Americans are choosing to remain in a living situation with their exes amidst the ongoing housing crisis, a move that experts say may prove emotionally taxing despite the potential financial benefits.
“High housing costs are causing more couples to cohabitate despite the fact the romantic flames of their marriage have been extinguished,” real estate broker Chuck Vander Stelt told Fox News Digital.
“I have had conversations with several divorcing couples who have been weighing options and looking to time the market. In the meantime, they are continuing to live together.”
Stelt believes the trend of cohabitation after divorce or breakups is growing as he has experienced an influx of those in their 30s and 40s, often with children, weighing the options of selling versus cohabitating. In the past, Stelt said homeowners who separated were adamant that the property should be sold as soon as possible.
“Many homeowners are sitting on a mortgage with a rock bottom interest rate and a comfortable house payment. It’s hard to let that go and face the alternative of meaningfully higher housing costs,” he added.
The inclination to remain shacked up with former lovers has been reported in the media over the last several years, especially amid the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Relationship advice websites and message boards, such as Reddit, are filled with pagers where renters and homeowners have asked whether they should remain in their current living situation.
Americans have even documented their experiences living with exes on TikTok, offering advice to those facing a similar conundrum.
TikToker @-diaryofamomma posted a variety of videos in late 2023 where she showed what life is like when you live with an ex and you share two children. The son and daughter typically stay with the mother in one room while the dad sleeps on the couch.
The mom, “Cassie,” said they still live together because the landlord would not allow them to break the lease without paying for the rest of the term in full. They both share responsibility for the kids and clean the house.
“Honestly, me and their dad like think of a bad roommate. Somebody you don’t like but you have to live with because you have a lease together. Like, that’s what we are,” Cassie said. “I try not to bother him. He doesn’t bother me.”
Dating coach Deon Black said the reasons people choose to live with their exes often boil down to the three F’s: finances, familiarity, and fear.
“The cost of moving out can be prohibitive, especially considering current real estate prices. And let’s not forget the contractual obligations that sometimes bind people together like super glue rental contracts signed in happier times that now seem as unbreakable as a bad habit,” he said.
Black said while not an earth-shattering trend, exes living together is indeed a growing phenomenon created out of necessity, more so than choice.
“Millennials are leading this charge, followed closely by Gen Z. Younger generations are most affected by this trend due to economic pressures,” he said.
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Amid rising interest rates and housing shortages, Black said Americans are trying to save money and maintain stability, especially if kids are involved. But the possible downside is substantial, with the dating coach citing the potential for emotional stress, conflict and the difficulty of moving on.
After living with her ex, TikToker Alana Hogan offered tips to those embroiled in the same living situation.
“Everyone is going to heal in different ways and everyone has different coping strategies. Your way is going to be entirely different to his or her way,” she said.
She urged her followers not to view their former partner’s actions as a reflection of themselves and to set healthy boundaries of where each person will be in the apartment or house.
“Be really clear and open with your communication. Let them know what you feel comfortable with, what you don’t feel comfortable with. What you feel open about talking about and what you don’t,” she added.
Viral relationship coach Jake Maddock previously addressed the idea of living with an ex, stressing that deciding to stay under the same roof means you are still technically in a relationship.
“You can’t emotionally separate and not physically separate. You have to separate physically as well,” he said.
Sexologist Suzannah Weiss concurred with the idea that it is usually easier for people to have a “clean break” and keep exes out of their lives following a breakup.
Weiss noted that some people might agree to live with their exes temporarily because they are busy with work, allowing this period to drag on without a determined expiration date. Others live in rent-controlled apartments and cannot find something affordable when they cut things off, leading to decisions “born out of convenience.”
“However, sometimes, people keep living with their exes because they are afraid to fully let go. They may tell themselves it’s for convenience or for financial reasons, but the truth is that they are terrified to be completely without this person,” she told Fox News Digital.
One of the alleged gunmen has been named by New South Wales (NSW) police as 24-year-old Naveed Akram, while the other has been identified as his 50-year-old father Sajid Akram.
How did they carry out the attack?
Footage shows the gunmen start firing into the crowd from a footbridge that leads over a car park to the beach.
