In Troubled Times, Roommates Becoming the Norm

More urban professionals are finding the only way to make housing affordable is to live with roommates.

1 minute read

February 20, 2009, 5:00 AM PST

By Michael Dudley


"For many urban professionals -- despite having a good job and a college education -- the American dream has been seriously downsized. Instead of hungering for the house with the white picket fence, they fantasize of one day renting an apartment with no one else's milk in their fridge.

Although living with roommates into adulthood may clash with our sense of financial entitlement, particularly for members of the educated, professional, middle class, it's become a reality of urban life that doesn't seem destined to disappear any time soon. We're living in a time of extremely strained resources, economic and otherwise.

The American dream is undergoing a seismic shift and our expectations about how we can and should occupy space will have to change right along with it."

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 in AlterNet

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