More people than ever are sharing homes

The cost of renting a home is forcing more people than ever to share a home

More people than ever are sharing homes
The cost of renting a home is forcing more people than ever to share a home.

An analysis by Zillow shows that 30% of adults nationwide are living with a roommate or parent, up 8 percentage points since 2000.

"As rents have outpaced incomes, living alone is no longer an option for many working-aged adults," said Zillow senior economist Aaron Terrazas. "By sharing a home with roommates -- or in some cases, with adult parents -- working adults are able to afford to live in more desirable neighborhoods without shouldering the full cost alone.”

Unsurprisingly, in the most expensive markets such as Los Angeles and Miami, the percentage of sharers is far higher (45% and 41% respectively.)

In these pricier markets, renters need a larger share of income to afford median rents. In Los Angeles for example, a median income earner needs to spend almost half their income on rent, compared to the national median of 29.1%.

But this phenomenon is not limited to expensive cities, says Terrazas.

“The share of adults living with roommates has been on the rise in historically more affordable rental markets as well. Unless current dynamics shift and income growth exceeds rent growth for a sustained period of time, this trend is unlikely to change," he says.