Tight budgets boost house-sharing

Frankly this is a tough article to swallow.  Imagine being newlyweds and sharing your space with another couple?  But this is exactly what is happening in the US.  It's not just people sharing living space with other family members or simply having a roommate but instead people are sharing living space with people they have no relationship with at all.


To me this hits on two issues

1. How life continues to be a struggle for people in the US
2. How innovative people have become in order to save money

From the Marketwatch article here

• This year about 30% of adults, 69.2 million people, are living in doubled-up households, compared with 27.7%, or 61.7 million, in 2007, according to a September report on income, poverty and health insurance from the Census Bureau. Read more about income and poverty.
• In spring 2011, there were 21.8 million doubled-up households, or 18.3% of all households, up from 19.7 million, or 17%, in spring 2007.
• While the benefits of house-sharing are clear — splitting expenses and pooling resources — running such a household can be tricky. Even within a single-family household, the daily morning chaos of getting everyone out the door on time, clean and happy, is no low bar. Now double that.