy do for you?

PAUL SOLMAN: Her life has changed since then.

Tate's now a divorced single mother.

She bought a new house in Winston-Salem for herself and her daughter, from which she runs her own business.

TIFFANY TATE: Hello, everyone.

Happy Wednesday.

PAUL SOLMAN: She'd be happy to have a partner.

But she says too many of the men she's dating are paralyzed by the past.

TIFFANY TATE: Sometimes, people will just say flat out, like, wow, you do all of this by yourself?

Men will say things like, oh, well I want to be like you when I grow up.

And I -- that's a very... (LAUGHTER) PAUL SOLMAN: This is somebody you might be dating?

TIFFANY TATE: Yes, yes.

It is.

PAUL SOLMAN: Somebody actually said that to you?

TIFFANY TATE: Someone actually said that, yes.

"I want to be like you when I grow up," or "Oh, hey, big money," or... PAUL SOLMAN: Somebody called you big money?

TIFFANY TATE: Yes.

It is an immediate ick, immediate turnoff, but yes.

PAUL SOLMAN: But let's face it, financially independent women can be threatening, says Stefanie O'Connell, author of "The Ambition Penalty."

STEFANIE O'CONNELL, Author, "The Ambition Penalty": There is a growing body of research that shows that when women outpace men on traditional markers of masculinity, particularly financial markers, wealth, status, income, for example, they face backlash.

ACTRESS: That's you, John.

ACTOR: Yes, Marsha, I'm home, dear.

PAUL SOLMAN: Since men have traditionally been defined as the breadwinners.

STEFANIE O'CONNELL: A lot of the idea of masculinities is built on the premise of being not like women.

And so if women are claiming their access to independence, to power, to wealth, to status, things that homeownership represents, then it is like women are taking something away from men who perceive their identity as being based around that ideal.

PAUL SOLMAN: Of course, that's not all men, not Jennifer Nelson's boyfriend, for example.

JENNIFER NELSON: There is definitely a reason why obviously he's stuck around for 2.5 years, because it's been not intimidating enough to run him off.

He's also the son of a very confident woman.

(LAUGHTER) JENNIFER NELSON: He's used to being around intelligent, competent, independent women.

MAYA DANTZLER: I'm going to take out this door and I'm going to turn this into an arch.

PAUL SOLMAN: As for first-time homeowner Maya Dantzler, her focus is on design, not dates.

MAYA DANTZLER: If a home is going to stop you from wanting to date me, you probably were never the right person for me anyway.

PAUL SOLMAN: Because, for Dantzler and lots of other single women, while it might be nice to have a man around the house, not a man who cares whether or not the house is theirs.

For the "PBS News Hour," Paul Solman in Charlotte, North Carolina.