There are bills to pay every month if you want to keep a roof over your head, and the cost for housing is certainly not getting any cheaper. To try to save some money, many people look to share that cost by living with a roommate.
A new report from SmartAsset looked at apartment rents in 100 cities across the U.S. and found where a person could save the most money if they split the rent of a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate versus renting a one-bedroom apartment.
In this report, there were 11 California cities listed as spots where you could save a good chunk of change if you decided to share your living space.
The city where you could save the most money in California by finding a roommate is San Jose, where the average person could save roughly $1,065 a month. In fact, San Jose ranked No. 4 in the entire county, just ahead of No. 5 San Francisco, where residents can save about $1,050 a month by finding a roommate instead of living alone.
Further down the list at No. 11 sits Los Angeles, where a one-bedroom apartment costs $2,380 a month on average and a two-bedroom costs $3,270. If you split that with a roommate that ends up costing you $1,635 a month, a $745 savings from living alone.
Here’s the full rankings on how all of the California cities in the report from SmartAsset fared:
| Rank | City | Monthly Rent Savings with a Roommate | Percent Savings with a Roommate | One-Bedroom Rent | Two-Bedroom Rent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | San Jose, CA | $1,065 | 38.6% | $2,760 | $3,390 |
| 5 | San Francisco, CA | $1,050 | 32.8% | $3,200 | $4,300 |
| 9 | Santa Ana, CA | $780 | 35.5% | $2,200 | $2,840 |
| 11 | Los Angeles, CA | $745 | 31.3% | $2,380 | $3,270 |
| 12 | Anaheim, CA | $735 | 35.3% | $2,080 | $2,690 |
| 12 | San Diego, CA | $735 | 31.5% | $2,330 | $3,190 |
| 18 | Oakland, CA | $700 | 35.0% | $2,000 | $2,600 |
| 26 | Fresno, CA | $630 | 44.1% | $1,430 | $1,600 |
| 31 | Long Beach, CA | $600 | 32.4% | $1,850 | $2,500 |
| 42 | Sacramento, CA | $555 | 37.0% | $1,500 | $1,890 |
| 85 | Bakersfield, CA | $385 | 34.7% | $1,110 | $1,450 |
To see how the rest of the country rounded out, check out SmartAsset’s full rankings right here.
