How Much Money Will You Save by Having a Roommate in 50 Major US Cities
Lodging can be very expensive. One way to significantly cut costs is to split the rent with your roommate. Of course, your savings will vary depending on where you live. Financial site SmartAsset analyzed some of the numbers to see how much you’ll save with a roommate in the 50 largest cities in the US.
They used the average rent for two and one-bedroom apartments to calculate the savings, based on data from the ads on myapartmentmap.com. For two bedrooms, their methodology assumed that the rent would be split equally. They then calculated the difference between the split rent for two bedrooms and the rent for one bedroom. They explain:
As a simple example, suppose the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in a certain city is $ 2,000, and the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $ 1,250. The average savings in this case would be $ 250. That’s $ 1250 – ($ 2000/2). Another way to think about this amount is the insurance premium that the renter will have to pay in order to live alone.
Basically, it is a way to calculate the cost of splitting a larger apartment versus the cost of paying the full rent for a smaller apartment. Of course, the situations differ, so the actual numbers will also be. For example, you can save even more if you split your rent into one bedroom. The technique is simple, but gives you a rough idea of how much you would pay in a classic roommate scenario. Here’s what the average monthly savings look like in the top five cities:
- San Francisco: $ 1,077
- New York: $ 942
- Los Angeles: $ 492
- Portland: $ 527
- Miami: $ 526
For their full list of cities, follow the link below. They also include infographics with detailed information about each city.
What Saves You A Roommate In 50 US Cities | SmartAsset