Yeah, I can’t find a 2br for $1k anywhere outside Flyover Country,

I know nothing about philly and can’t vouch for zillow, but a zero effort search found a bunch of hits: https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_rent/?searchQueryState={“isMapVisible”%3Atrue%2C"mapBounds"%3A{“west”%3A-75.19186800188812%2C"east"%3A-75.13255899615082%2C"south"%3A39.954194027975525%2C"north"%3A39.997933180083415}%2C"filterState"%3A{“fr”%3A{“value”%3Atrue}%2C"fsba"%3A{“value”%3Afalse}%2C"fsbo"%3A{“value”%3Afalse}%2C"nc"%3A{“value”%3Afalse}%2C"cmsn"%3A{“value”%3Afalse}%2C"auc"%3A{“value”%3Afalse}%2C"fore"%3A{“value”%3Afalse}%2C"beds"%3A{“min”%3A2}%2C"mp"%3A{“max”%3A1000}}%2C"isListVisible"%3Atrue%2C"mapZoom"%3A14}

How are you searching?

any savings from not driving is largely offset by the cost of not having a garden, unless I wanted to eat lower quality produce.

I don’t really know anything about gardening, sorry. Some places have backyards, and there are community gardens in some cities. Cars are really expensive, though. Insurance alone is probably like $50/month. Probably more.

What do you do for work, and how did you get there?

Now? Software development. When I moved here, customer service (answering the phone, livechat, etc). Though I’m a cheapskate and still basically live like I’m making $45k. I eat a lot of rice and beans.

I was lucky that my second CS job was at a place that trained people an promoted internally, so I was able to move up in my career. They hired whole “classes” of CS people to onboard at once, and almost my whole cohort went on to do like marketing, management, software development, and other higher paying stuff. A couple of my friends have done the same, but it seems like AI is eating a lot of those jobs.

I don’t think most of my friends are living in luxury apartments. Though there are many shitty apartments, shittiness is not an innate attribute of apartments.

I don’t think you’d find a 2 bedroom for $1k in NYC (though you’d likely save by not needing a car, so factor that into budgets). I see some on the map (Zillow, which I don’t know if it’s the best) for Philly, which I’m told is nice, but I’ve never lived there long term. I don’t know if they’re any good. You’d have to search yourself.

Well, you haven’t provided any details yourself so that seems fair.

Ah, I see. This apartment doesn’t have any rules (that I’m aware of) about what you can put on the walls, but I don’t have anything more than some picture frames up.

I’m also lucky that heat and hot water are included - a friend of mine had electric heating and it was really expensive.

Anyway, point taken that there are some limitations. I guess I’m lucky enough that I’ve never run into them, personally. Thanks.

I live in new york city. I don’t get the impression you’re engaging in good faith, though.

I chose all the furniture and decorations. How often are you remodeling your home? What kind of remodeling are you doing? Like, more than moving the contents around? That’s just not a thing I have a desire to do. (This isn’t sarcastic. I’m being sincere.)

Yeah, could be. I said elsewhere in this thread that I think they’re conflating renting with apartments. They said that buying an apartment is a “scam”, and I didn’t follow up with “but people rent houses, too.”

I could see why eternal renting is depressing, but that’s not the same as living in an apartment.

What parts of the US have you visited? I’ve only really spent time in the NYC area. Many apartments in NYC are pretty nice, though I can’t judge their electrical quality. When I lived outside the city, I rarely had problems with hearing neighbors.

I don’t think most people really want to build a small workshop in their day to day. I did know a guy who got up to some weird shit in his apartment’s back yard. Bunch of artists doing weird metal sculpting stuff.

Again, I just prefer open spaces and not being surrounded by people I dont know and probably won’t get along with.

That’s fine, man. You don’t need to live in a city. But I don’t think it’s accurate to say most or even “99%” of people feel the same. Many people are happy in denser living spaces.

Well, I don’t know. Where do you live? Where do you want to live? There are sites like zillow that let you search, but there’s other listings and word of mouth. A combined budget of $1k for rent and bills isn’t going to go very far most places.

Not every apartment is tiny. I don’t have the measurements for mine but it feels comfortable with two desks, a couch, a coffee table, and some bookcases. Plus there’s the bedroom with a queen size bed, bookcases, another desk, and dresser. The kitchen is admittedly a little small. This isn’t a fancy apartment, and its priced pretty average for the city. I’m pretty sure all the units in this building are about the same.

I very rarely hear my neighbors. I play music through speakers and (I’ve asked) they never hear me.

Also no one sees me, so far as I know. For contrast, where my parents live out in the suburbs, neighbors are always creeping on each other and gossiping.

Now, admittedly, there are many apartments that are tiny, or have shit sound proofing, or whatever. But, again, that is not an inherent property of apartments. Many houses have problems, too.

People surrounding me watching and listening to everything i do

Counterintuitively, denser living spaces make you less seen. Not that you’re invisible, but that you don’t register. If I went for a walk out in the suburbs, people would look and see me. They’d be like “Who’s that weirdo walking?” or “Did you see that weird guy with the metal band on his t-shirt?” Someplace denser, I blend in with everyone else and don’t get a second thought. Not even a first thought, most of the time.

I guarantee 99% of people would want a house on 2 acres thats a 30 minute drive to town than an apartment.

This is an insane take.

Many people like density.

With an apartment you have no yard, probably no garage, cant make any changes to it, and you hear all your neighbors, and smell them if they smoke, and you dont own shit.

Many apartments have yards.

If you own that apartment, you can make changes to it. Maybe not some drastic changes, but I imagine the real limited there is money rather than architectural.

Many apartments are sound proof. I almost never hear my neighbors.

I don’t know if my neighbors smoked. I’ve never smelled anything.

Apartments actually benefit the wealthy class, which is why I find it funny lemmings love them so much.

You seem to be confusing renting with apartments

Theyre inherently depressing.

Lol what. How are apartments inherently depressing? Several of my friends have very nice apartments with natural light, grassy spaces, and close proximity to parks and essentials.

Personally I find isolated single family homes a little depressing, but that’s not an inherent property of them.

Sometimes I go to a meetup that does one-shots. They’re a pretty good group.

Most of my friends either aren’t interested, or aren’t interested enough to actually show up. It’s easier to make friends with people who want to play RPGs than get your friends to play. The worst outcome is when your friends are kind of people-pleasers, and they say yes to the game even though they don’t really want to. Then they half-ass it or flake, and the friendship suffers.

You’re very angry and not worth the time to engage with further. I’m sorry for anyone in your life. Goodbye.

What kind of place do you live?

Why does one of the most populous cities experience not count?

Why are you so emotionally invested in this?

Do people in large cities not struggle? Why do you think one set of struggles trump another?

Are you alright, dude?

I’ve lived in the suburbs and traveled around the US a fair amount. I think sometimes about a time I was in suburban Illinois, and we were like “maybe we can order some food.” Opened up google maps and it was a wasteland. I think there was like one KFC open in the area.

My mind is more blown by why people defend living like that. Or actively choose it. It’s a horrible kind of place to live.

Ok, fine, sometimes there are tradeoffs. A guy I know bought a house out in the sticks someplace in the northeast. Has a yard for his kids. It’s not too expensive. But it’s a long-ass drive to get anywhere, and there’s nothing to do. Not a trade I would make.

I think you’re just duckspeaking words like “privileged”.

I was asking which specific hell they live in, but clearly I did not phrase my question clearly.

No, I was asking about which specific hell they live in. edit: not specific like “give me your address” but like, suburb, countryside, whatever. Maybe I shouldn’t post before breakfast.