How Much Can You Save by Living with a Roommate in Austin, TX?

Rent prices in Austin, Texas are soaring, making it even harder for young renters to afford an apartment of their own. The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Austin was around $1,480 in April. To meet the typical income requirement of three times your annual rent, you’d have to make more than $53,000 to qualify for a place at that price.

Living with a roommate, of course, can change that equation for the better. We call it the “Roommate Reward.” But how much can Austinites really expect to save by getting a roomie? Is it worth it? And does the savings differ depending on where in the city you want to live?

To find out, we dug into our Austin rent price data, comparing the costs of splitting the rent on a two-bedroom apartment versus living alone in a one-bedroom in select neighborhoods around Austin.

Looking at median prices city-wide in Austin, we found that splitting rent for a two-bedroom with a roommate can save an average of 36% compared to the cost to rent a one-bedroom solo. That translates to nearly $6,400 lower housing costs, or more than $500 a month in your pocket! Add to that the decrease in shared utilities expenses, and your cost of living has decreased significantly.

In some key neighborhoods, the savings is even greater. In the Downtown neighborhood, the annual savings to share a two-bedroom with a roommate is an eye-popping $11,000 – a monthly savings of more than $900 over what you’d pay to live solo in a one-bedroom. South River City in South Austin, Holly in East Austin, and North Loop in Central Austin also offer savings of more than $8,000 per year. In fact, North Loop shows the highest savings as a percentage of the cost to live solo in a one-bedroom unit: 41%!

Savings as a percentage were found to be less in neighborhoods like Bouldin Creek, Zilker, Dawson, and Hancock. In these neighborhoods, the median price for two-bedroom units is more than 60% higher than the median price for a one-bedroom, minimizing the savings potential from splitting the rent. Even so, renters can still save around $200 per month by doubling up.

Here’s our recap of roommate savings in key Austin neighborhoods:

If you’re thinking about finding a roommate, check out our “How to Find a Roommate Guide” for tips on finding and screening potential roommates.

To calculate the roommate savings, we compared the median rent price for a one-bedroom in each area to the median rent price for a two-bedroom in the same area. Savings was calculated by comparing the cost for an individual to rent a one-bedroom unit versus the cost for that individual to split the rent for a two-bedroom with a roommate. Median rent prices in this study were based on available units listed on ApartmentAdvisor in March and April of 2022. Neighborhoods that did not meet adequate property and unit inventory thresholds were excluded from our analysis.