Roommate Finder in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles

Roommate Finder FAQs for Eagle Rock, Los Angeles | Sharing a House on the Northeast Side

• How many people are looking for roommates in Eagle Rock right now?

  This is the center of Filipino Los Angeles, and that shapes who you will be sharing with: Eagle Rock holds the largest Filipino community in the city, more than 6,000 residents, and Eagle Rock Plaza at the junction of the 2 and 134 is anchored by Seafood City alongside Target and Macy's. Roomster's roommate finder shows 165 people currently searching here. They skew older and more settled than in the dense parts of Los Angeles, because only about 44 percent of homes in Eagle Rock are rented, so a large share of rooms are offered by families and long-term households with a spare bedroom rather than by rotating group houses.

• What do roommates in Eagle Rock typically pay to split?

  A two-bedroom here averages about $2,424, which puts each person near $1,212 before utilities, and a one-bedroom averages $1,954. Those numbers sit well below the Los Angeles average of $2,758, which is the main reason people cross over from Glendale, Pasadena and Silver Lake to share here. The way to hold your share down in Eagle Rock is different from a high-rise neighborhood, though: the cheapest arrangements are rooms in houses, where four or five people split a single-family home and the per-person cost falls below what any two-bedroom split can reach. The trade is that you are sharing one kitchen and often one water heater, so ask how the household actually runs before you commit.

• Is Roomster a good roommate finder for Occidental students moving off campus?

  It suits them better than a standard apartment search does, because their timing is unusual. Occidental keeps students in its residence halls for their first three years, so the people entering the private market are almost entirely seniors, all moving at once, all looking for the same thing: a room in a house within a short drive of campus for a single academic year rather than a twelve-month lease. Group houses form fast in that window and break up just as fast. Roomster's ID and address checks are free and optional, so you can complete yours and prioritize people who have completed theirs. Once your profile is validated by email and phone, you can message someone for free. Keep first contact on Roomster, meet on video before committing, and never send a deposit to someone you have not met.

• Which Eagle Rock areas are best for finding a compatible roommate?

  Pick by household type rather than by street. The Eagle Rock Boulevard corridor and the Glassell Park edge hold the most conventional group houses, so that is where to look if you want housemates near your own age who came to the arrangement the same way you did. The residential grid between Colorado Boulevard and the hills is dominated by owner-occupied family homes, and rooms there tend to be a single spare bedroom in a quiet house with settled rules, which suits someone who wants calm over social life. The Highland Park edge around York Boulevard draws a younger creative crowd spilling north. Say which of those three you are actually looking for in your profile, because in Eagle Rock they are genuinely different living situations rather than different price points.

• Is it cheaper for roommates in Eagle Rock to share a house or split an apartment?

  In most of Los Angeles that question is academic, but here it is the key decision, because Eagle Rock has comparatively few purpose-built apartment buildings and a great many houses. A room in a house is usually cheaper per person, comes with a yard, a driveway and more storage, and in a neighborhood with no rail station that driveway matters. The costs are less privacy, a shared kitchen, and a lease that may run through a head tenant rather than an owner. Splitting a two-bedroom apartment gives you a cleaner legal position and your own bathroom more often, at roughly $1,212 each. If you value autonomy and a name on the lease, take the apartment; if you value cost and parking, take the room.

• Can I find a roommate in Eagle Rock who is fine with me keeping a car?

  You should assume most households here expect one, which makes this an easier place to keep a car than the rest of central Los Angeles. There is no rail station, the neighborhood is spread over four and a quarter square miles, and the majority of homes are single-family with driveways or garages, so off-street parking is a normal part of a room listing rather than a luxury. The thing to settle early is how many spaces a house actually has against how many housemates drive. It is also worth asking now because the bus rapid transit build on Colorado Boulevard is reorganizing curb space along the main commercial strip, so a household that has always parked on the street may be about to find that harder.