The housing market is booming, baby.
As the cost of living remains dangerously high, and chronic loneliness continues wreaking havoc on singletons nationwide, Baby Boomers have devised a pennywise strategy towards combating both epidemics.
Becoming “boommates.”
Rather than solo-rolling around their huge homes as empty-nesters, folks ranging in age from 57 to 75 are renting out rooms in their not-so-humble abodes to housemates within their generation.
It’s a new age “Golden Girls” pad — minus the shoulder pads.
“Housing is expensive for many older adults, whose incomes often are fixed or decline over time,” said researchers of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies in a 2023 report.
The study found that nearly 11.2 million older adults have been “cost burdened” — meaning they’ve spent well over 30% of their household income on housing costs in recent years. Investigators also determined that homelessness is quickly rising among the elderly due to inflation.
Like money, loneliness is, too, a major motivator for moving in with a roommate of like ilk.
Referred to as the “alone virus,” loneliness has been deemed a global “health threat” with risks as deadly as “smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day,” by the World Health Organization.
In major cities, such as the Big Apple, a lack of supportive social ties can induce “serious psychological distress,” or SPD, in loners of all ages, according to warnings from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
So, to sidestep a sickly life on the streets, approximately 913,000 folks over age 65 have decided to share a home with a non-relatives, per Harvard’s findings.
With Boomers owning 28% of America’s homes that have three or more bedrooms, per a January 2024 report from Redfin, a property firm, sharing a roof with a friend or complete stranger has become an enjoyable arrangement for otherwise independent people of a certain age.
In fact, sites such as HomeShareOnline (formerly Silvernet), has helped silver foxes find their best boommate matches.
“I’m 68 and rent a room in a beautiful home in a walkable area,” a gent named Jim wrote in a testimonial. “My [housemate] Renée and I have developed a wonderful relationship and we both hope it continues for a long time.”
He added that living as boommates has, “worked for both of us beyond our preconditions, perceptions [and] concerns.”
“I’m as happy as a clam.”
