In less than three weeks as a first-time homeowner, Janie France has fired a painter, hired a plumber and haggled with an insurance adjustor after her washer gushed a foot of water in her garage.

Despite the hassles, the 41-year-old interior designer said she's still confident in her decision to buy a house on her own.

She's single and living alone, and she is in good company.

Nationwide, people like Ms. France make up about one of every four households. The composition is similar in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Locally, the percentage of single-applicant home loans increased from 37 percent to 47 percent over five years, according to an analysis of conventional home loan figures.

The most common type of household has shifted in the U.S. from married couples with children as the most prominent in 1990 to people living alone in 2000, according to a recent census study.

That trend in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has parlayed into the real estate market, where experts and lenders say single buyers are a strong and growing contingent.

Jeff Updike, senior vice president of Virginia Cook Realtors, said he's seen a 4 percent increase in single homebuyers from the first nine months of 2004 to 2005. While more people are waiting longer to get hitched, they seem to be rushing to homeownership.

Mr. Updike said single people – especially younger buyers – are attracted to the same low interest rates and relaxed lending requirements that have drawn other lifelong renters into mortgages.

"With what they see and what they read about the housing market, there's really no better investment than a home," he said. Even if people plan for a family in the future, they can buy a smaller house or townhome – which they can later use as a rental property – until they are ready for spouses, kids and big back yards, Mr. Updike said.

But it's not all about the dollars and tax write-offs.

"It really feels nice to be able to say I own my own house," Ms. France said. "Being 41, it kind of grounds me a little bit."

Ms. France said she's "been a bit of a gypsy," having moved from San Francisco to New York to Dallas. She was a longtime renter and decided buying a house would be a good financial investment, she said. She said it also allowed her to join in the camaraderie of her peers who chatted about yardwork, roof repairs and water bills.

She's not married because she hasn't met the right person, but she said her friends and relatives never questioned her decision to buy a house without a husband.

"Nobody ever said, 'Gosh, Janie, could you handle this on your own?' I think, in retrospect, it's kind of odd for people to think along those lines, that owning a house is something you do with somebody else," she said. "I enjoy the fact that I don't have to argue with anybody on the placement of furniture or the color of walls."

Single and loving it

Independence is in, said Thomas F. Coleman, executive director of Unmarried America, a national nonprofit research and advocacy group for singles in Glendale, Calif.

More people are living alone and staying single because they can afford to, he said. But their desire stems from something deeper.

"You see sitcoms ... and read stories about single people and how they have more freedom in their lifestyle," said Mr. Coleman, who is single. "You see that you don't have to compromise. You can live as you want. Get up when you want. Watch whatever you want. In this particular time in society, people are really craving and enjoying more freedom and independence."

Buying a house is a big part of asserting that independence and proving you can fly solo, he said.

"If you have a partner – someone you're in this together with – all of the sudden you have this extra confidence that you can do this together and together [you'll] make better decisions," he said. However, two buyers are not always better than one.

With two people, there can be more conflict, Mr. Coleman said. And it can take longer to make decisions, which is something Mr. Updike has noticed after years of working with buyers.

"I have more people that are couples that say, 'Oh, gosh, we need to think about this or we need to think about that,' than I do among single people I take out,' " he said. One decision-maker makes for a faster offer, he said.

Ready to own

One week is all it took for Jonathan Hubble to decide he had found home in an Uptown condo. The 24-year-old human resources manager said he had temporarily moved into his parent's house after spending a year in China. When it was time to move on, he decided it would be smarter to invest and build equity in a home instead of spending the money on rent.

Some folks were skeptical that he was too young to own, but he said he's not stretching himself as far financially as some of his married friends who've moved to the suburbs.

"It's easier to live within my means," he said.

Buying a condo has made him feel like he belongs in the community, and he's already looking for opportunities to volunteer.

"I joked with all my friends that I'm a real member of society now that I have a house," he said. "I guess I just always saw it as a matter of course. For me, buying a house was like going to college. It's just something I knew I would always do."