Two in five American women looking for love online want a partner who owns a home, according to The State of Online Dating 2026, a new study released today by dating-review platform DatingScout.com. The study, based on responses from 53,902 people in 18 countries, found that 40.4 percent of American women named home ownership as something they want in a partner, against 18.9 percent of American men, according to the release carried by GlobeNewswire.
The gap matters because buying a first home has become harder to time with dating. The National Association of Realtors puts the typical first-time buyer at a record age of 40, while the average American online dater in the study is just 39.5, according to the release. In other words, many people looking for a partner online are at exactly the age when a first home is still out of reach, so a partner who already owns one can look like a shortcut to stability.
The pattern is not only American. Women in the UK set the highest bar of the 15 countries with data, with 45.3 percent wanting a homeowner against 19.1 percent of men, according to the release. Worldwide, 42.1 percent of women said being unemployed would rule someone out instantly, compared with 14.1 percent of men, and high debt was a deal-breaker for 52.2 percent of women and 31.6 percent of men.
Money also shapes the first date itself. Worldwide, 43 percent of men said the man should pay on a first date, while only 24.5 percent of women agreed, and almost half of women, 49 percent, would rather split the bill, according to the study. DatingScout's own statistics page adds wider context: 40.7 percent of people looking for a dating site worldwide want a long-term relationship and 23.8 percent want something casual, while 62 percent of online daters have never met a match in person.
Readers should note that this is DatingScout's ongoing reader survey, collected since January 2025 from visitors to its own websites — a self-selected sample, not a random poll — so the figures describe its respondents rather than all daters. Even so, the message for couples is practical: talk about money, housing and debt early, because the study suggests those are the questions many daters are already asking themselves before the first date. The full study, including the country-by-country breakdown, is published on DatingScout's website.