Wanted: New Roommaid
Willing to swap free rent for chores? A new living arrangement falls back on old-school gender roles
By JENINNE LEE-ST. JOHN

Shorty after Stephen McCarthy moved to Las Vegas in 2004, he offered a female friend an interesting proposition: if she kept the place tidy, cleaned up after his dog Maya and brought in the paper each morning, she could live in his house rent free. It worked well until, McCarthy says, his friend began to get possessive, jealously questioning him when he went out on dates. Her argument that she had a right to ask after his whereabouts since she did "everything, just like a wife," prompted him to ask her to move out after a year. "That's the point," the divorced architect says. "I didn't want a wife."

Well, not exactly. But like a growing number of unmarried men, McCarthy, 54, did want someone to look after him without having to take on the financial burden of hiring a housekeeper or the emotional commitment of living with a lover. He found the solution in what you might call an adult au pair. With more Americans single than ever and rents sky high in cities like Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, many women are open to the idea of keeping house for a casual acquaintance or even a stranger in exchange for a rent-free place to stay--as long as there are no sexual strings attached. According to nationwide matching service RoommateExpress.com about 25% of its male clients specifically ask for a female barter roommate, up from less than 10% just three years ago.