The rent is so high, even suburbanites are taking roommates

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From Bert and Ernie to Will and Grace, roommate situations in cities are so familiar they’ve become ingrained in American popular culture.But now the housing affordability crisis is expanding roommate life far beyond the big cities where many Americans start their young adult lives. An analysis from SpareRoom, an online roommate search tool, shows that small cities are seeing more than double the number of users searching for roommates as in years past. Such inquiries are also booming in suburban areas and the commuter communities around bigger metros.“Sharing is the most affordable way to rent, and yet even roommates are migrating away from pricier cities and downtown areas in a bid to reduce living costs,” the company said in a release accompanying the analysis, which looked at more than 16 million roommate searches in 2025 compared to 2024.The trend is pronounced in a few key areas around the country, including the suburban communities surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth. Roommate searches are up 145% in single-family-dominated Rockwall and have roughly doubled in Tomball and Conroe. USA TODAY's interactive rent tracker shows that rental costs in the DFW metro have risen 15% since the pandemic.Around Atlanta, where prices are up 17% since the pandemic, roommate searches are climbing in suburbs including Dunwoody (+201%), Brookhaven (+176%) and Sandy Springs (+162%).“The lifestyle offered in the suburban Sun Belt area may also correspond with the rising number of people who find themselves sharing a home in their 40s, 50s and beyond, priced out of home ownership and renting solo,” SpareRoom’s release said.In an earlier report, SpareRoom showed that roommates aged 45 and above made up roughly one-tenth of the overall market a decade ago, but now account for nearly a quarter of it. For more on rental costs in many American metro areas, and how those costs have changed over time, see USA TODAY's online rent tracker.But the outward shift from big cities isn't just a Sun Belt phenomenon. Around New York City, for example, the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, one of the farthest parts of the city from Manhattan, saw roommate searches up 106%. Inquiries for the Ronkonkoma area of Long Island were up 128%.As of 2023, a whopping one-half of all renters were “cost-burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing and utilities. That includes the 27% who spend more than half of their income on those expenses.