Older Adults Moving in With 'Boommates'
Retirement-aged adults are increasingly sharing housing arrangements due to rising taxes, insurance and mortgage costs.
NEW YORK – With housing costs still high for many, older adults are turning to roommates to split the cost of housing, a trend called "boommates."
An increasing number of adults age 65 and older are opting for shared housing arrangements to save money in an era when many have fallen behind on retirement savings and concerns about loneliness and social isolation.
According to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, nearly 1 million people age 65 and over now live with unrelated roommates. Sites like SpareRoom have seen a significant rise in older users, with one-in-four roommates in the United States aged 45 or above, a figure that's more than doubled in the past decade.
In 2021, more than 11 million were cost-burdened, meaning they spent more than 30% of their household income on housing. Nationwide, rents have risen nearly 30% from pre-pandemic levels. Rising taxes, insurance, utility and mortgage costs have left many homeowners seeking ways to pay the bills.
Jamie Battmer, chief investment officer at wealth management firm Creative Planning, said, "There's been a big bump in housing costs, and that's forced people from a financial standpoint to either cut back or find ways like this to cut these costs. We've got this big group of people entering the prime years of retirement, so you're going to have more people doing this."
Source: Bloomberg (08/21/24) Ballentine, Claire; Maglione, Francesca
© 2024 Florida Realtors®