High rents are forcing more and more people to live with roommates. The Census estimates that 5.8 million Americans currently have a roommate.
The benefits from living with another person vary from city to city. In some cities, it may not be worth the hassle.
In other places however, especially where homes are unaffordable, living with a roommate can save you thousands of dollars.
Below we rank the cities where living with a roommate can save you the most money.
In order to find the best places to live with a roommate, we compared the cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment with the cost of renting a two-bedroom. The difference between them was how we came up with our rankings. See our data and methodology below to see where we got our data and how we put it together.
This is SmartAsset's third annual study on how much a roommate saves you. Read the 2016 version here.
Key findings
- Big savings — Across our top 10, the average resident could save just under $10,000 per year by switching from living alone to living with a roommate.
- Costly California— California has five of the top 10 cities where it pays to live with a roommate. The Golden State is known for its expensive cities, especially around the Bay Area, so this isn't particularly surprising.
- Best places to live alone— If you really want to live alone and not feel guilty about the money you aren't saving, look at cities like Tucson, Arizona or Wichita, Kansas. In both those cities you save less than $250 per month by living with a roommate.
SEE ALSO: 7 essential tips to avoid the 'lifestyle creep' that keeps you from building wealth
1. San Francisco, California: $1,122 average savings
San Francisco is the best city in the country to buddy up. According to our data, the average one-bedroom apartment costs $3,420 per month and the average two-bedroom costs $4,597. If you and a friend split the cost of that two-bedroom apartment, you would both end up paying around $2,299 per month. That is $1,122 less per month than paying for the average one-bedroom.
2. New York, New York: $990 average savings
New York City properties are notoriously expensive. If you are living in New York and want to rent a one-bedroom apartment, you are looking at paying $2,728 per month. Our data shows that by moving to a two-bedroom and living with someone you could save just under $1,000 per month.
Finding a roommate in New York shouldn't be too difficult either. There are over 8 million people living in the Big Apple and there are plenty of websites to find roommates.
3. Boston, Massachusetts: $920 average savings
Beantown moves up from fourth last year to third this year. We estimate that by living with a roommate you can save about $920 per month. By saving $920 per month you can get a head start on your financial goals, like saving up for a down payment on your home orsetting up a fund for retirement
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