Housing · Lesson Plan

Housing Alternatives

Finding a place to live is one of the largest financial decisions anyone makes, and there is more than one way to do it. This lesson surveys the housing options a student will actually choose between — staying with family, sharing a rental, renting alone, and buying — and compares them on what they cost per month, what they cost up front, and what each one asks of you. Students finish by pricing a real listing in their own area.

Grades 7–12 Lesson Plan 30–45 minutes Free Lesson Plan Worksheet: Full Membership

For Teachers

Lesson at a glance

Topic: Housing
Grade Level: Grades 7–12
Resource Type: Lesson + Worksheet
Estimated Time: 30–45 minutes
Format: Class discussion + worksheet
Materials: Worksheet, whiteboard or projector, internet access

What Students Learn

Learning objectives

Identify the main housing alternatives — living with family, sharing a rental, renting alone, and buying
Calculate the monthly cost of each option, including a shared rent split between roommates
Distinguish the monthly cost of a place from the cash needed up front to move in
Explain what a security deposit is and why a refundable cost is still a real cost
Compare the responsibilities of renting against those of owning a home
Research housing options in their own local area and judge what is affordable

Materials

What you’ll need

Printed copies of the worksheet (one per student)
Whiteboard or projector for discussion
Internet access or printed local rental listings for Part 4
Pens or pencils

Key Terms

Vocabulary

Housing alternative: Any of the different ways a person can get a place to live — renting, buying, sharing, or staying with family.
Lease: A legal contract between a landlord and a tenant setting the rent, the length of the rental, and the rules.
Landlord: The owner of a property who rents it out to someone else.
Tenant: The person who rents and lives in a property they do not own.
Security deposit: Money paid to a landlord before moving in, held against damage and returned when you move out if the place is left in good condition.
Utilities: Services such as electricity, gas, water, and internet — sometimes included in rent and sometimes charged separately.
Condominium: A home that is individually owned inside a larger building, where shared areas are maintained collectively for a fee.
Roommate: Someone who shares a rented home and splits the cost of it with you.

For Teachers

Lesson plan

Estimated time: one 30–45 minute class period.

Lesson sequence

Warm-up (5 min). Ask students to name every different kind of place people they know live in — an apartment, a house, a condo, a manufactured home, with family, with roommates. Write the list on the board without discussing cost yet.
Monthly cost (10 min). Work Part 1 together. The key move is the shared apartment: the rent on the listing is not what you pay, because it splits between roommates. Students who divide correctly discover that sharing can cost less than half of renting alone.
The cost of getting in the door (10 min). Work Part 2. Introduce the security deposit, and make the point that a place you can afford monthly may still be a place you cannot move into, because the up-front cash is money you must already have saved.
Renting vs. owning (10 min). Use Part 3 question 4 as a discussion. List the responsibilities of each side on the board — a renter answers to a landlord and a lease; an owner answers to a lender and pays for every repair themselves.
Local research (10 min, or set as homework). Part 4 sends students to a real listing near where they live. This is the part they remember: national averages mean nothing, and their own town’s numbers are the ones that will apply to them.

Assessment

Assess the completed worksheet, the local-listing research, and participation in the renting-vs-owning discussion.

Extension

Have students calculate how many hours a week they would need to work at their state’s minimum wage to cover each option, and discuss what that leaves for everything else.

This lesson is for educational purposes only. All figures are simplified teaching examples and are not financial advice.

Discussion

Discussion questions

Why can a shared apartment with a higher advertised rent cost you less per month than a studio with a lower one?
A security deposit is refundable. Does that make it free? Explain what it actually costs you.
What do you give up by sharing a place with roommates, and what do you gain?
Name one responsibility a renter has that an owner does not, and one an owner has that a renter does not.
Someone who can afford the monthly rent still cannot move in. What would stop them, and how would you plan around it?

Printable Worksheet