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In Los Angeles it's not out of the norm to hear someone complain about how they would rather live without a roommate if they could afford it. But according to a recent study, it turns out that nearly half of adult Angelenos are living the college lifestyle of having to "double up" with a roomie to save rent.
According to Zillow's study, they defined a doubled-up household as "one in which at least two working-age, unmarried or un-partnered adults live together." (This includes the ones who are still living with mom and dad.) The percentage of Angelenos who lived with a roommate in 2012 was 48 percent, a whopping 41 percent increase since 2000. Zillow number crunchers came up with these figures using data from the U.S. Census.
The L.A. Times reported that this percentage is the highest compared to other big cities in the nation. New York City wasn't too far behind with 42 percent, and San Francisco with 39 percent.
"You’ve got a lot of households that are blending together," Zillow economist Skylar Olsen told the Times. “They’re doing that to make housing more affordable.”
The housing situation in Los Angeles is pretty bad. We already snagged the first-place award for having the most unaffordable housing in the nation based on income to housing ratios back in June.
According to the Los Angeles Housing Department, some of the reasons for high housing costs include "a short supply of new homes and apartments, continued population growth, stagnating wages, and high land prices."
The California Housing Partnership Corporation, a nonprofit group set up by our state, found in a study in May that L.A. County would need "at least 490,340 more affordable homes to ease the housing burden on the state’s poorest residents," reported Businessweek. Even Mayor Eric Garcetti addressed our housing shortage problem last week when he announced plans to build 100,000 new housing units by 2021. He also proposed increasing the minimum wage to $13.25 an hour by 2017.
