HomeShare Oregon

You may have seen the headlines. Empty nesters hoarding the big houses. Boomers sitting on bedrooms young families need.

Here is what the research actually says. Yes, empty-nest boomers own about 28 percent of American homes with three or more bedrooms. But three bedrooms describes most houses in this country, and the boomer share has not moved in a decade. It was 27.7 percent in 2014 and 27.8 percent in 2024. Over the same years the millennial share more than tripled.

That is not a group taking more. That is a younger group catching up.

Set the guilt aside. It should not be the reason you list your house.

Read the whole thing: homeshareoregon.org/blog/home-providers/if-you-sell/

Three things to do before you call a real estate agent. Not one of them takes a morning.

One. Find out where you stand. The locator shows both income limits for your own county and tells you plainly which ones you fit. About two minutes, and it does not ask for anything that identifies you.

Two. Get on the lists anyway. Applications are usually free and the wait only starts once you apply. Apply to several.

Three. Price the room. Find out what one bedroom in your own house is worth in your own market, and set that against what a sale would actually net you after commission, repairs and the move.

You may still decide to sell, and it may be exactly right. But you will be deciding against a real picture of the alternative, which is more than most people get.

Start with step one. Link in bio.

Thinking about selling the house and finding somewhere smaller?

One rule before you do anything else. Do not evaluate the sale until you have evaluated the landing.

Waiting lists for the housing built specifically for older adults commonly run two to seven years or more. Selling a house you own and then renting at market rate for that long, on a fixed income, with a shrinking cushion, is a long time to be exposed.

Sometimes selling is exactly right. The stairs, the distance from family, maintenance that has stopped being manageable. What it should not be is a leap taken on the assumption that a landing exists.

The math before you list: homeshareoregon.org/blog/home-providers/if-you-sell/

"How do I know who I am letting into my house?" It is the first thing everyone asks, and it deserves a straight answer rather than reassurance.

Identity is verified on both sides. A full background check runs in both directions, and each of you sees the other's, so the decision sits with the two people actually making it.

Matching is built on how households really live. Schedules, noise, pets, cooking, guests, whether you want company at dinner or would rather not see anyone before ten.

You message through the platform first, so you have a sense of someone long before you meet. And the agreement is a template written for shared homes rather than borrowed from an apartment lease, so the terms are clear from the start, including how either of you ends it.

You are not signing away the house. You are choosing one person for a month or a year.

How it works, step by step: info.homeshareonline.org/hso

If you have been turned down for affordable housing and could not work out what you did wrong, here is the answer. Probably nothing.

The average Social Security retirement benefit is now $2,071 a month. That is too much to qualify for the very cheapest apartments in most of the country, and not enough to satisfy what most buildings ask you to prove for the rest.

It is not a mistake and it is not about you. It is how the rules and the screening happen to meet.

See both limits for your county: homeshareoregon.org/research/between-ceiling-and-floor/

Every housing option on your list has one thing in common. Somebody else decides.

You apply, you wait, and if your name comes up you are offered whatever is available. For the housing built specifically for older adults, two to seven years is a normal wait.

Sharing your home runs the other way around. You set the rent. You read the profiles. You decide who moves in, and you decide when. Nobody assigns you a person and nobody puts you on a list.

One room, one agreement, one year at a time.

See how it works: info.homeshareonline.org/hso

Before you fill out another housing application, make one phone call.

Ask the building two things. Is the rent based on my income, or is it a set amount? And do any apartments here come with rental assistance?

If the answer to either is yes, the whole income-minimum problem disappears for you. Get on that list.

If the rent is a set amount, ask one more: what income do I need to document, and is it a multiple of the rent? Property staff answer that question all day. Nobody thinks it is rude.

Five minutes on the phone is worth more than any application you will fill out this month.

The whole explanation is here: homeshareoregon.org/blog/home-providers/affordable-housing-explained/

It started as the guest room. Then it became the room where the boxes go.

There is no shame in that. Most houses have one. But it is worth knowing what that room is actually worth, because a lot of people are making big decisions about their house without ever pricing the smallest option first.

A reasonable starting point is about half your area's two-bedroom fair market rent. In the Portland area that lands around $950 a month.

What is your room worth? homeshareoregon.org/research/value-of-a-match/

The rent is the part that fits in a spreadsheet. It is not the part people talk about a year later.

Ask someone who has shared their home what they got out of it and the money comes up, of course it does. Then they keep going. The pharmacy that knows them. The walk they still take every morning. The house not being so quiet at six o'clock. And the fact that they still own it, which would not be true if they had sold.

In the Portland area a room runs around $950 a month. The rest of it does not have a number, and for most people it turns out to matter just as much.

See what a match is worth: homeshareoregon.org/research/value-of-a-match/

Affordable housing has a maximum income. Almost nobody tells you it also has a minimum.

Not a legal one. The buildings set it themselves, because the rent is a fixed amount and they want to see you can pay it. That is how someone ends up too well off for the cheapest apartments and too poor for the rest, without ever being told why.

We built something that shows you both numbers for your own county, in about two minutes. It does not ask for anything that identifies you.

See where you stand: homeshareoregon.org/research/between-ceiling-and-floor/