David West raised four children in Los Angeles while working as a Hollywood cinematographer. A few years ago, his life unraveled: divorce, the death of his brother, his dog, and longtime clients. He burned through savings, his credit suffered, and he moved to Fresno, Calif. Now 72, West rents a room in a stranger’s home — a situation he never expected but that is increasingly common.
He tried to move an apartment’s worth of possessions into a single room and laughed at how impossible it felt. Because his income is just above the cutoff for a housing subsidy, the cost savings of a house share matter. His roommate, also an older man, covers Wi-Fi, utilities and cable. In exchange, West volunteers his photography skills at the roommate’s church and shares a Costco membership. “It’s that give-and-take thing,” he said. “It’s trying to help each other out as much as possible.”
The high cost of housing is pushing more people not only out of homeownership but out of renting alone. Listings site SpareRoom reports that the share of adults 65 and over looking to rent with a roommate has tripled in the past decade. “They’re not the biggest group of roommates, but they’re by far the fastest growing,” said SpareRoom communications director Matt Hutchinson.
SpareRoom finds that roommates overall are skewing older: many young adults are living with parents longer, while more people in their 50s, 60s and older can’t afford solo rentals. “Maybe 10 years ago they’d have looked at a one-bed or a studio and thought, ‘Well, I’ll rent that,’” Hutchinson said. Now they see prices and conclude, “There’s no way I could afford that.”
Housing costs have spiked across the U.S., and that squeeze is hitting older adults hard. In 2023, the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard found that more than a third of households headed by someone 65 or older struggled to pay housing costs, with an even larger share for women living alone. “Older adults are more likely to be housing-cost burdened than working-age adults, and that gets more severe with age,” said Jennifer Molinsky, who researches aging and housing at the center. “It’s climbed up the income scale. So more and more, middle-income people are struggling with housing costs than ever before.”
Beyond market pressures, older adults face life events that can create financial strain. Caezilia Loibl, chair of the Consumer Sciences Program at Ohio State University, studies the financial toll of chronic disease and the loss of a spouse. “The shock is enormous,” she said. Data show such shocks increase debt burdens, lower credit scores, raise bankruptcy risk and can lead to foreclosure.
For some seniors, house-sharing brings benefits beyond saving money. Darla Desautel, 74, has rented with roommates for years and values the flexibility and companionship it offers. Currently house-sitting in Minnesota and planning to continue in Arizona for the summer, Desautel said she likes not being tied down and thinks not living alone is healthier. She recalled one roommate, an older woman, with whom she had a lot in common: “That’s pretty special when that works out,” she said.
Still, shared living has downsides. Desautel mentioned temperature disputes, smelly litter boxes and noisy conversations on speakerphone. “Noise is huge. A lot of people think they’re quiet when they’re really not,” she said. If she could afford a solo place on a short-term lease, she would — but that would consume more than half her income. In addition to Social Security, she does occasional consulting work and sells secondhand goods.
Desautel takes pride in having pared down possessions so she can move easily — “Right now I can move across country with 10 boxes shipped USPS and take a plane,” she said — and she plans to find a new roommate when her house-sit ends.
For West and others, house-sharing is an adaptation to financial strain and a way to stretch limited resources while gaining companionship and practical help. As housing costs remain high, more older adults are choosing or being forced into shared living arrangements that echo earlier eras when multi-person households were more common.
