Moving out soon. Think out loud with me regarding saving money vs. quality of life.

If I were in your situation, I would take the less expensive option of having housemates for a combination of social and economic reasons.

• If you're in the process of breaking up, having other people around isn't the worst thing. They're a reason to stay on top of your household shit, they're opportunities to be low-effort social around the house, you won't be going from a situation where you've got other people around to a situation where you're all alone in your space. Maybe you're the sort of person who would like to be alone in your living space? If so, this is less relevant, but I find an empty house to be too quiet for my tastes.

• Saving $1k a month is significant. If you can put that into investments consistently, in 30 years you'll have more than $1.2 million. Having the savings will help throughout your life. You can invest it in something that invests broadly across the world to avoid being too vulnerable to any one economy's insanity, but I'm not an investment advisor, especially not at this chaotic moment.

• Even if you just keep saving without investing, you'll be almost doubling your takehome pay going for the place with housemates. That feels significant.

• Laundry is a huge amount of time. The house with built-in laundry will save you 2-4 hours a week of sitting in a laundromat.

• I feel like that flexibility will serve you better. If it isn't working you can always trade up, but having something less expensive to start with and trading up if you've got just huge piles of cash on hand and want something nicer is much nicer than finding that the more expensive place isn't going to work for you and needing to trade down.

Whichever way you choose to go, I hope this change brings with it good things, and that your next living situation is happy, stable, and secure.

For me, the deciding factor would be the roommates. I'll lead with saying I'm a man who has only stayed with other men or their girlfriends so I can't speak to what your dynamic would be like.

I've had a couple periods of time after living with parents where I ended up in a large shared house like that and it was honestly really great both times. I'm not the most social guy so having something always going on and kind of a built in group of friends was really cool and beneficial for me. Not to say it's always fun- having a mixed bag of people in one house means there's inevitably differences in what's acceptable in terms of cleanliness, drug use, politics, loudness, etc. This was never an insurmountable problem for me.

I would set up a day to go over there and meet everyone and feel out the vibe. Do you think you'd get along with these people? This is probably the "tidied" version of the house, can you live how it looks? I would also quiz the friend on if there's been any issues between roommates, people not paying or doing their fair share, loud late parties, etc. If that all checks out I'm team budget option!

Also, the $ difference is enough that if you stashed it away in some high yield savings or bonds each month and continue to grow your income you could be looking at getting into a starter home by the end of the decade. Don't give up on that dream!
Edit: There's a ton of assumptions there so let me qualify a bit and say that will also depend a lot on your expectations, area, and income. Some math is required.

Hey, the other answers provide some good questions to ask yourself to get to an answer, so I won't chime in there - I agree with them.

You mentioned financial literacy, and how you lack it. I think this is massively important for everyone to obtain, and it only gets more relevant the older you get. Fortunately, it's not hard to obtain. I'll recommend a book for you to read.

"The Millionaire Teacher" by Andrew Hallam. This will teach you how to invest your money. It is a short book. It is interesting. It will not tell you to "trust me, bro"; it will actually tell you (in a provable, convincing manner) why the methods contained within are to be more trusted than e.g. your bank or a "money manager" of sorts. The methods are simple, popular, low maintenance and proven - and you can check for yourself.

The TL;DR is invest your extra cash into index funds. Choose ~3. Personally (and you don't have to do this), I invest into 3 index funds: 1 for my country (Canada), 1 for the US, and one for the world. Index funds track an entire market, e.g. every publicly traded stock in the USA, or every company in the S&P 500. "Money managers" are measured against their ability to beat said market. Half beat the market, and half don't. However, money managers typically take a percentage or flat fee of your money as a fee. Skip all of that, and just do it yourself.

Whatever happens for you down the road, best of luck!

Thanks for laying it all out so neatly! Roommates is always a bit of a quandary when it comes to personality and lifestyle matching. That said, I'd take the roommate option almost every time if it felt right. In addition to the financial, social and security benefits it can provide, living with people is just more (for better and otherwise) more interesting than living alone.

I've lived with numerous households of roommates, both in my home country and abroad, and so long as you get good vibes in the interview, I'd say it's worth taking the risk. If you're extroverted and want to learn more, I'd recommend meeting with all of the roommates for a first and perhaps second interview where you can ask about living styles, get to know them (and any partners that stay over) personally and express what you're looking for.

At worst, you move to a shared house where people keep to themselves, you can save money and take some time to imagine what the next stage of your life looks like. At best, this could be a great jumping off point for new friendships, redefining what you want out of a cohabitation situation and most of all, an opportunity to build financial security and go to school.

It's also a chance to get that LASIK eye procedure and have people around to take care of you when you're healing up.

Does your current place have in-unit laundry?

I have never lived anywhere without in-unit laundry since college, and I don’t think I could do it.

I would take the house with roommates on the in-unit laundry alone (with the cost savings, doubly so). If the difference you’re looking at is really around $1,000 per month, that savings is definitely worth it, especially since you won’t need to buy a bunch of furniture. Having your own bedroom and bathroom is a pretty good deal, so as long as you don’t completely dislike the other people in the house I think you’ll be OK.

However, I would highly, highly recommend taking at least $500 of that $1000 difference each month, and put it into a Money Market or high yield savings account at your bank - should be at least 2-3% APY. That way, you have money set aside for unseen expenses, or for helping you move out of the place with housemates if you truly don’t like it.

Neither option sounds bad, in my view. I suppose it comes down to how you value having your own place versus the conveniences and cost savings of sharing the house. Is there room in the shared house's bedroom for your WFH desk? You may want privacy for your office hours.

