Affordability

My friend, I’ll call her Sarah, is a great example of the solo person in NYC. She lives alone. She loves it. She has built community around her in good friends, activities and an almost-weekly Friday evening at her local sushi bar. Like many of the people interviewed by Eric Klinenberg for his study and book,  Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone she loves her life.

Going Solo shines a spotlight on a huge and important demographic in our society. People are living alone. Huge numbers of people are living alone. And as he points out, this is an unprecedented development in the history of the human race. Yes, 27% of the households in the United States are single occupancy. 29% of seniors 65 and older live alone. In some of our big cities, Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, between 35 and 45% of the households have just one person. In Manhattan it is 50%! Many people are living alone. [click to continue…]

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Your Sneak Preview

What does a Sharing Housing presentation sound and look like?  Like this. For a larger view go here. (You must have Flash enabled.) Related Posts:Going Solo—”Surprising Appeal of Living Alone”—Really?Listen to Podcast on Sharing HousingActive Social Life May Delay Memory LossHe Took The Plunge

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Penalties for Sharing Housing?

Pity the government official coping with budget crises and all the demands on shrinking resources.  Their decisions can have ripple effects with unintended consequences.  For instance, a decision to reduce benefits when individuals are sharing housing.  Of course, from one perspective the beneficiary may not need as much money as when they weren’t sharing housing.  [...]

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Avoiding Foreclosure

Has your house become too expensive for you? If so, you are hardly alone. According to RealtyTrak, in 2010 between 3 million and 3.5 million foreclosure warnings will be issued. This is up from 2009′s record of 2.8 million. (USA Today, Feb. 11 2010) That’s a lot of houses, that’s a lot of unhappy people. [...]

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Calculating Housing Costs

The general rule of thumb for a reasonable amount to spend on housing is now 30% of gross income. It used to be 27%. The three percent increase probably represents a creep upward as everyone copes with higher housing costs.  So what is 30% actually? Here’s a quick look. Income $25,000, housing  $625 a month. [...]

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