Boommates -- Seniors living together (from Bloomberg)

Call them “boommates.” 

Surging costs for housing and other expenses are prompting baby boomers to take on roommates. A Harvard study estimates that almost a million Americans over age 65 now live with unrelated housemates ("NYC's Rent Surge Drives 86-Year-Old to Move in With a 'Boommate'"). 

To make ends meet, an increasing number of those 65 and older are choosing shared housing arrangements, helping save money in an era when many have fallen behind on retirement savings and there’s increasing concern about a loneliness epidemic.

... Versions of these shared living setups have existed for years, but they’re increasing in popularity as a surge in prices for housing, and pretty much everything else, coincides with the baby boomer generation entering retirement. There were 58 million Americans ages 65 and older in 2022, up from 43 million in 2012, according to Harvard’s JCHS. And a record 4.1 million Americans will turn 65 this year and every year through 2027, data from the Alliance for Lifetime Income shows. 

Even though inflation has cooled, senior adults are struggling to afford costs that have skyrocketed the last few years. In 2021, more than 11 million were cost-burdened, meaning they spent more than 30% of their household income on housing. While many retirees own their homes outright, others are stuck with high mortgage or rent payments. 

... In New York, rent has shot up 33% from pre-pandemic levels, and nationwide that figure is about 30%. For homeowners, increased costs for taxes, insurance and utilities have surged 26% since 2020. 

“We've seen an increase in older adults who are carrying mortgages on their primary homes including among people who are 80 and over,” said Jennifer Molinsky, a project director at Harvard’s JCHS. “And for those folks and for renters the cost burden rate is much higher. There's a much greater struggle with affordability. As we have more and more people in their eighties and over, that's a time when incomes really can't necessarily keep up with housing costs.”