Sky News has identified from the footage that the younger gunman was using a rifle, while the older one was using a semi-automatic shotgun.
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What’s been said about the gunmen
Police commissioner Mal Lanyon said officers searched two properties in connection with the suspects and found that the father had six firearms licenced to him.
He said they were confident that those firearms were the six found at the scene of the shooting.
More footage from the scene showed that a man, later identified as 43-year-old fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen, believed to be the father Sajid, before pointing his own weapon at him, which was empty.
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Moment ‘hero’ disarmed gunman
The footage then showed the disarmed gunman running towards where the other gunman was located. Mr Ahmed was shot twice in the incident and required surgery, his family said.
The shooting is estimated to have gone on for roughly 10 minutes from 6.47pm. Eventually, the police took down the gunmen 75 seconds apart on the bridge.
The father was killed at the scene by police, while the son was shot and wounded.
He is being treated at a hospital, according to police. Mr Lanyon said he “may well” face criminal charges.
In an update on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC that the suspect was in a coma.
He also said there were a range of IEDs and “explosive devices” in their car that they intended to use to “cause further damage”.
What do we know about their backgrounds?
Sajid Akram arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa and transferred to a partner visa three years later, before becoming a permanent resident, according to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. Officials have not disclosed what country he migrated from.
He had his gun licence for approximately a decade and held a gun club membership, Mr Lanyon said.
The younger suspect was an Australian-born citizen who first came to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in October 2019, Mr Albanese told reporters.
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Younger gunman was part of 2019 ‘investigation’
“He was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Mr Albanese said.
Mr Albanese said the suspect was investigated for six months over his connections to two people who later went to jail, one man for planning terror attacks.
He said he was not put on a watch list because the investigation uncovered no evidence that he was planning or considering any act of antisemitic violence.
Neither the father nor son have been on the ASIO’s radar since the 7 October Hamas attacks, he added.
What do we know about the motives?
New South Wales Police designated the attack a terrorist incident, and Mr Lanyon said a “significant investigation” would be led by counterterrorism and that “no stone will be left unturned”.
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Community mourns after attack
“When I asked for calm, that is really important,” he said. “This is not a time for retribution. This is a time to allow the police to do their duty. So police are responding to make sure that all of the community is safe.”
Mr Albanese called the massacre an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.
On Monday, he said the attackers were “two evil people… driven by ideology” whose actions were the result of an “extreme perversion of Islam”.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said after the attack: “This attack was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah. What should have been a night of peace and joy celebrated in that community with families and supporters has been shattered by this horrifying, evil attack.”
Tesla has been pulling every demand lever it can find to end the year on a high note, resulting in some of the most aggressive lease pricing we’ve ever seen.
The automaker is now signaling that these deals are expiring at the end of the month, and the price jumps are going to be significant.
We are talking about monthly payments increasing by up to 67% in some cases.
For the last few weeks, the story has been all about the $299/month Model 3 lease. It’s a headline-grabbing number that frankly makes the math of driving a gas car look terrible.
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But Tesla is subsidizing this pricing. It’s not sustainable and the automaker is doing it temporarily to compensate for low demand. It looks like Tesla is planning a hard reset on pricing once the Q4 delivery wave crashes on December 31.
Tesla announced a price increase coming on December 26th to encourage people to take delivery as soon as possible:
Here is the breakdown of the signaled price increases:
Model 3 Premium RWD: Increasing to $499/month with $3,000 down. (Currently ~$299/mo with $1,500 down. That is a massive 67% increase in monthly payment, plus a doubled down payment.)
Model 3 Premium AWD: Increasing to $549/month with $3,000 down. (Up from ~$449/mo with $1,500 down. A 22% increase.)
Model 3 Performance: Increasing to $749/month with $3,000 down. (Up from ~$699/mo with $1,500 down. A 7% increase.)
The Model Y, which is currently one of the best best-selling vehicles in the world, is not spared either:
Model Y Premium RWD: Increasing to $549/month with $3,000 down. (Up from ~$449/mo with $0 down. A 22% increase.)
Model Y Premium AWD: Increasing to $649/month with $3,000 down. (Up from ~$479/mo with $0 down. A 35% increase.)
