NY'ers Living Arrangements (Murray: fit in, neighborhood, college)

[bluedog2]

Sort of an interesting piece in THe Post.Among other things, it looks as though,despite countless suppositions on this forum about most people being able to survive in NYC only by living with roommates,substantially less than 10% of us live in roommate situations.

Not so surprisingly,Williamsburg leads the city but still with only 9% of it's residents having roommates,followed by the East Village and Murray Hill.

Looks like way,way more people live alone or with family than with roommates.

Williamsburg leads city among households with roommates, census stats show - NYPOST.com

[mc33433]

Originally Posted by bluedog2

though,despite countless suppositions on this forum about most people being able to survive in NYC only by living with roommates,substantially less than 10% of us live in roommate situations.

You realize most of the people posting on this board asking if they can live in NYC are early 20s with dreams and an income of around $30k. They usually need roommates. I would hardly call that representative of the population of NYC.....

[bluedog2]

Originally Posted by mc33433

You realize most of the people posting on this board asking if they can live in NYC are early 20s with dreams and an income of around $30k. They usually need roommates. I would hardly call that representative of the population of NYC.....

Could be true but that is not what I was referring to.

I was referring to a lot of the regular posters on this board who at least claim to already be NY'ers(we have no way of knowing of course) and who insinuate that a majority of NY'ers live with roommates because even with incomes of 60,000 or 80,000 " it is the only way to make it."

There seems to be a commonly held misconception that NY is a city of roommates(maybe because of "Friends" and The Odd Couple" ?) where even people in their 30's,40's and older and with substantial incomes live with roommates.

I've been living in NY for decades and have lived in 4 of the 5 boroughs and even I was very surprised at how low the percentage of roommate situations is.This despite the fact that I personally live alone.I knew it wasn't a majority like some believe but I would have guessed at something like 20 %. Never would have guessed that it's less than 10.

[mc33433]

I'm actually not that surprised it's low, just based on my personal experience. I think I only know one person that lives with roommates, and they are in their 20s. I think it depends on the lifestyle people want too. If you make $80k and live with roommates, it's because you value a certain zipcode, or spending your money on something else, over living alone. I guess as many people as there are living with roommates, out of 8mm people it doesn't make a huge % of the total.

[Febtober]

Another thing that keeps it low is that due to the cost of living, so many young people here tend to live with their parents for quite a while. I'm in my late 20's and a large number of my coworkers my age still live at home. While that's not exactly unheard in the medium-large city I'm from (Atlanta) you'd definitely be the exception.

I can't really blame them, if I could keep an extra $1,000+ however much in pocket each month, I'd be tempted.

[barkomatic]

All of the college educated guys in their 20's that I know all have roommates as well as many in their 30's. I think most kids moving to the city for the first time, without parental support and making entry level salaries who want to live in a decent neighborhood must have roommates. There are many people who do not fit into that category and so they can afford to live alone.