Let’s talk about a big California affordability challenge that’s often ignored: There’s likely no tougher place in the nation for singles to be house hunters.

Homebuying “affordability” benchmarks do have their drawbacks, but online real estate tracker Zillow’s recent look at the financial ability for singles vs. coupled households (married or otherwise) to comfortably own a home was an eye-opener: By their math, singles have roughly half the financial wherewithal to buy vs. couples … and 16 of the toughest-to-buy markets for singles are in California.

I filled my trusty spreadsheet with Zillow data based on income statistics and housing-cost patterns — values and interest rates. Affordability is historically defined as spending no more than 30 percent of pay on homeownership after using 20 percent down to buy.

While it’s no surprise that partnered households, often with two incomes, buy more home than a single salary, I found a stunning shortfall in the theoretical chance a single person can buy a home and stay solvent.

Look, some of this is a long-running challenged created, in part, by well-intentioned regulation. It’s been a half-century since a series of fair housing laws opened up homeownership to a broader slice of Americans. One switch — ending discrimination against women and couples who wanted mortgages — gave partnered households more buying power.

Sixty-six percent of recent buyers were married couples, 17 percent were single females, 7 percent were single males, and 8 percent were unmarried couples.

And it’s a nationwide quandary for singles. Using Zillow’s math, I learned that U.S. single buyers had only a 55 percent chance at ownership compared with couples — that’s 45 percent affordability for singles vs. 82 percent affordability for couples. That helps explain why in 2017, 74 percent of homebuyers nationwide were couples, married or not. Single female buyers more than doubled the number of male singles who gained homeownership.

And California was home to 16 of the 25 large metro areas with the worst odds for singles comfortably buying a home vs. partnership households.

Los Angeles and Orange counties had the 16th worst affordability shortfall, wedged between Portland, Ore., and Modesto in the rankings.

L.A.-O.C. singles had just 8 percent of the shot at homebuying compare with couples — that’s 2 percent affordability for singles (third-worst) vs. 24 percent affordability for partnered households (fifth-worst).

In the Inland Empire, singles had better odds: one-sixth the chance couples enjoy, a 25th-worst ranking between the New York City region and Providence, R.I. Singles in Riverside and San Bernardino counties had 11 percent affordability vs. 65 percent for couples.

The nation’s toughest metro area to be a single house hunter was Ventura County. Its singles had 2.3 percent of the shot at ownership vs. couples: a national-worst with 1 percent affordability for singles compared with 43 percent for couples.

Next was the San Luis Obispo area where singles had just 3.7 percent ownership odds of couples followed by the San Jose region (4.5 percent); Santa Barbara and Vallejo (4.9 percent); Santa Cruz (5.3 percent); Santa Rosa (5.7 percent); and San Francisco (6.1 percent).

It’s not just California. The two metro areas with the lowest ownership odds for singles outside of the state were No. 9 Eugene (7.4 percent chance) and No. 10 Cape Cod (7.5 percent).

So where do singles fare best?

Perhaps try Lubbock, Texas, where singles’ affordability — 79 percent, third-best — is 82 percent of couples’ 96 percent affordability. Or Topeka, Kansas, where the nation’s best singles affordability — 81 percent — is 82 percent of the 99 percent affordability for couples.

If moving out of state isn’t in your plans, these numbers strongly suggest a good dating service may be as essential to a single Californian obtaining homeownership as having a good job, a smart real estate agent and savvy lender.

DID YOU SEE?

Who was California’s best governor for housing?

Want a cure for housing shortage? Bring back savings and loans

Empty homes a California rarity as vacancies at 13-year low