Renting alone is too expensive for Gen Z

It was too expensive for millennials so, not too surprised to hear that.

It was too expensive for Gen X too. I think we all started out with room mates.
- It was too expensive for Gen X too. I think we all started out with room mates.
  Yup.
  Up to 4 of them at one point.
  After a bunch of years of that, my first solo place was a windowless 2 room basement "suite" in an old house behind a gas station.
Same for GenX. We all had roommates or lived with SOs.
- I rented a 3-bedroom apartment in the early 2010s for $1250 with some friends. I just checked and similar apartments in that neighborhood are $2500-3900 now
  I agree that renting alone wasn't an option for our generations but it's become even worse. Pay has not kept up with housing costs at all
  [Edit] I just checked and $1250 in 2010 has the same value has $1,775.54 now
- I think they need to have roommates in the bedrooms now. I saw a basement apartment in Englewood, CO for $1650 this week. Garage extra.
Yes, I agree.
- You're just me, but Kbin though.

Owning a home on a single income is too expensive.

Owning a home is too expensive, period.

Renting a home on a single income is too expensive. <--we are here

Renting a home is too expensive.

Let's hope we move further up the list rather than slide further down
How long did we spend outside of those possibilities? 20 years? 30 years? Before WW2 most people didn't own a single family house after WW2 and for about two or three decades white people lived the American dream, and we're back to what's been the norm forever.
- Okay, and we should just not dream of big tomorrows? What kind of mindset is this?
  We are supposed to dream, discover and build, not grovel, work, and ask for breadcrumbs. We have the resources, this is a hoarding issue.
  We also used to have a family structure that would support raising children, and much more free time in a lot of cases.

gen x here - I had roommates for 15 years or thereabouts after college, and when I finally made it out on my own it was in really shit apartment after ghetto af apartment.

it's not just a gen z issue

Yeah, as an elder millennial, this is just how it is for all of us, unless you live in the middle of nowhere (but then there's no jobs there).
Is there a generation that could afford to rent by themselves in their early 20s? Maybe a room in a flophouse.
- I'm gen x and was able to rent a studio on my own for a few years in my late 20's. Then the recession hit and that lifestyle evaporated. These days I live in a vehicle.
- Nope, just media brainwashing us into being pissed at other generations when it's the ultra rich (that just so happen to own medias) that are the real issue.
- Hard to say.
Ah well then, thanks for lowering my expectations, I honestly hoped I would be able to get an engineering internship and a home loan within the next ten years of my life but hey I guess sometimes things are meant to go to shit
- If you’re in a well-paying STEM career you’ll be able to afford a house eventually, depending on your location.

The greatest generation spawned the worst one. All of us after them suffer.

The greatest generation had some great marketing. About the only thing that was “great” about them, really.
I for one hope gen z is better than previous generations. They got a lot of trouble coming their way.
- Well they did win two world wars, which is two more wars than their idiot children, the boomers managed against weaker opposition.
  But thats about it for their achievements.

How many people are renting alone? I dunno anyone who can afford that.

My cousin does it, but he makes 6 figures, so hes not exactly the most struggling person. Basically if you work a regular ass job, the likely hood of being able to afford rent alone is pretty low.
Depends on the part of the country
- Typical rent in my city is like $1000-1500 for an entire 2 bedroom house. Even my brokest friends have their own place.
  San Francisco or NYC? Enjoy your 150sqft shithole for $3k/mo.
Both my gf and I could pay our expenses on a single salary and we're far from rich, we just made the decision to live in a town of under 10k instead of a city of millions...
Edit: I find it very funny that I get downvoted every time I mention that living comfortably outside major city centers is possible... If everyone that's now 100% remote moved to smaller towns, cities might even become affordable to live in!

I mean.. I couldn’t afford my own apartment until I was in my late 20s and all the places I lived in until my 30s were shitholes.

Okay, how old are you now? Give me a ball park?
Also, does everyone have to have a shitty time because you did?
Your experiences don’t invalidate other people’s.
- I don't think they were trying to invalidate the experience of Gen Z. Just expanding by saying this has been an issue for decades, this isn't 'news' to anyone under 40.
- You're not complaining that things haven't gotten better; your complaining that renting single is something other generations had which has been taken away. It isn't.
  No generation has had a majority able to rent alone until they enter mid career. I'm middle-class, American Gen-X, and I had the same experience op did.
  Housing has gotten worse. I wasn't able to afford a house until I was in my 30's, and had a wife with her own income. The boomers were an exeption, not the rule.
  I do feel as if housing is even less affordable than for Gen X, and is getting steadily worse, but renting has always been this way.
- Also, does everyone have to have a shitty time because you did?
  Literally putting words in my mouth.
  I'm in my late 30s. Regardless that's a bit of a leap on your part to suggest that sharing my experience is invalidating others. It might be somewhat invalidating the narrative the article is putting forward however, but that's probably warranted.
  Point is that this has been a problem for a long time. Is it worse now? Sure, rents are even more insane than when I was growing up and pay still sucks. But needing room mates was a thing for me and the majority of my friends growing up.
  This isn't a new problem like the article seems to suggest. Also historically there's a greater precedent for people living in shared spaces than not, if we're being fair.

Article title is “Renting alone in Miami is too expensive for Gen Z”.

That aside, it does have some interesting statistics about Gen Z moving back home and Boomers moving to apartments.

It was too expensive for me, a 28 year old, 10 years ago.

Absolutely no way I could have afforded an apartment on my own and it's only gotten worse since then.

Those 80s sitcoms were not people living alone. Three's Company, Bosom Buddies, Perfect Strangers, Mork and Mindy, etc were all people living together.

I knew 2 dudes who rented alone. Both of them lived in shitholes and paid a fuckton for it.

It has ALWAYS been too expensive for the vast majority of Americans to rent their own place, for ALL the generations.

My greatest/silent generation grandparents never had their own places.

My boomer parents never rented their own place solo.

My Gen-X ass has only rented my own place for 1 brief 6month period in a VERY low cost of living area, and then again for a couple years after a divorce at which time I was 20years into a very high paying career, so I don't think it's a terribly valid example for the majority of Americans.

I'm not saying housing costs aren't too high, they absolutely are! But this is nothing new. And frankly it's annoying to keep seeing it posted and harped on constantly as I see it as a distraction from real issues that need to be addressed in the areas of housing costs, pay and healthcare costs that need to be fixed.

Currently splitting the rent with my mom because neither of us could afford to live alone.