'Boommate' boom: How baby boomers living like 'The Golden Girls' are curbing loneliness and cost burdens

Baby boomers are taking a page from "The Golden Girls" playbook to fight loneliness and inflation by becoming "Boommates," homeowners who rent out empty rooms to non-relatives needing a place to stay.

Data from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies indicates approximately 913,000 older adults are living with non-relatives, either by opening up their own homes to others or by living with someone else.

"I’m 68 and rent a room in a beautiful home in a walkable area," Jim told the New York Post. "My [housemate] Renée and I have developed a wonderful relationship and we both hope it continues for a long time."

The home-sharing trend ramped up alongside the housing crisis, or a shortage of affordable homes available for would-be buyers.

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Meanwhile, Redfin data show that baby boomers are "twice as likely" to own large homes than millennials, owning about 28% of large U.S. homes thanks to better affordability in their younger years and a reluctance to let go of these properties.

The Harvard study also indicated that the number of "cost-burdened" older Americans has reached an "all-time high" when accounting for expenses like taxes, insurance, utilities and housing. 

Combine that with fixed incomes and deteriorating retirement funds for elderly homeowners, and perhaps it seems Rose, Blanche, Dorothy and Sophia were onto something.

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At the same time, mental health experts in recent years have warned about the dangers of a sweeping loneliness epidemic, something empty nesters often experience after their adult children start their own families and relocate.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned last year that the epidemic could be just as deadly, if not deadlier, than the obesity, smoking and addiction epidemics.

"We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience. It's like hunger or thirst. It's a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing," Murthy said at the time. 

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"Millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows, and that's not right," he continued.

He issued an 81-page advisory, revealing that nearly half of all American adults had experienced loneliness and called for measures to address the issue, including community engagement, minimizing distractions during conversations, reaching out when help is needed and among others.

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