Unfortunately a lot of them move in with boyfriends/girlfriends. I am constantly reading on Reddit, "my (22f) boyfriend (26m) of 6 months is a terrible roommate!"

I don't think it's entitled to *want* to live alone. Whether you can afford it or not is a different issue.

Also, many heads of household make less than that. With children to support. So when we talk about housing, it is often focused on the working poor. Federal min wage is slave labor at this point.

I had a roommate who stole stuff from me. I chose to live in a crappy studio over repeating that experience.

Why should a working adult not be able to afford a 1 bedroom unit?

The problem is with with salaries / COL, not people reasonably wanting to have a private space to sleep in after the workday.

Most families only have 1-2 kids now and don't grow up sharing a room. So suddenly having to do so as an adult is a real contrast to the way they were raised.

Anonymous wrote:I had a terrible roommate experience in college that ended up costing me way more than I saved by sharing an apartment.
We were equally responsible for rent (no such thing as individual leases at that time/location) and she just stopped paying. I had to pay it or they would take both of us to court/collections.
After that, I rented my own apartment.

I had the same experience. Sophomore year was my last roommate.

Anonymous wrote:They didn't grow up with Golden Girls

And Threeʻs Company!

Anonymous wrote:Somewhere between the 60s and 90s people turned into absolute psychopaths. You had roommates killing each other, roommates attempting to kill elderly home owners, neighbors turned out to be killers and crazy. That’s why!

Crime was much, MUCH more common in the 60s through the 90s than it is now.

I agree with you. I didn’t know many people with their own apartments when we were in our 20s. Everyone lived either with a roommate, significant other, or occasionally family. Even if we technically could have afforded our own places, we preferred living somewhere a bit nicer and/or having more $ to spend on other things (or save up).

I had a terrible roommate experience in college that ended up costing me way more than I saved by sharing an apartment.
We were equally responsible for rent (no such thing as individual leases at that time/location) and she just stopped paying. I had to pay it or they would take both of us to court/collections.
After that, I rented my own apartment.

They didn't grow up with Golden Girls

I'm an introvert and like my place clean and organized. I can't deal with roommates.

Somewhere between the 60s and 90s people turned into absolute psychopaths. You had roommates killing each other, roommates attempting to kill elderly home owners, neighbors turned out to be killers and crazy. That’s why!

I agree. I keep telling my college-age son who needs to live off campus next year that he has to find a multi-bedroom apartment or house to share with roommates instead of expecting for us to pay for a 1-bedroom or studio apt.

I consume a lot of financial media and often see posts detailing how difficult it is for the typical person to afford life, then see an example budget breakdown and they’re showing someone on 65k/yr trying to live in a 1BR in HCOL area while driving a brand new car. Whenever people talk about housing affordability there’s NEVER any mention of just getting a roommate or sharing a house which is what most people actually do. Nobody is paying $2k month rent on a 65k salary.