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Comment by steven2012 | Hacker News Reader

steven2012

Most people don't live by themselves in a 1 bedroom. They usually live 2+ people per room, so that they can afford it. For example, a 2 br apt might have 5 people living there, two couples and then one living in the living room. That's how they can afford the $5000/month rent.

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That's not at all common. In fact I know 0 households that operate like this.

By "most people" you mean mostly 20-somethings? It's hard to imagine people in their 30s and older, married and starting to have kids, living like that. I mean, great if you can pull it off, but you'd have to stagger the shower schedule not to mention maybe get a 2nd refrigerator?

That's not uncommon in London, especially amongst immigrants from Eastern Europe — it makes sense, if the aim is to save money rapidly to put a deposit on a house in Poland/Romania etc — and people in their 20s.

I took a room for ~9 months in what was originally a 3 bedroom house. It was (a) very flexible regarding the contract (b) very cheap (£400/mth). (I had to move out of my previous place, but was looking for a new job, so didn't want to commit to something that might be in an inconvenient area.)

I had my own room, and for most of the time there were 4 people in the three other rooms, age 30-40s and one at 50.

Everyone apart from me worked in the kind of jobs where you have to be in by 7-8am, so I never had an issue taking a shower. We had 2 fridges.

This was a "nice" house, in a nice area, with nothing dodgy about the contract / rent etc. In other areas there are really scummy landlords overcharging people for individual rooms, often none of them are British / western European, so they don't seem to know that there are regulations in their favour, for example for getting a deposit returned, or not paying for wear-and-tear repairs.

This is the bigger problem. Companies like Google & Salesforce have been there long enough for their early hires to have grown up and gotten ready to lay down roots ... but they can't afford to buy a house and they don't want to raise a family in a small/crappy/inconvenient apartment or condo.

> Most people don't live by themselves in a 1 bedroom.

Citation required. None of my post-college friends are sharing a room (though many do share their apartment). Yes, rent is high, but it's not that high when compared to dev salaries.

"in a 1 bedroom" means living in a 1 bedroom apartment (might also include living in a studio. What you're referring to would be "in 1 bedroom". The article "a" changes the meaning of the phrase.

> Yes, rent is high, but it's not that high when compared to dev salaries.

This is skewed if all your friends are devs. The sentiment is true to my experience as far as my non-dev friends go. Many share rooms with strangers or live with their significant other.

That sounds like hell once one starts growing older -- and not a first world country.

I thought it sounded like London.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/25/overcrowding-...

https://www.rt.com/uk/312452-london-property-overcrowding-la...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10863346/Figures-sh...

yes people live with roommates in separate rooms, and some convert a part of their living room to another room (this is actually really common) but I know very few people living 2+ (you seriously mean 3 or 4 here?)

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