The high cost of housing means more people are being priced out of not only owning a home but also renting alone. The share of adults 65 and over looking to rent with a roommate has tripled in the past decade, according to the listings site SpareRoom.
“They’re not the biggest group of roommates, but they’re by far the fastest growing,” said the site’s communications director, Matt Hutchinson.
SpareRoom finds that roommates in general are skewing older. Young people are living with their parents longer, unable to afford moving out or simply trying to save up. Meanwhile, more people in their 50s, 60s and older are unable to make it on their own.
The US is really on the far end of the scale for people living alone (11%, compared to the world average of 4%, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/03/31/with-billions-confined-to-their-homes-worldwide-which-living-arrangements-are-most-common/). I see a lot of articles like “people can’t afford a 1br any more”, but I never see anyone else ask the question of whether they should.
Why shouldn’t they? Why should someone have to be married or have roommates to have somewhere to live?
It’s a complex topic that the person you replied to only introduced briefly.
We have a loneliness epidemic and it’s expensive to live in isolation. There is a middle ground between the two that would fit both your pov and the one the person you are replying to is scratching the surface of.
It’s undeniable that some people just get progressively unhealthy when they live alone. But that’s not true for everyone, for sure. But we did evolve to live in tribes and support each other.
No one is attacking the idea of living alone.
I’m not saying they should have to. I’m questioning why living alone seems to be the new “American dream”, and anything else is looked down upon.
thats not what you said in your original comment, you said should they even afford to live alone, you were implying they should not be able to AFFORD it all living in a 1 br apartment .