Looking for a roommate or housemate? Speed ‘dating’ event could help you find a match

A roommate can bring on the best of times. Or the worst of times.

She can be the person you pile onto the couch with and binge every season of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Or the person who steals your Anthropologie gift card and lets her sick cat into your room so it can pee on your beloved vintage grey coat. Hypothetically speaking.

Given San Diego’s high rents, sharing a home with a roommate or housemate may be the only way to afford housing here.

To help renters find a perfect match, SpareRoom, a roommate finding website, is hosting a free “speed roommating” event Thursday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in downtown’s Stout Public House, at 1125 Sixth Ave.

The format is simple and fun: Put on a sticker, provided by SpareRoom, that says “I need a roommate” or “I need a room” and mingle.

The events are meant to “supplement” SpareRoom’s online platform, said its founder and CEO, Rupert Hunt.

“Obviously, you can’t beat the amount of choice you have on SpareRoom, but the events are more immediate — meeting lots of potential roommates in the time it would take to meet just one the traditional way,” Hunt told the Union-Tribune on Wednesday. “We encourage people to use both — and I always have done (both) when finding a roommate in London or New York. I’ve lived with 15 roommates over the past 10 or so years, and 3 have come from the events and most of the others have come from SpareRoom.”

Most attendees leave with one or more potential matches to follow up with, he added.

In a market where room seekers far outnumber rooms, anything helps.

Across San Diego, there were 516 rooms for rent posted Wednesday and 812 people looking for rooms. The difference is even greater in the 92104 ZIP code, which mostly includes North Park. There, SpareRoom had 17 rooms for rent and 468 people looking for roommates.

Rents rose 4.1% year over year countywide and almost 10% in San Diego, according to the Southern California Rental Housing Association. In parallel, vacancy in the region fell from last year.

“According to SpareRoom data, San Diego has seen a steady increase in renters seeking shared spaces,” SpareRoom’s news release said. “And, at around $1,301 for a room in an apartment share, these are significantly more affordable as well as more social.  The average annual cost savings to share an apartment vs. a one-bedroom apartment is $12,600.”

How to stand out in a crowded landscape?

Hunt, himself a seasoned roommate, gave this advice:

“We encourage attendees to express themselves with personality stickers that they relate to, e.g. ‘plant parent’, ‘gym rat’, ‘dancing queen,’ which are good for ice breakers. Although there are some useful practical questions to ask that are often sources of tension e.g. around their work schedule, levels of tidiness, appetite for partying etc., really the focus is on seeing if you connect with someone because having good rapport is the best indicator of whether you’re going to get along as roommates.”

Here are some more diagnostic questions you could ask at the event from this reporter, who has had more roommates, flatmates and housemates than fingers (and who now lives with one adult and two young housemates).

• What are your ideal thermostat temperatures in June and January?
• What time do you wake up, and does your morning routine involve loud, atonal humming? Would you mind if mine does?
• One roommate leaves dishes in the sink overnight to soak or another gets frustrated by the dishes left in the sink overnight to “soak.” Which better describes you?
• On weekends, how many hours a day would you hope to cross paths and share space, in an ideal world? Fewer than 10 minutes? More than two hours? Somewhere in between?
• Could you live with a housemate whose political views you don’t agree with?
• Do you plan to post photos or reels of our home on social media?
• What’s your favorite thing about your favorite roommate so far?

Visit spareroom.com/speedroommating/san-diego to RSVP for the event.