One house two owners

There's a new kind of homebuyer with an old moniker. Remember roommates?

Singles unable to afford a house solo are turning to one another, and buying together.

It's the result of delayed marriage and shorter-term outlooks when buying real estate. And it follows the rise of singles buying homes on their own. Mostly, it's seen in the priciest markets. But expense is relative, making this more than strictly an urban, coastal trend.

Last November, Mark Amann and a high-school buddy bought a 3,000-square-foot house outside Denver.

"I won't live in an apartment or a condo," says Mr. Amann, who, after college, lived with his parents and traveled in Latin America. "We're Western boys. We need a lot of space."

And a lot of roommates. They have four tenants, making their circa-1960 house a home for six young men, two dogs, and the fish and turtle in a backyard pond. The renters pay about 75 percent of each monthly mortgage payment.

While married couples account for two-thirds of home owners, singles are gaining on them, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). More than a fourth of homeowners are now single individuals.

NAR doesn't distinguish between single friends and unmarried couples, who together account for about 7 percent of homeowners. Making the distinction could be considered discriminatory. While no statistics show how prevalent co-owner friends are, NAR knows, anecdotally, that people are increasingly joining their ranks.

A sense of community and better friendships are often the byproducts of buying a home with a friend, many buyers find. This aspect of co-ownership may become more important to singles, as many now feel - in light of the events of Sept. 11 - an increased need to form closer bonds.

Having a large house "gives my friends a place to live, [creating] a community here," Amann says.

Ten years ago, Charles Sadowski and his sister were living with their parents and had money to invest, but they didn't want to forgo a social life to afford a house. The answer was to buy one together on Long Island. With six bedrooms and 3,800 square feet, it would be easy to resell, they thought.

In the meantime, they've put the house's space to good use for entertaining friends. A Christmas tree-trimming party, which began with a few people, now entertains almost 40.

"We've combined our friends over the years.... If we lived in different places that would not have necessarily happened," says Mr. Sadowski. "Something that just started out to be a thing of convenience ... has turned into a lot more."

Co-homeownership also can deepen a relationship, says John Hubbard. Two months ago, he sold the Columbus, Ohio-area house he and a friend had bought together five years ago.

"You have to have someone you [can] room with, and someone who can afford it," Mr. Hubbard says.

For those used to living alone, having someone around all the time can be trying. A year ago, Jose Velazquez and a co-worker bought a row house in Washington, D.C., as an investment. They rented a basement apartment to a married couple, and four bedrooms in the house to four other singles. Having so many people under one roof compounded an already-stressful first year.

How long guests should stay and who should clean common areas were two of the myriad decisions the men had trouble making. This month, they plan to write tenant-management and house-rules addendums to the basic partnership agreement they drew up.

"We kind of thought that common sense would be enough," Mr. Velazquez says. "The things we argued about are the things that weren't written down."

Attorneys recommend that unmarried co-homeowners have at least a basic partnership agreement, which is a legal contract describing what happens if one owner dies, wants to sell, or doesn't pay his share of the maintenance costs.

"Most people are thinking about the living arrangements," but a co-owner who loses a job or decides to get married can leave a house partner hanging; that's where the real problems lie," says Celeste Hammond, director of the Real Estate Center at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

Buying a home with a friend "should be considered with more care than buying it alone or buying it as a couple," Professor Hammond says. "If you're not married, you don't have the protections of the marital state."

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