The rent is too damn high. College is overpriced. Student debt is crippling.
More 20-somethings are jobless and living with their parents than ever before. Less 30-somethings are homeowners than a generation ago, and many are still single or plan on staying unmarried for a while.
What does all this lead to? Opportunity.
Co-living spaces have a huge opportunity to attract an audience that’s growing by the day. Many young people are freelancing and using co-work spaces. They often commute from cheap living places or their parents homes that are further away from the urban areas they would prefer to dwell.
So what is a co-living space? It could mean different things in different areas.
You could have hostel style, hotel style and apartment style living spaces. That would provide 3 price ranges that could cover a wide audience of potential residents. And by offering a co-work space in the same building – you get the added benefit of people eliminating their commute.
More jobs are becoming remote or tele-presence anyway and this would be a great opportunity to increase the quality of life for 20-somethings desiring to leave their parents nest, build a strong community and avoid the rush hour traffic.
College is too expensive thanks to administrative bloat and government funding, and with people realizing the debt doesn’t add up to anything good – they are looking for an alternative.
Some have looked to coding bootcamps. But many of those are proving to be woefully deficient in teaching ability and development of talent. Also, far too expensive for most people to do ($14k baseline – just for 3 months of education).
There are abundant resources available online for under $100, including many free ones.
A new form of higher education that could provide the community aspect of college dorms and the 21st century education that kids need for the real world could easily blossom in the form of co-living residence halls and online education with tutoring available.
I want to launch an academy like this and run the space. I think it would be highly successful. Charging less than two thousand dollars per month for rent, education and activities would be much more affordable and practical than going to college if you aren’t going to be a lawyer, mba or healthcare professional.
Traditional ivory tower college will return to being a luxury, while practical online education combined with regular books (instead of the overpriced scam of textbooks) will come to dominate the market in the next 10 to 15 years.