If it were me, I'd probably meet the other housemates at least once and do a gut-check on how comfortable I feel around them. If that went well, I'd move into the shared house with the initial aim of saving money toward specific goals. (for example, LASIK, furnishing your own apartment, etc)

If, after that time (perhaps a year) you're enjoying the roommate situation, you could stay. If not, you'll be even better prepared to move into your own place.

I know it has been brought up a few times already, but not having the ability to do laundry within your home is rough. While many/most apartment complexes have some sort of semi-public laundry mat style facility, I would frequently carry my laundry baskets over there and find that it was entirely in use and I then I had to carry it all back. I can't imagine having to go through that in places with harsh winters.

Room mates can be very hit and miss, so I don't want to directly steer you one way or another on that, but if you're considering the shared place, DEFINITELY go meet these people first. If you get initial bad vibes, trust your gut.

you should meet the other dudes and take a look around at the cleanliness and find out if they have a structure for chores. you don’t want to end up being the mom out of their laziness or lack of planning.

I wouldn't consider living with men I don't know well unless I had zero other options, even friends of a friend. I'd instead seek out a queer group and see if folks there want to room if that's the route I'm going.

I've rented some dozen apartments and none had nothing for onsite laundry, they usually had coin operated machines in the basement or some such.

We just bought a house and doubled our square footage. Getting a new bed, couches, and rugs hurt, I didn't want to risk bed bugs in our new home, but I probably wouldn't be so strict in your position. Everything else we sought off Facebook marketplace and saved a pretty penny.

When I first moved to this city, I shared a house with four other people while working from home. Met them through a good friend, they consisted of her best friend, best friend's partner, and two of their friends. Some were inconsiderate of the fact I needed to work from home. Getting mad at me for using the spare room for an office bc they were using it as an office, getting off work at 3 and loudly playing Rock Band (drums ofc), that sort of thing. I ended up spending all my time in my tiny bedroom, barely big enough for my bed, personal PC, and work desk. This was awful for my mental health, about on par with drowning in alcoholism living alone during a bad time. They weren't bad folks, just too much of conflicting lifestyles in too small a space. Other posters have cited benefits of roommates that I've never had materialize outside living with my best friend or partner.

So YMMV, roommates may make more sense on paper financially, but for me, I'd view the roommate situation as a social/emotional/mental gamble vs the safe bet of living solo (and hopefully there is some sort of onsite laundry if not in unit?).

Another route to consider is, how flexible is the house situation? Would they be cool with you staying a couple months to build up a better savings cushion to furnish a place? It sounds like you've got enough savings to move, modestly furnish, and still have ~6 months emergency savings built up. That's what I'd build my savings off of -- ensuring I've got 6 months stuffed in a money market account yielding some 3-4% and anything else beyond that can go to index funds or saving for huge purchases.

You asked for considerations that you might have missed, so here’s a small one I didn’t see in your original post — do you have pots and pans, dishes and cutlery? Living solo you won’t need much, but you’ll need more than zero. If you’re heading into the sharehouse then they probably already have stuff but it would be worth asking if it’s communal or not.

All the sharehouses I’ve lived in for the past ~15 years, everyone was generous with their cookware etc and it was low stakes “grab whatever you need, I guess if something breaks then we’ll replace it”. But most recently, me and my long term partner added a housemate to the mix to help keep costs down, and he’s a bit more particular in his tastes for cookware/dishes/cutlery and has generally set the expectations that if I want to borrow his stuff, I ask first, rather than “every plate is in the drawer and who cares which is which” that I’ve had from previous sharehouse situations. It’s not a big deal at all, it’s just a small thing I had to adjust my assumptions about.

Personally, I would go for the more expensive option and ratchet down from there (e.g, the next year once the lease expires). Often, moving comes with transitions in life, and with other stuff going on, eliminating a huge potential source of stress is a big deal.

Are you getting a new job? Entering school? Those are rhetorical, but if your living situation is stressing you the hell out, you may perform poorly on said job, or academics, or whatever, and that'll also have a compounding effect on your finances anyway.

Once you're settled you can slowly ratchet down your living standards once you know what you're dealing with.

If you're not locked into a contract with the house, then go with the roommates. Worst case you can just leave whenever you want. I understand that sometimes comfort and (safety to an extent) take a back seat when money is needed. But it seems like you have a really good handle on yours.

Investing can be great if you manage it right. But if you're debt free, have a good credit score, steady income, retirement, and good savings, then you're doing better than most.

I lived with room mates once and hated it. I tend to be very clean and tidy and ended up picking up everyone’s slack. If I were in your shoes, as long as you are still earning some money, I’d pick my own place. It would also depend on job and career prospects: will you be earning more each year? Or the opposite: is your job not stable and may lose it? Then maybe the conservative choice of room mates and more savings is better. Lastly, hobbies. Out of the extra money left after paying rent, how much do you realistically need for fun, hobbies, etc? Personally when I lived alone I was pretty cheap on that front. All I did was play video games in my apartment and occasionally hang out with a friend or two. No expensive hobbies, restaurants, etc.

Roommates are really hit or miss, but I would still take the lower cost option for your apartment. Then, you could get an office at a coworking space nearby to work from.

Living alone doesn’t necessarily get you extra living space, you pay for extra privacy. The savings from living with roommates could let you afford a private office in a shared office building which would give you way more space, extra privacy, and a second place to go depending on your mood.