For Caroline Li and Colin Wang, moving in together after eight months of dating was a matter of calm and urgency.
Last fall, Mr. Wang, 28, was finishing his final year of medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles, when he learned that the two-bedroom apartment he shared with a roommate was infested with mold. He had to leave immediately, but found it difficult to find new housing.
“It was very difficult to find something that was close enough to campus and reasonably priced, and it was also in the middle of the school year,” said Mr. Wang, who had reached UCLA’s three-year limit on student housing. which allowed him to pay $1,425 a month in rent instead of the purchase price of $2,000 or more.
At the same time, Ms. Lee, 24, a registered nurse, learned that one of her two roommates had moved out of their $5,000-a-month three-bedroom apartment near Santa Monica, Calif., midway through the lease. . Ms. Li and Mr. Wang realized that they could solve both of their issues by having Mr. Wang move in with Ms. Li and her roommate.
Ms. Li and her roommate pay $1,750 a month, and Mr. Wang pays $1,500.
“I think the plan was always that Colin and I would move in once he completed his residency, not once he graduated from medical school,” Ms. Lee said. “But I guess the opportunity presented itself earlier, and we were able to keep that apartment and save money while doing it.”
Ms Li and Mr Wang are among the many young couples who choose to move in together early in their relationships to save money on housing and living costs. Faced with a low supply of affordable housing, intense competition between buyers and renters, slowly falling rental prices and rising mortgage rates, young people across the country are being pushed to find creative ways to afford housing.
“Younger generations really need to look for ways to be frugal and reduce housing costs, especially in big cities where rents are still very high and house prices are really high,” said Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst. for the Realtor. com.
According to a recent survey by Realtor.com, 80 percent of Gen Z respondents and 76 percent of millennial respondents who have moved in with a romantic partner said that finances or logistics, or both, contributed to their decision.
Ms. Li and Mr. Wang’s apartment is on the top floor of a medium-sized building, which has a gym. Their condo has a washer and updated appliances and is close to the beach and major highways. They split the cost of monthly utilities and groceries evenly with their other roommate.
“They actually let me have a little deal when I moved here, because I didn’t have a salary until recently,” said Mr. Wang, who just started his residency program and has more than $200,000 in medical school debt.
Ms. Li and Mr. Wang said that since moving in together, they had improved their communication and gotten better at prioritizing quality time together. But they continue to work on merging their lifestyles.
“Even with roommates, you have to respect each other’s boundaries and everything else,” Ms Lee said. “But when he’s your partner, I feel like the space you share is much more intimate.”
While splitting the cost of rent has its advantages, moving in together early in a relationship can cause problems if a couple doesn’t already have a good understanding of each other’s communication and conflict resolution skills, said Nicolle Osequeda , a marriage license. and a family therapist in Chicago.
“If there are significant differences and there’s no basis around how we talk about difficult things, whether it’s financial or whatever, then it can exacerbate some of those anxieties that you would already feel,” said Ms. Osqeuda, who specializes in working with young adults and young couples through life transitions.
After seven months of dating, Kaitlin Cadagin, 26, and her 28-year-old boyfriend moved into a one-bedroom apartment in a downtown Chicago high-rise.
Their apartment cost $2,400 a month in rent and offered a number of amenities, including a dog run, conference room and in-unit laundry. The couple decided to split their rent based on their incomes: Ms. Cadagin, an events manager, paid $1,000 a month and her boyfriend, a licensed attorney, paid the remaining $1,400.
“I went into it saying, ‘I can afford $1,000 as my share of the rent,'” said Ms. Cadagin, who previously rented a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate in another part of Chicago where they each paid $900 a month. month. .
When her roommate decided to move out, Ms. Cadagin said, she and her boyfriend concluded that moving in together would be more affordable for Ms. Cadagin than if she rented an apartment alone. Ms. Cadagin said she could afford to live alone but preferred to save money by living with someone else.
“I started graduate school this year, so finance is always on my mind,” he said.
When paying for utilities and groceries, the couple split the costs evenly. But tracking their joint finances wasn’t always perfect, Ms. Cadagin said.
“He’s very good with his finances, and sometimes I’m not,” he said.
Ms. Cadagin’s friend, who asked not to be named for privacy reasons, said that while they hadn’t done a good job of setting financial expectations before moving in together, they had learned how to do a better job of setting financial goals together and it had become stronger couple.
Overall, Ms. Cadagin said, moving in with her boyfriend has been a positive experience, and she feels their relationship still has room to grow.
“I think it’s definitely been a test of our relationship living together, but it’s also made it a lot stronger and I feel so comfortable with him,” she said.
But not all relationships survive after a younger couple decides to move in together.
In June 2021, Eva Hersch, 26, and her boyfriend moved to Philadelphia together after a year of dating in New York. In New York, they had lived separately: Ms. Hersch rented a small studio apartment for $2,000 a month and her boyfriend rented a small one-bedroom apartment for $1,900 a month — a “Covid deal” that would soon rise to $3,200 per month.
When Ms. Hersh received a job offer in Philadelphia, she persuaded him to move there with her. They chose a two-bedroom apartment for $4,000 a month and split the rent evenly.
“It was so cheap compared to what we were each paying in New York,” Hersch said.
Two years later, Ms. Hersh and her boyfriend decided to end their relationship and move out of their apartment, which required them to break the lease.
Ms. Hersh, who now lives in Norwalk, Conn., said moving in with her boyfriend felt like the “right next thing” at the time. They bought a car together and split the monthly payment evenly. They also split the cost of utilities and groceries equally.
“It was a time when everyone was doing the same thing if they were in a relationship, given that most of them didn’t leave,” said Ms Hersh, who added that moving in with her boyfriend had taught her. a lot about herself and what she wanted in a future relationship. Looking back, she said, she wishes they had waited longer to move in together.
“It was good to try,” Ms Hers said. “It’s going to take a lot for me to get into another relationship now.”
