Rent

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This might seem like a strange question but I'm not sure who else to ask. Maybe I'll ask some people in meatspace but even so, the more answers I get the better.

I was looking through the rental listings for my long overdue second attempt at moving out. Here's the thing that confused me, For $270 a week I can get a nice, three bedroom house. For $180 a week, that is two thirds the price, I can get a squalid one bedroom shack that looks like it's falling apart. Or something similar like a unit in someone else's backyard.

So my question is, why is it that for two thirds the price you get something that's a tenth as good?
Shouldn't it be that the amount of rent you pay it proportional to the quality of the house?

$180 a week would be easier for me to afford but for that I'd like a house two thirds as good not one tenth as good.
I gave two examples but they were all like that.

Things such as location, length of tenure, whether furnished/unfurnished or agency rental as opposed to a private rental all affect the monthly cost.
Someone wishing to walk to work from the dearer place might place that as a reason to take that one over the cheaper place which is perhaps not within walking distance. There are other things that are perhaps not immediately obvious such as cooking smells or industrial noise at certain times that have caused a cheaper rent for the bigger place.

True, true, all the places I looked at where in roughly the same part of town in the outer suburbs. Basically within a 10 KM radius of where I live now. Sure I expect rent to be a lot higher in the city but for me the city is too far away from everything. That is to say, its too far away from the joints I frequent in the southern outer suburbs.

None of them were close to work unless you want to work retail. None of them were closer than 5 KM to an industrial area. I only looked at unfurnished ones since I want to be able to choose my furniture, not have it chosen for me.

It just seems like my choices are between family homes which are a bit to big for me or squalid shacks which are a bit too small for me. The apartments for rent aren't great either. The only remotely nice apartments are the ones for sale. I just don't understand why a house one third the size costs two thirds as much.

Prices are set by the sellers or landlords, and so are subject only to whatever reasoning each chooses, whether they be bizarre or normal. That is, prices not infrequently do not make sense.

Real estate markets are constantly changing, with new places coming and going off the market each day. It usually takes me several weeks to find something suitable for me.

Think of it this way: you could get roommates to help you with the rent in the $270 per week house.

Now I get it. I should just stop expecting the world to make sense



I tried asking the only one of my friends who didn't already have suitable housing and he said he couldn't think about that until he got a job. I looked at some roommate finding website but seemed like a catch-22 because they said you have to have a room to let. I had a roommate the last time. It didn't work out. Not that I'm saying everyone is like him but it didn't help me warm up to the idea of roommates.

It's possible that I'll find better work and be able to afford the $270 by myself but if I get a better job I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep it for. I might not even want to keep it if I decide to resume my studies. Paying $270 a week on welfare is possible but cutting things very fine.

You think that's crazy? I live in a medium sized city that's somewhat economically depressed area in Canada and I pay $835 for my one bedroom. The run down ghetto apartments are an incredible $790 and another building that's a little nicer is $1100-$1400. Why the heck would any sane person not pay $45 a month for a building three times as good? The rents make almost zero sense given how few people have decent jobs around here and I would honestly like to know how the f*$@ they can afford such ridiculous rents. I can only assume the government is paying for the ghetto ones. What I further found incredible was that even being 29, with an extremely stable job, an "A" credit rating and rock solid references they still refused to rent to me until I found a co-signer (and as an Aspie that was tricky: my father reluctantly agreed). Go figure that my new neighbours are all drug dealers: guess they don't apply their credit and employment policies to everyone.

I was in a small city about 8 hours away and my exact same apartment in the heart of downtown was $350! Bottom line: I gave up trying to make rational sense of rental rates a very long time ago. I expect the rental rates will have to crash at some point since they have built a ton of new high end units in my city and wages keep going down.

For some reason, it sounds like you live in Greater Sudbury, GiantHockeyFan. I'm thinking: "medium-sized city in an somewhat economically depressed area." Unless you live in the GTA, in a suburb of that description.

I'm also thinking Thunder Bay or Sault Ste Marie.

I like trying to guess locations--my limit is a city or town, though, unless it's a section of NYC. I have fun doing that.

PFlash Phelps of Channel 6, Sirius Radio, likes to do that, too. "Pflash" like "Pfeiffer." I think the Pf beginning is Welsh.