Mark Cuban's roommate advice sparks housing debate

Mark Cuban is a billionaire today, but when he was 24, he moved into an apartment with five roommates to keep his housing costs down.

The entrepreneur revisited that experience in a Nov. 1 post on X, sharing the apartment’s layout and noting that its current rent is $2,388 per month. In today’s dollars, his share of the rent would have been $400.

Cuban suggested that young people could still benefit from a similar arrangement. But his post prompted a larger discussion about whether today’s young renters have the same opportunities to eventually afford homes of their own.

Why Mark Cuban’s roommate advice sparked debate

Kaz Nejatian, CEO of the real-estate technology company Opendoor, quickly took to X to express his thoughts on Cuban’s take on renting.

“Mark may be correct about the time adjusted rent,” Nejatian wrote on X just a few hours after Cuban posted. “What he is wrong about is what that set you up for.”

He pointed out that in 1986, when Cuban moved out of his apartment, the typical first-time homebuyer age was 29. (This is correct, according to the Long Island Board of Realtors data.)

Fast forward to 2026, and the average age is 40, wrote Nejatian. Although age 40 is technically the median, not the average, age of first-time homebuyers, according to the National Association of Realtors, Nejatian’s sentiment is mostly on point.

Read more: Kevin O’Leary sends a strong warning to all first-time home-buying Americans

Nejatian wrote that he also lived with roommates throughout his 20s, and he doesn’t think that’s the problem with Cuban’s message.

“That’s not [the] issue,” he wrote. “The issue is that it has become far too hard to stop having roommates.”

Nejatian’s argument wasn’t necessarily that young people shouldn’t live with roommates. Rather, he questioned whether 2026 renters have the same opportunity to eventually move on to homeownership.

His comparison highlights a broader concern: Even if sharing an apartment helps young adults save money, will they eventually be able to afford a home of their own?

“The issue is that it has become far too hard to stop having roommates,” Kaz Nejatian wrote on X.

Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images

Mark Cuban responds to concerns about today’s housing market

I reached out to Mark Cuban for comments on Nejatian’s post and for his own thoughts on the current housing market.

Cuban pushed back on the idea that young adults had an easier path to homeownership when he was starting out.

“I didn’t know a single person at 29 or younger who bought a house,” Cuban told me. “The interest rates were more than 12 pct for a mortgage. Oil prices collapsed, crushing the Texas economy and jobs. The unemployment rate hit 9 pct.” 

His point raises an important distinction: Today’s housing affordability challenges are significant, but that doesn’t necessarily mean every aspect of the housing market was more accessible to previous generations.

However, Cuban doesn’t deny that the current housing market is tough. Homebuyers are facing their own unique problems.

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“It’s still very hard to buy a house today,” Cuban told me. He said that building and the economy are making buying difficult.

His comments come as builders and buyers struggle with several factors driving up housing costs. Rising construction costs, labor shortages, and regulatory expenses have made homes more expensive to build.

Regulatory costs for building a home have spiked 40% in the last five years, according to a June 2026 report from the National Association of Home Builders.

Sometimes builders pass these costs along to buyers by charging more for new homes. Other times, builders absorb the higher costs, but it’s not a long-term solution. If they don’t make a profit, they can’t build as many houses.

Construction costs can also go up because building materials are becoming more expensive due to economic issues such as trade restrictions and tariffs.

Still, there are some signs of improvement in the housing market. The median year-over-year home-sale price has declined for three straight weeks, according to Redfin data. But it’s too soon to tell whether this will be a long-term trend.

“Prices are dropping for homes across the country,” Cuban said. “Hopefully they will become more affordable, along with other living expenses, and families will be able to afford a home again.” 

Cuban and Nejatian both worry about housing affordability

Despite their different perspectives, Cuban and Nejatian seem to agree on one crucial point: Buying a home has become increasingly challenging for many Americans.

Living with roommates can help young adults reduce their monthly expenses, but it doesn’t necessarily solve the larger affordability issues facing today’s housing market.

And while Cuban’s experience shows how sharing housing can be a practical way to save money, Nejatian’s argument raises another question: What happens when young people are ready to move on from roommates but still can’t afford a place of their own?

Living with roommates may help young adults save money. But what happens when even years of saving aren’t enough to make homeownership attainable?

Related: Here’s what a $400,000 mortgage costs in today’s housing market

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