Boomers are seeing the value of having roommate

ATLANTA — Beth Hogan and Debbie Aschemeier are both in their early 60s, divorced and working in the medical field. They both love gardening. And they love living in the small town of Mableton, Ga.

Strangers until recently, they’re now roommates and close friends — for reasons both social and financial.

“From the moment we met, we hit it off,” Ms. Hogan said. “We’ve never had a fight. I can’t think of ever having a disagreement.”

Ms. Hogan and Ms. Aschemeier are part of a growing number of baby boomers who are becoming roommates to cut costs and to gain companionship — just like “The Golden Girls” in the old television show. In metro Atlanta, the number of unmarried-partner households of people over 60 years old rose to 6,412 last year, up by 65 percent from a decade earlier, according to the Census Bureau.

And there’s good reason. With both rents and home prices rising faster than average incomes, housing is, in general, becoming less affordable. And affordability often becomes even more of a problem for older people, who are more likely to have medical expenses and less likely to have a regular paycheck.

If a household spends more than 30 percent of income on rent or mortgage payments each month, experts call it “burdened,” that is, not having enough left over for necessities like transportation and medical expenses.

Metro Atlanta ranks 47th out of 933 regions for the highest share of renters who are cost burdened, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard.

Financial stresses can increase with age, since retirement means an end to regular paychecks. Government payments like Social Security are generally modest, and many Americans do not have much in the way of a “nest egg” to live on.

But among those a little younger, millions lost jobs and homes. Many took jobs that paid much less. Many others never again collected a paycheck.

“People now in their 70s and 80s are in a better position than the next group will be,” Ms. Molinsky said.