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Affordability Concerns Extend to Rentals

for-rent-twoAccording to analysis from San Francisco-based HotPads, which is owned by Zillow Group Inc.,  renters can save 45 percent per month by sharing a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate, as compared to living alone in a one-bedroom apartment.

The study indicates that monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment averages $1,486; the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,650. That breaks down to $825 per renter. Consequently, renters can save $661 per month if they share a two-bedroom apartment.

That savings varies from city to city and region to region. Among the nation’s 10 largest cities, the savings is greater in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Houston, and Miami; it is lower in Philadelphia, Dallas, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.

Median rents in most of those cities exceed the national median, but that doesn’t always mean greater savings. Renters in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where the median rent is higher than it is nationally, can expect to save more than $1,000 per month. The median rent in Washington, D.C., also exceeds the national median, but the average monthly savings in that city is $628.

Renters in Philadelphia, where the median rent is lower than the national average, can expect to save less than the average, but the figures indicate that sharing living space still saves money.

That is significant in an environment in which rent went up more than 2 percent in 2017 and is expected to go up another 1.5 percent this year, according to Zillow’s January rent forecast. Zillow reports that renters account for 37 percent of American households, but only one in five renters in the United States lives with a roommate.

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