30 Screenshots Of Roommates From Hell Showing Their True Colors

Chances are that if we do not become kinder to one another, there will be many more similar screenshots. American adults are increasingly sharing a home with other adults with whom they are not romantically involved.

This arrangement, known as “doubling up” or shared living, gained notice in the wake of the Great Recession, and the prevalence of shared living has continued to grow since.

While the rise in shared living during and immediately after the recession was attributed in large part to a growing number of Millennials moving back in with their parents, the longer-term increase has been partially explained by a different phenomenon: parents moving in with their adult children.

In 2017, for example, nearly 79 million American adults (31.9% of the entire adult population) lived in a shared household. For comparison, in 1995, the earliest year with comparable data, the number stood at just 55 million (28.8%), and in 2004, at the peak of homeownership and before the onset of the home foreclosure crisis, 27.4% of adults shared a household.

The nearly 79 million adults living in a shared household include about 25 million who own or rent the household. An additional 10 million are the spouse or unmarried partner of the head of the household.

Another 40 million, or 16% of all adults, are the “extra adult” in the shared household. This share of living in someone else's household is up from 14% in 1995.

In 2017, just 18% of extra adults lived in a household in which the head was unrelated (typically a housemate or roommate).

Interestingly, living with nonrelatives has become less prevalent since 1995, when 22% of extra adults were doing it.

With so many adults living together, Apartment Guide conducted a survey of over 1,000 Americans to learn what determines a good and bad match.

According to the findings, people who had more than one roomie were less satisfied with their living situations than those with just one. Also:

• People living with their friends, family (32%), and co-workers were the most likely to be happy with their roommates;
• People living with an acquaintance were the least satisfied with their living situation;
• Living with one other roommate who happens to be related to you is the most satisfying roommate situation.

41% percent of people identified keeping shared spaces clean as the top source of tension between roommates.

The topic of cleanliness was highest among people living with friends (47%), followed by strangers (43%), acquaintances (42%), and family (32%).

Paying rent (9%), communication (7%), and violating boundaries (7%) were the next biggest issues between roommates.