Hey folks, I've been going through some serious trouble with rent lately. Long story short, I'm in a 2-bed apartment outside of Portland, OR. My roommate disappeared about 3 months ago, and I've been covering rent on this place by myself, $1,350 total. It's been tight, but I can handle.
So he finally reappeared, and we agreed he would move out and get off the lease. So I tried getting another roommate in the meantime. He failed the application because he had an eviction. The current situation is that my current roommate can't get off the lease unless I can qualify for the rent myself, which is 2.2x a full month's rent - about $2,780, or I can get another roommate on. I make almost $1,000 less than that a month. I pointed out to them that I've been paying rent by myself for 3 months now, but that doesn't seem to matter. So I discussed moving into a 1-bed. Their 1-beds cost about what I'm paying for a 2! So again I couldn't qualify. I'm sorry, but if I was making damned near $3,000 a month, I would NOT be living in this apartment complex.
Which brings me to my point. The price of living is outgrowing the income of the people who would actually live there. Why? Why is this a thing? Rent should not cost you 70%+ of your fucking monthly income, that's just stupid. The 1-beds in other complexes around here are similar - about $1,100 or more a month. For a ONE. BED. APARTMENT. There's even a complex being built near the Nike WHQ campus that has STUDIOS at almost $1,400! Less than 300 square feet!
So, what is rent like in your area? Has it gotten out of hand like this too? Do you hear a lot of complaints about it, or about your current complex charging too much?