- Dennis Norman
According to a report just released by MyNewPlace.com , renters can see significant savings on their monthly housing costs by opting for a larger apartment and getting a roommate, rather than going it alone in a smaller apartment.
According to the survey, the top ten cities offering the best potential savings for roomates are:
- Washington, DC: Not surprisingly, the cities with the highest rents often offer the highest potential for savings. The share of 3-bedroom searches in the area around the nation’s capital has grown by 87%, with renters saving as much as $800/month by bunking up—nearly $10,000 per year.
- Philadelphia: Faced with high housing costs, renters in the City of Brotherly Love are getting friendlier than ever, with searches for 3-bedroom apartments more than doubling, with average savings of around $490 per month.
- Atlanta: Atlanta saw 1-bedroom searches decline by half and 3-bedroom searches more than double, as eager renters pursued $413/month savings by moving in with roommates.
- San Jose: Silicon Valley renters sought to mitigate the area’s notoriously expensive rents by finding roommates—at a savings of more than $600/month.
- Chicago: Windy City residents braced against the chilly economic climate by cozying up with roommates, doubling up their 3-bedroom searches, to the tune of $560/month savings.
- Denver: Renters are tripling up in the Mile High City at some of the highest rates in the country, and saving nearly $350/month in the process.
- Los Angeles: In the City of Angels, even the beautiful people are moving in together. Three beautiful people under one roof could save more than $525 each.
- Seattle: 3-bedroom search share increased 113% from January 2008 to June 2009, with savings of up to $500/month for each roommate. That’s a lot of cups of coffee.
- Las Vegas: Nevadans aren’t gambling when it comes to their housing costs. Las Vegas has among the highest growth in 3-bedroom searches nationwide, and each roommate could be saving $360/month.
- Boston & Cambridge: Renters in the Boston area aren’t tripling up at quite the rates of the rest of the cities on our list, but they should be—there’s up $880/month to be saved.
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Thank you so much for so intelligent article. Great job!