roomiesresearch
field notes on what makes shared living work, from roomies.
how are americans actually housing themselves right now?
a census and harvard jchs data picture of shared housing: the rent burden squeezing half of renters, why rents jumped about 32% since 2019, the rise of doubling up, and the one number everyone misreads — with the limits of each figure named.
what predicts a good roommate
what the research actually says predicts living well together: aligned habits, schedules, and expectations plus communication, not personality type or demographics — with the perceived-similarity trap and the college-sample caveat named.
the fairness gap
the split that feels unfair predicts the fight more reliably than the split that is unfair — perceived fairness in studies of couples, charted from gillespie et al. (2019), with the honest caveat that the actual split still matters (carlson et al., 2020).
how roommates actually fight
what the research says about roommate conflict: it is common, it is driven by how you read a roommate's intent more than by the disagreement itself, most students handle it by going quiet, and your own communication is the biggest lever — with the college-sample caveat named.