Rent or own - as in your primary living quarters?

[cjk374]

My apartment is $905/month and includes water and heat.

Holy hell! 

Think that's bad?  Try finding a place to rent in a small college town.  An apartment the same size vdeane mentioned above goes for almost twice that amount.  Or try one apartment with one living area shared by 4 occupied bedrooms going for about $2000/month.

[Pete from Boston]

My apartment is $905/month and includes water and heat.

Holy hell! 

Think that's bad?  Try finding a place to rent in a small college town.  An apartment the same size vdeane mentioned above goes for almost twice that amount.  Or try one apartment with one living area shared by 4 occupied bedrooms going for about $2000/month.

$905 wouldn't last an hour on the market here.  Prices that cheap are unheard of.  I knew some $1000 1BRs a few miles from downtown in 2008 or 2009, but those days are long gone.

I last knew a 4BR with one living area and one bath for $2000 around here in 2003, and it was cheap then.  Good luck finding that today.

They're pretty much only building luxury units around here nowadays.  They're not making more cheap rentals.  Those that turn condo only shrink the market further.  For those who like living cheap here, we have a special magic word: Providence.

[Laura]

My apartment is $905/month and includes water and heat.

Holy hell! 

Think that's bad?  Try finding a place to rent in a small college town.  An apartment the same size vdeane mentioned above goes for almost twice that amount.  Or try one apartment with one living area shared by 4 occupied bedrooms going for about $2000/month.

My new apartment is a 1BR on the edge of a college neighborhood but is only $600 per month, and that includes heat and water.

[Stratuscaster]

$1200 for a 2BR townhome with 1 car garage, 1.5 baths, and a basement.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I rent in a small apartment building, and the owner/landlord lives in the unit below mine, so maintenance is easy and quick to access. CA$560/mo (US$475), no electricity, no heating, no dishwasher, no furniture (besides one pantry), no insurance. The landlord was kind enough to let me use his Wi-Fi.

Roadgeeking is sort of an expensive hobby for me, and I still travel frugal (sharing rooms / crashing at friends' homes, looking for cheap gas, eating at Timmies/McD's for breakfast and grabbing a corner store sandwich for lunch). Keeping a car that's reliable enough for long-distance travel is an expense in both time and money. In my case, I'm paying CA$300/mo (US$254) for my 2011 Nissan Altima. Add this, food, electricity and other bills to your rent and... let's say I've got much less money left than when I was living with my parents (and I didn't feel comfortable making long trips with my old car anymore).

I wish I could own the roof that's over my head, but so far, it's looking like it'll be a while before I can do this.

[vdeane]

The other apartments I was looking at were a little cheaper (aside from the one that was a dump, they were too small for my furniture, and the price difference would have been eaten up by winter heating and ac - even though my apartment doesn't include the cost of ac in the rent, it's a central air system rather than an inefficient window unit).  Cheaper probably could be found around here, but I didn't want to live in the city of Albany, Schenectady, Troy, or deal with the traffic involved in commuting from further north.

[Brandon]

$1200 for a 2BR townhome with 1 car garage, 1.5 baths, and a basement.

Ouch.  I'm paying almost $200 less (including escrow) for a similar condo/townhome that's only 0.5 baths different.  2 bedrooms, one bath, attached one-car garage, basement.

BTW, I (and the bank) own mine.

[Stratuscaster]

There is a price to be paid for keeping one's children in a desired school district.

I'd be willing to go a little farther out, but the wife and in-laws already protest that we are 20 minutes away.

[Laura]

The other apartments I was looking at were a little cheaper (aside from the one that was a dump, they were too small for my furniture, and the price difference would have been eaten up by winter heating and ac - even though my apartment doesn't include the cost of ac in the rent, it's a central air system rather than an inefficient window unit).  Cheaper probably could be found around here, but I didn't want to live in the city of Albany, Schenectady, Troy, or deal with the traffic involved in commuting from further north.

Yeah. Our $600 apartment was a steal because it doesn't have AC...so it's a crappy window unit and fans for us. I've lived without AC before (my sophomore year dorm/residence hall had no AC) so it's not a big deal to me.


iPhone