- young people living in large halls, to improve their dating prospects
- groups of friends living close together across job moves, enabling longer term friendships
- new parents living in groups to reduce the burden of parenting
We all share a two story two flat. It’s quite fun, and my mental health is great. The big “but” is that it’s unlikely to last because people value different things. Most of us are doing this arrangement because it’s ridiculously inexpensive compared to other forms of housing. One has already moved out to live with his girlfriend, and another is probably going to move to another city.
This is of course ignoring the other very real problems: job prospects for industries are not uniform across cities (you may have friends in another industry that is in decline for your local)… etc.
I wouldn’t mind a return to communal apartments, with a dining hall, and a lounge away from the property manager and the entrance. But it’s doubtful very many people will ever use those facilities (when you have more interesting stuff to do outside the complex, or inside your own room, why settle for the third place?). The culture of friendship is also lacking in my current country (U.S.), and communal values are nonexistent.
I also see a growing detachment from reality in some of the remote work maximalists who forget that not everyone has a job sitting at a computer all day. A significant number of younger people have jobs involved in-person work where remote isn’t even possible. This seems to be forgotten about in some of the writings about how remote work might change society, especially on HN where many commenters have only known jobs sitting in isolation at a computer.
It might be fun if you get the right group of friends together. Until one of them has to leave and now everyone has to pay more rent, or a new roommate moves in and everyone hates him.
I got tired of the roommate thing in college very quickly after having a roommate with terrible hygiene who refused to clean and ate my food. It's better for people to have small, private apartments so they don't have to deal with all the stresses and annoyances of living with someone, without any of the benefits a romantic relationship provides.
Yes, the doctor making $350k/yr can arrange his life in such a way to be more flexible in the face of diversity, but he's just as likely to have $150k worth of school debt and a house/car/etc. he couldn't afford if he had to switch careers. At $7.50/hr, you can probably walk down the street and find a better paying job.
Edit in reply due to depth restrictions: I'm not suggesting this is about ease of switching careers. I'm suggesting that you will be forced to switch careers if you don't show up to work, and it's probably easier to switch between jobs with no prerequisites than careers with 8 years of intensive prerequisites and $150k in university.
Other than one-off communes, I think this is still pretty rare and I’m not aware of it growing due to work from home.
Having said that, I've seen some adverts for 'student hall ' like living for young professionals. That works because the investor can switch to the actual student market.
ex: A scenario where large public halls are widely built for young workers.
An income to housing ratio that would allow people to make block-level housing choices.
Widely available, affordable, walkable neighborhoods.