"Even at the day of closing, I was physically sick," said Odom, a 30-year-old information technology manager originally from Savannah. "Just the whole process -- knowing I'm ultimately responsible -- was very scary."

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Now, more than five years later, Odom has tripled her income and is looking for her second house, an upgrade from her 2,036-square-foot home in Lithonia. And she's not even blinking at the finances.

"Making the payments is easy," she said, sitting in her living room with a group of black girlfriends who are also homeowners. "The maintenance is difficult."

In 2003, unmarried women were nearly twice as likely to buy homes as unmarried men. Single women make up the second-largest group of homebuyers, according to a nationwide survey by the National Association of Realtors. In metro Atlanta, Odom's demographic, single African-American women represent a particularly fast-growing group.

From 1997 to 2002, conventional mortgage loans to black women increased by 114 percent in metro Atlanta, a draw for middle-class blacks from across the nation. That growth greatly outpaced mortgage loans to white men and white women, which increased in the region by 35 percent and 26 percent, respectively. Mortgage growth in the region was highest among single black men, but they bought fewer homes than single black women.

Women are buying homes as they gain access to more and better-paying jobs. They like the tax advantages and want to start building wealth. And they benefit from a societal shift that accepts their marrying later or not at all. That shift is especially prevalent among black women, 64 percent of whom reported being single in the most recent nationwide census survey.

Marriage optional

Odom, who was married at 22 and divorced by 23, said she wouldn't delay buying a home to wait for another husband.

"I guess being raised by a single female who was a homeowner at a very young age, I never thought to wait on someone else," she said.

Waiting could be especially fruitless in metro Atlanta, where single black women outnumber single black men by about 100,000. Odom further narrows her choices. She wants to date men who, like her, have a college education and a healthy income.

"At this age in my life, I'm not looking to start at Level 1. I'm at Level 3, and I need a man to be at Level 3 or above."

"I look at statistics," Odom said. "The probability of me getting married again is nil to none."

Her friend Tasha Bailey, 32, bought a four-bedroom home in the Ellenwood area of south DeKalb County for the same reason.

"I don't need a man to survive. I wanted to prove it to myself," said Bailey, who works in sales for a juice company.

Women -- black and white -- aren't waiting for Mr. Right. They're taking their housing decisions more seriously, said Bella DePaulo, a visiting professor of psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara who studies the lives of single women.

"They're not viewing their single lives as this way station, just somewhere to be in transition until they find their partner and settle down for a stable married life. This is their life," DePaulo said. "The fact that they see this is really astonishing, given everything else out there in the culture and society that's trying to convince them otherwise."

From 1997 to 2002, single black women in metro Atlanta secured more mortgage loans than single black men or even black couples. Mortgage loans to whites, Asians and Hispanics in the region mostly went to single men or couples.

New loan system

Many single women couldn't buy their own homes 20 or 30 years ago because lenders saw them as credit risks.

Delois Baskin tried to purchase her first home in 1974 and was turned down for a loan. Baskin said that when she asked why, the chief executive officer of the bank told her that her status as a single woman kept her from the mortgage.

"It was unheard of that a single black woman would buy property," said Baskin, 57, who lives in a five-bedroom home in Suwannee and makes her living selling real estate. "You weren't expected to be doing those kinds of things.

"Today, it's very different," she said. "You are able to do it."

Low-interest mortgage rates have drawn more women into homeownership. Women also have been helped by a change in banking technology. In the mid-1990s, lenders began using automated underwriting systems to provide quick, objective data.

"Twenty years ago, most of the underwriting was done sitting across the desk from a loan officer," said Nicolas Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. "The vast majority of loan officers were men, and making certain judgments based on their experience."

Underwriting software takes away that personal factor. It grades loan applications, giving scores based on collateral, credit reputation and debt capacity.

"Therefore, those judgment calls are far and few between," Retsinas said. "Now, most lenders are looking at the score, payment history, have you been paying your utility bills, all those kinds of factors."

The center's 2004 State of the Nations Housing report, released this month, showed homeownership is on the rise and women and minorities are playing a larger role. The report indicated that from 1994 to 2002, unmarried women accounted for 30 percent of homeowner growth. The number of unmarried women owning houses climbed from 14 million to 17.5 million.

Atlanta-based Home Depot began courting female homeowners a year ago with "Do-It-Herself" workshops. About 200,000 women have taken the classes, which range from decorating to using power tools and installing patio tiles.

Some lenders like Doe Winfrey have built a business around black women buying homes.

As SouthTrust Mortgage Corp.'s vice president and manager of the Decatur office, Winfrey, who is black, jokingly refers to herself as "the financier of the sisterhood."

At least 80 percent of her business is mortgages for single black women, from doctors and lawyers to assembly line workers and airport cleaners. She closed about 100 homes in each of the past two years, and most of her business comes from referrals.

"For me, it's my bread and butter. If I waited for the married couples, I'd starve," said Winfrey, who is married.

Even though the growth for black female homebuyers is lower nationally, she expects it to remain high in Atlanta.

"Atlanta still is considered a black Mecca. So if you're going to have an upwardly mobile black woman, you're going to find her in Atlanta," she said. "It's still the place where a vibrant black woman can prosper and flourish."

And, adds Harvard's Retsinas, housing in Atlanta is still affordable compared to other large cities with high concentrations of blacks.

Being self-sufficient

Six months after she bought a three-bedroom house in Austell, Adrienne Harton, figured out how to relight the pilot flame in her furnace by using directions she found on the Internet.

"It seemed like a big deal at the time," said the 32-year-old teacher, a friend of Odom. "It was dark, and I'd never done it before."

Her mother, who lives about five minutes away, came over for moral support, and watched her daughter light the furnace.

"She looked at me and said, 'I'm so proud of you," Harton said. "I said, 'I just saved $75 for a handyman.'"

Odom used advice she got at Home Depot and instructions in a book to figure out how to install the molding in her dining room, which she uses as a gym.

"The sawing was hard, getting the angles right," she said. "After the third mishap, you learn."

Nisa Asokan contributed research to this article.