{"id":18959,"date":"2021-08-26T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/?p=18959"},"modified":"2025-01-21T12:56:23","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T17:56:23","slug":"common-living-situations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/common-living-situations","title":{"rendered":"What Are the Most Common Living Situations for Homeowners and Renters?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

With seven billion people globally, it can be hard to guess what the common living situation is for a renter and a homeowner. Whether we live in the suburbs of Toronto<\/a>, in a secluded forest or smack in the middle of a bustling city like Vancouver<\/a>, where we live and how we live typically match our lifestyle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the best ways to determine what home you should buy \u2014 other than the financial elements \u2014 is to get to know what options exist. To help, we surveyed nearly 1,000 North Americans about how they live and who they live with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Are the Most Common Living Situations?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Pew Research<\/a>, the average person lives with 4.9 people per household. In North America, they found it was closer to 3.3. Our survey results were similar, with 46% of homeowners living with three or more family members. However, it was even less for renters, as only 22% had at least one roommate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Common<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A vast majority (85%) of homeowners live with their immediate family, but a small percentage (16%) live alone or with roommates. Although when we talk about renters, we may also assume that more live with roommates than family, 64% of renters also live with their immediate family. The remaining 36% either live alone or with roommates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most common living situations will vary based on the province, city or community we live in. A significant factor in our living situation also includes cultural differences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same Pew research found that in wealthier countries, many more older people will live alone. Whereas, there are hardly any solo households in other parts of the world, like Asia, India, and Iran. In Asia, only 5% of the population lives alone, and in India and Iran, it\u2019s an even smaller amount, with less than 2% of people living alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Do Living Situations Differ for Homeowners vs. Renters?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to living situations, most homeowners and renters stick to the three main areas, including the suburbs, inner-city or downtown living, and living outside of the city in rural communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Do Homeowners and Renters Live?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Where<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unsurprisingly, more renters opt to live in the inner-city, and most homeowners live in suburban areas. For many, this directly correlates to our lifestyle, hobbies and family situations. However, the most surprising statistic we found was that 17% of homeowners and renters live in rural communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Type of Homes Do We Live In?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"common<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For homeowners, the majority live in detached homes (49%) or townhomes (23%), and only a tiny percentage (6%) live in condos. Renters hold more of an even mix, with the majority residing in townhomes (25%) and detached homes (20%), but slightly more choosing condo-living (16%) as their choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doesn\u2019t come as a major shock given that in 2019, CBRE released a report<\/a> saying more apartments were built in 2018 than any other year since 1980. HotPad<\/a> also found that renters will go anywhere there are strong job markets, and the affordability of living is within reason. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The homes we live in vary in size. Still, perhaps the most critical factor, particularly during the more hectic times of the COVID-19 pandemic, only 64% of renters have an outdoor living space, as opposed to 85% of homeowners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does Your Living Situation Matter When It Comes to Happiness?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You would be hard-pressed to find a homeowner or renter who would say that their living situation doesn\u2019t matter when it comes to overall happiness. However, many people choose where they live to increase their happiness and feel more secure or comfortable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent Zolo survey<\/a>, we found that 22% of millennials wanted to own a home to feel some sort of permanence, which may directly play into the happiness of renters who feel slightly less happy than homeowners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"how<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although the financial differences between renting and owning are incredibly different and hard to compare, it\u2019s evident that the emotional side of where you live is equally as important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katherine Turner bought her first home in 2017 and said that she is much happier as a homeowner. \u201cAs a renter, I never felt the desire to invest money to make changes to make my rental feel like a home,\u201d she says. \u201cOnce I owned a home, I felt like any time and money I invested was worthwhile and something I\u2019d get to enjoy for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On average, homeowners are 16% more likely to say they are happy with their living situation than renters, which says a lot about how important your home truly is to your well-being. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Survey Details<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The survey data used for the Common Living Situations piece was collected through an online survey on July 20, 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The online survey asked 983 respondents a variety of opinions, self-report, and knowledge-based questions to measure their current living situations, overall happiness, and general information about their home life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The estimated margin of error is +\/- 1.59 percentage points, 19.8 times out of 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do homeowners and renters differ in their living situations?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":18967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"guide":[],"class_list":["post-18959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"acf":[],"zolo_excerpt":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18959"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24515,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18959\/revisions\/24515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18959"},{"taxonomy":"guide","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/guide?post=18959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}