Even the Cybertruck is seeing a bump, though less dramatic percentage-wise:
Cybertruck AWD: Increasing to $849/month with $5,000 down. (Up from ~$729/mo with the same down payment. A 16% increase.)
This puts significant pressure on buyers to take delivery within the next two weeks. Tesla is known for these end-of-quarter pushes, but usually, the incentives simply vanish. In this case, we are seeing a reversion to standard pricing that highlights just how subsidized the current offers are.
Electrek’s Take
This is the classic Tesla end-of-quarter playbook, but the contrast here is sharper than usual and a focus on leases.
I’ve said before that the $299 Model 3 lease is practically a no-brainer. When you look at the total cost of ownership, it competes with used Toyotas.
A 67% increase on the base Model 3 is wild. It shows that Tesla was willing to burn significant margin to clear inventory and compensate for lower demand following the end of the tax credit.
It remains true that the best time to buy a Tesla is at the end of a quarter and ideally, at the end of the year.
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On Monday, the next installment of the Battle of Florida will be contested between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers, a rivalry that has certainly intensified in recent years.
The two teams entered the league one year apart. The Bolts in 1992 and the Cats a year later.
Although the Panthers miraculously made it to the Stanley Cup Final in their third season, the state of Florida wasn’t truly on the hockey map until the Lightning won the title in 2004.
But for most of the two teams’ existence, the rivalry was purely geographical, with the hockey world largely focusing on other feuds or thriving franchises. Despite achieving far less success in the 23 years after they made the Cup Final in 1996, the Panthers won the lion’s share of games against the Lightning. In that same 23-year span, the Cats had a sub-.500 record against the Lightning in only seven seasons, and the club’s all-time record against their in-state rival is 79-54-29.
But this truly became the “Battle” when both teams became great, and that has been in the past six seasons. The pair met in the playoffs for the first time in 2021, which is the perfect start of this era — Tampa Bay was coming off a Stanley Cup win in 2020 (in the bubble) and dispatched Florida in six games en route to their second straight Cup. The Lightning would sweep the Panthers the next season before bowing out to Colorado in the Cup Final, marking three straight trips to the Final.
Then it was Florida’s turn to do the exact same thing, making their three straight trips to the Cup Final (with the streak still active), and beating Tampa Bay 4-1 in back-to-back first rounds in 2024 and 2025 en route to Cup wins. Their playoff records against each other are identical: two series wins, 10-10 overall.
And this feud has turned ugly, bloody and downright nasty. Two preseason games (!) this October saw Lightning and Panthers players maul each other on the ice to the tune of a combined 508 penalty minutes and 26 misconducts. “It just got silly, got stupid,” lamented Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues, describing the chaos that some hockey fans absolutely relish. There were so many ejections that Florida’s Niko Mikkola got ejected, didn’t leave and then assisted on a goal, that had to be called back upon review.
It took a while to get there, but the Battle of Florida is now one of the most bitter rivalries in hockey and has no signs of slowing down. Both teams have thrown haymakers (literally and figuratively) at the other throughout the years. Although this might hurt many traditionalists to hear, the rivalry is an offshoot of both team’s playoff and championship success and that means — if you’re judging this purely on glory at the highest levels — Florida is cemented as the current “State of Hockey.” I don’t make the rules, people, I just bring them to light.
The Panthers and Lightning drop the puck on Monday in Tampa Bay. It’s without a doubt one of the biggest games of the week.
I have my eyes firmly on every game the Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins and Edmonton Oilers play this week. Purely because I want to see the immediate impact the traded players will be making. And there’s some overlap!
The Quinn Hughes trade was a Friday night shocker. Minnesota! What a coup!
The Wild play the Washington Capitals on Tuesday (one of the teams rumored to be in on the Hughes trade talks), followed by the the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, and the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday (a big test). Before the Avs, they’ll host the Oilers on Saturday … when I hope Tristan Jarry will be starting, and we get some sort of Hughes scoring chance on the new Oilers goalie.
Aside from the showdown in Minnesota, the Oilers have the Boston Bruins on Thursday and Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday (a big offensive test).
Jarry won his first game with the Oilers on Saturday, a 6-3 victory in Toronto.
