These poor deluded people....

[Becks]

People listing apartments, STOP listing STUDIO apartments as one-bedroom apartments. A studio is NOT a one-bedroom. You sleep in your fucking KITCHEN.

If I saw this on Facebook, I'd like it.

[SecurityWench]

My boyfriend got an apartment near my house in Austin about a year ago. 1 bed/1 bath, rent is $499 a month, water is a flat rate, and electricity is paid directly to the city. We got a discount because the complex was desperate for tenants (I heard some horror stories online about there being silverfish and crackheads but so far I've seen neither) and the place is great.

ETA: Also, a bit off-topic, but we had a bit of trouble trying to find a one-bedroom apartment. People listing apartments, STOP listing STUDIO apartments as one-bedroom apartments. A studio is NOT a one-bedroom. You sleep in your fucking KITCHEN.

[Becks]

East side of Green Bay (across the park from the ghetto!).

2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, dining room, and living room. $470 a month. Pay the gas/electric myself but heat is included in the rent.

Drawback--my kitchen is TINY.

I've mentioned it before.

[taxguykarl]

My last Chicago (yes, the city not a 'burb) was $550. However, I was on my own for ALL utilities: phone, water, heating gas and electricity. The location was great and I didn't have to worry about security: The owner/resident manager was a police officer--he was on duty in full uniform when he showed me the unit (his partner went on a donut break).

[agirlfromnowhere]

Yay for costs of living. In the town I used to live in I paid like $400 a month for a one bedroom apartment but it was basically a suburb of a larger city and public transportation wasnt as good as it was in other parts of the city. It wasn't the nicest neighborhood but it wasn't horrible either. In the town I live now my boyfriend pays that much for an apartment that's literally the size of my bedroom.

[Magpie]

University-heavy city here. A room for $400, inclusive is pretty good, but you generally need to be part of a group of five, because they rent the entire upstairs/downstairs/house out at once, and everyone pays X amount (you fight over who gets which room on your own). And it's not a great student house for that price. Apartments aren't bad though: Our two bedroom is $860, my SIL and her husband have a one bedroom about a five minute walk away from the transit terminal for $6XX (of course it's not as ideal a location as it sounds, they're in a rougher neighbourhood).

[KiaKat]

Cost of living is high here, but salaries tend to be higher as well. If we lived anywhere else, we'd be comfortably middle class. Here, we're considered on the edge of working class. Not quite poor, but definitely living paycheque-to-paycheque.

[telecom_goddess]

Wow...I pay $985 for a 3 bed/2 bath apartment with my own washer and dryer and tons of storage...big kitchen...nice place.

I know rents in New York or anywhere in the surrounding states are just insane...how to do people afford to live there?

[protege]

Even in my small upper Mid-western town what you get for $300 - $400 is like 2 rooms smallish living room/kitchen combo and one smallish bedroom. unless you are willing to live in the trashy area of my twon (YES the ones I deliver to, YES the ones that I fear walking up the front/outside steps to, the ones where the landlord does NO maintenance, yes the building looks like it is in a war zone) rents are still not all that cheap.

Sounds like several areas in Pittsburgh Some of those areas are high-crime shitholes, others are simply student ghettos where the landlords do minimal maintenance. Even so, rents aren't cheap. There's no way in hell you'd find a place listed for less than $500.

In fact, I find it *amusing* that people will pay more in *rent* for a tiny apartment...than I do in *mortgage* payments for a house in the 'burbs! A house, that I'm slowly fixing up and working on. Any improvements I make, add value. Not so with an apartment

[Seshat]

When we got a windfall, we went from a nice, well painted four bedroom house with good fittings to a sound place that's cosmetically a dump, and is three bedroom - but we own it.
Well, us and the bank.

It's also a little bit further out of town, in a less 'desirable' area, though one that's expanding and becoming desirable. (New schools, refurbished railway station, better services - the whole kit & caboodle. And the people are coming.)

But yeah - it's all in what you're willing to pay, and where you're willing to live. We'd have liked to stay where we were - some great restaurants and such there. But this area will improve.

And so will the house, as we get the money.

[Misanthropical]

Our idiot mayor decided to have a casino built that 99.9% of residence did not want in way shape or form because of the crime and violence we knew it would bring, but once again the arrogant bastard was going to have it built no matter what we said. Now he wants to run for congress but the voters have long memories.

Anyway, as soon as the casino was a done deal our rents jump and jumped very high. I was told they raised everyone's rent due to casino and if it wasn't the casino it was the economy.

We were told how the casino would bring jobs and lower everyone's property taxes. Yeah, it brought in a lot of low paying jobs and the city has to raise the property tax to cover the school shortage. And, if that isn't enough the casino started laying off a lot people. So much for bringing in jobs.

Our three bedroom two bathroom two story townhouse with it's own washer and dryer went from $885.00 we paid for two years to almost $2,000.00 now after 4 years (we have lived her for 6 years) and new renters pay more than that. And, even with that we still get low lives moving in and trying to trash the place.

[TreasureChest]

Even in my small upper Mid-western town what you get for $300 - $400 is like 2 rooms smallish living room/kitchen combo and one smallish bedroom. unless you are willing to live in the trashy area of my twon (YES the ones I deliver to, YES the ones that I fear walking up the front/outside steps to, the ones where the landlord does NO maintenance, yes the building looks like it is in a war zone) rents are still not all that cheap.

mmmmmmmmmmm delivery

*head desk* some days i hate living in a field of sunflowers
no one delivers to me

[Racket_Man]

Perhaps I didn't make it clear that they were merely looking for a ROOM for $400. I don't think they were so unrealistic as to expect an entire apartment for that.

Even in my small upper Mid-western town what you get for $300 - $400 is like 2 rooms smallish living room/kitchen combo and one smallish bedroom. unless you are willing to live in the trashy area of my twon (YES the ones I deliver to, YES the ones that I fear walking up the front/outside steps to, the ones where the landlord does NO maintenance, yes the building looks like it is in a war zone) rents are still not all that cheap.

[TreasureChest]

when we lived in maryland and where looking to rent an apartment

this was the typical we found for most of the dc metro area

amazing that the studio is going for $1830 at 531 sq ft

before we moved to europe we paid $1700 for a 3bd 1.5 bath split level house with basement.... decent area only heard shots fired a few times, the drugs kept them selves to about a mile away and there where ONLY 6 registered sex offenders in the immediate area (either pedos or violent)

when we moved here, even with $ vs € we still paid less for a slightly bigger house with garage 700€

the dc metro area is evil, too many people with money willing to pay the hype

[AdminAssistant]

Yeah Lawrence is ridiculous. Im one of those "Live in the quiet, drive to party" kind of people. I would never dream of living in Lawrence. Although if I could live across the street from the WA Sushi house, I would consider it. I drove from Olathe to Lawrence once a week for that restaurant.

I love it here, I just chose my apartment very, very carefully. Nice quiet neighborhood, minimal frat boy nonsense. Shit gets crazy on football Saturdays and basketball anythings, but it's such an awesome place to live.