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Having a roommate in the right city can help balance your budget. StorageCafe found the places where splitting rent saves you the most money
Felix Wöstmann / Unsplash
Renting alone used to be the default for young professionals starting out, but for a growing number of Americans, that math no longer works. A one-bedroom apartment that once cost a manageable slice of a paycheck now often eats a third or more of it, leaving little room for savings, debt payments, or emergencies. Splitting a two-bedroom apartment with another person has become less a lifestyle choice and more a financial strategy, one that stretches an income far enough to cover rent, save for a future down payment, or build a cushion for the unexpected. Millions of renters have already made that calculation, and the payoff varies enormously depending on where they live.
Nearly 5.6 million U.S. renter households now share housing with someone outside their immediate family, a number that has climbed more than a fifth over the past decade. The people doing this no longer fit a single mold. Gen Z makes up the biggest slice of these households, drawn in by early-career salaries and student debt, but millennials and even a share of Gen Xers now split leases too, often to rebuild savings or manage a divorce or a career change. Nationally, renters who share a two-bedroom instead of living alone in a one-bedroom save an average of roughly $6,700 a year, an amount that stretches even further once local rent levels enter the picture. In the country's most expensive markets, that annual savings figure can climb past $13,000.
