Yeah, I agree with this. A key point of my post is "if you're willing to live with roommates you can find good deals". Of course you still have to find them. I spent over a week glued to Craigslist looking for a combination of the right price, right location, and right people. Yes I got lucky, but not "win the lottery" lucky. I ran across several that were good potentials.

The roommates part seems essential. There are a number of reasons but if I had to guess:

- With roommates you can often take advantage of someone who has been living there since before some recent price spikes (especially in certain neighborhoods). If you find a place by yourself, the landlord is free to charge whatever they want unless you can find a rent controlled apartment, but those have multi-year waiting lists.

- Vacant units are often renovated so the rent can be raised.

- Economies of scale. If you live by yourself chances are you want a place with your own kitchen, bathroom, etc. These are shared spaces in a roommate situation.

- There seems to be more competition for single-residency housing. I have no data to back this up, but just from talking to people it seems that there are more people who hate living with roommates than who hate living alone.