Inflation and high housing costs spur more baby boomers to find roommates - PBS NewsHour [View all]

Judy Woodruff:

Amid high inflation and rising housing costs, it's not just young people looking for roommates. Some Americans in their 60s and 70s are turning to home-sharing. Our economics correspondent, Paul Solman, has the story about a growing number of Baby Boomers who are considering becoming Boommates.

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Paul Solman:

Miller and Mears found each other on Silvernest, an Internet platform that matches older homeowners with housemates.

Riley Gibson, President, Silvernest:

There's a significant portion of the population going into their mid-60s with $20,000, $30,000 in their 401(k)s or nothing saved... Since the start of 2022, with inflation rising, just people under so much more financial pressure, the first half of this year, we have seen by far more activity, probably two to three times the activity we have seen in previous years.

Paul Solman:

But it's just part of a much longer-term trend, explains Harvard's Jennifer Molinsky.

Jennifer Molinsky, Harvard University:

We often hear about "The Golden Girls" television show.

Twenty years ago, it was about 1 percent of older adults were house-sharing with a nonrelative. Today, it's over a million older adults, more than double the number in that time.

Over a third of older adult households have a cost burden paying over 30 percent of their income on housing. Half of those are paying more than 50 percent of their income on housing. What people do is they start cutting back on other necessities like food and out-of-pocket medical care, insurance, which really affects much more than your financial well-being. It affects your overall well-being.

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Paul Solman:

But, of course, taking in an unknown roommate isn't for everyone.


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https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/inflation-and-high-housing-costs-spur-more-baby-boomers-to-find-roommates