Inelastic is an economic term referring to the static quantity of a good or service when its price changes. Inelastic means that when the price goes up, consumers’ buying habits stay about the same, and when the price goes down, consumers’ buying habits also remain unchanged.
What happens when an adult child moves back in with their parents? They have "gone without" one unit of housing.
What happens when three friends move in together? They have collectively "gone without two" of the three units of housing that they would have otherwise have occupied.
Conversely, what happens when my wife kicks me out because I spend too much time on Hacker News? I am now looking for new housing.
In each case, the number of people remains fixed, but the demand for housing has changed. Price will definitely affect what strategy people adopt: whether to live alone or share with friends or whether to live in a cramped apartment or in a 3 bedroom house.
To first approximation, everyone needs a place to live,* but there is more elasticity in the amount housing each individual consumes than is commonly believed.
*I have known several people who have deliberately gone without housing entirely for a time in order to save money.
Textbooks, teachers, and professors, love to use gas as an example of an inelastic product when teaching the topic. However, if gas hit $100 a gallon you better believe people would be driving less.
In the 90s it was normal for truck drivers to literally drive 100mph in some parts of the country (No, I'm not making this up. A few states even had no speed limit on their freeway and semis would drive even faster.), but once gas prices rised during the bush administration most companies capped their driver's speed to 62mph to increase mpg.
During this time when gas prices shot up people stopped traveling for vacations as much. Ride share programs popped up at this time too. This was the time I got my first remote job, but that may be a coincidence.