Rich people living with roommates even if they can afford not to

will and grace — It’s just like that show that went off the air ten years ago!

New York! It’s big, and can feel kind of lonely when you just get here or if you’re not the type to wow the crowd at your local karaoke night. On the other hand, New York! You sometimes find yourself living with people who consider bed bugs a pet or keep half the dishes in your apartment under their beds with food stuck to it and don’t tell you. Given the choice, most people who need roommates would like to not have them. It turns out that the new trend among the rich and kinda lonely is living with roommates even if they can easily afford not to. We’re not angry about this (really we’re not), it just sounds more sad than anything.

The Times Real Estate section mercifully clued us into this bizarre trend, in which people who make 40 to 50 times the monthly rent for a studio are instead choosing to shack up in 2-, 3-, or 4-bedrooms with strangers they meet on Craigslist. Just like you! The Times talked to rich person after rich person, who despite admitting to being able to afford a studio or one-bedroom here or in Manhattan, are picking roommates who they can then bother about their love lives, hang out with and infiltrate their roommates social circle/steal their friends and just have someone who gives a shit about them when they come home. Even if it’s a relationship built on just making sure that person happy to see you is also happy to know you’re alive because it means paying the rent.

Coca Videla, who lives in the West Village with a roommate, compared her living situation to “marriage without the sex,” and Will and Grace seemed to have the least realistic view of what it’s like to have to have a roommate, but the city makes you do crazy things. Given that having roommates because you feel like it is now a thing, look for next summer’s hot new rich person real estate trend story: not using an air conditioner even if you can afford it. You hear so many interesting sounds from the street when you have to keep your windows open for four months straight!