But I have a big red circle around Tuesday on my calendar, because the Oilers face the Penguins. Hockey trade bingo! It’s always awesome when traded players face their old teams right away. It’s like getting early and tangible “who won the trade?” argument fodder based on how the traded players perform. Let’s hope the coaches help out the narrative and start both Jarry and Skinner in this one.
Other key games this week
MONDAY
8 p.m. ET | ESPN+
TUESDAY
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
WEDNESDAY
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
THURSDAY
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
FRIDAY
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
10 p.m. ET | ESPN+
SATURDAY
12:30 p.m. ET | NHL Network
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
SUNDAY
1 p.m. ET | NHL Network
What I loved this weekend
The San Jose Sharks are a lot of people’s second favorite team, and they made a whole bunch of fans happy — outside of Pittsburgh, of course — on Saturday. Down 5-1 with 12 minutes to play in the game, the Sharks scored four unanswered goals in the third period, then won the game in overtime. And no, this was not Stuart Skinner‘s debut — his immigration paperwork was held up, so it was Arturs Silovs in goal for the Penguins.
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Sharks score 5 unanswered to rally for OT win vs. Penguins
The Sharks put five unanswered goals past the Penguins over the third period and overtime in a huge comeback win.
This marks only the 26th time in NHL history a team was down four goals in the third period and won the game.
This is where I tell Maple Leafs fans to look away. Because the ESPN Research team dug even deeper, and found that there were only two instances of teams that came back from five-goal deficits in the third period and won the game.
Nathan MacKinnon obviously gets a spot. He still leads the league in points and in goals, and has points in five straight games, with nine points total in that span.
Connor McDavid is second in scoring, back to his “I’ll score at will” video game mode, and is also on a five-game point streak, where he has a silly 15 points. Casual Connor, no big deal.
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Connor McDavid lights the lamp for Oilers
Connor McDavid lights the lamp for Oilers
Finally, enough is enough; I’m putting Logan Thompson on my Hart Trophy list! I’m all for goalie Hart pushes. Deal with it.
The Caps are third in the Metro Division, and Thompson has an excellent .922 save percentage through 23 games. Scott Wedgewood will likely rotate into this spot on occasion given how much of an absolute wagon the Avs are this season. Aside from his last game where he let in five goals, Wedgewood has had a terrific stretch, including a shutout.
Social media post of the week
I said this last week, and I’m serious — the 6-7 trend is getting out of control! Now it’s on the back of warmup jerseys. STOP IT NOW!
On to my actual favorite social media from this week. As my fellow pro wrestling heads out there know, John Cena’s final WWE match took place on Saturday (and Cena’s submission to Gunther ignited a reaction from the WWE crowd more heinous than a lengthy offside review). A part of the homage this week was reflecting on the jerseys Cena wore over the years, including a few hockey ones. The Oilers, Kings, Jets and Canadiens were among the pro teams to share posts with Cena wearing their threads:
The funniest one was the Habs, because Cena mimics shooting a puck in his entrance. Which confirms in WWE retirement he will be signing with Montreal, adding bottom-six depth for a playoff push.
Stick taps
I’m going to give my ESPN colleague (and, of course, Stanley Cup champion) T.J. Oshie a lot of credit. He had a “welcome to TV” moment where, because he’s a retired NHL player-turned-citizen of hockey by being on national broadcasts, he received a Stadium Series jersey like the rest of us:
The problem is, Oshie never played for the Lightning or the Bruins. But we egged him on and like the true good sport that he is, he put on the Boston jersey, explaining that it resembled his old Warroad team colors.
“I did put it on, somewhat against my will.” 😅@TJOshie77 and @Arda broke down the fine details on the Boston Bruins’ 2026 NHL Stadium Series jerseys 🐻 pic.twitter.com/XuCg9lTzCl
What a sight. I’m sure it was equally jarring to see “Oshie” on the back of the Boston jersey, and perhaps more jarring to see No. 77, Oshie’s number in the NHL that also happened to be Ray Bourque’s number — which the Bruins retired in 2001.
I will jump in here and say that I believe that the retired number rule applies only for active players on that team. Celebrities, analysts, media types, or really anyone that wants to customize a jersey … pick whatever number you want. You’re not suiting up for the team with that number. It’s fine. We can let that one go.