The $820 Roommate Savings in DC

• February 21st 2019

by Nena Perry-Brown

Earlier this month, UrbanTurf reported on a study that shows that married couples in the DC area tend to take on roommates to help with housing costs. Now, we have a better idea of the housing cost savings that come with having a roommate.

A new HotPads analysis shows that renters in the region who opt to have a roommate rather than rent a one-bedroom save $820 a month. This estimate assumes a median one-bedroom rent of $1,800 per month and a median bedroom rent of $980 per month.

In general, the more expensive housing is in a metro area, the more one saves by having a roommate. In more expensive markets like San Francisco and Los Angeles, renters with roommates can save approximately $1,000 a month with a roommate. Nationwide, that savings is $515 a month, as the median one-bedroom rents for $1,320 and the median rent for a room is $805. Renters are increasingly opting for shared living arrangements, with 30 percent living with roommates in 2017 compared to 24 percent of renters in 2007.

Median rents for rooms were calculated based on HotPads listings over the past year, while median rents for a room were calculated using HotPads listings while weighting the data based on Census Data on the number of renter households in a given metro area.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the-820-roommate-savings-in-dc/15035.