Getting priced out of me and my boyfriends apartment.

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Ridiculous rent price increase, disgusting. So yeah me and my boyfriend can't afford to live here after this year. Yeah we're out next year and hopefully can find a place somewhere else.

They raised it like 299$ which we were not expecting we thought maybe it would be an 80 dollar increase. But f*ck them we're only staying here another year to make a plan to move as we likely wont be able to afford next years price hike here. It is kind of a shame because I like it here, but if we cant afford to live here the only option is to move or be homeless so obviously we prefer the former.

Rates are not great but I heard right now is a moment for lowballing stalled real estate.

Well Idk what any of that means to be honest. But that said still mad...not sure where we can go exactly, we don't want to go back to denver. Michigan and Minnesota have established abortion rights like colorado, so we are considering looking at if rent prices are more reasonable in those states. Sure we would miss seeing the mountains but the great lakes are cool to and if we can't afford colorado what choice do we have.

Have you thought about buying?

Pretty sure with that hike it got close to 30 year mortgage monthly payment.

You do want to pay down enough to avoid mortgage insurance though.

We have thought of that for sure, but we cannot afford to do that....like we can't even save up or for it currently. We were expecting for the rent to be raised more like 80 dollars than 200 so a lot of money we would have probably saved up will have to go to the increased rent price. Plus they will likely raise it again next year so we have to figure out some other place to move to in a year. We may even have to move out of state idk.

Have you considered New Mexico?

Our housing problem is so screwed up:

1. Given that the tech industry is the main industry spurring much of the skyrocketing housing costs, everybody who isn't a highly paid software guru has been shut out of the areas that are known tech hubs (SF Bay Area, Seattle, etc).

2. We build too many "luxury" homes and apartments, and not enough homes for the working class.

3. We market certain neighborhoods toward "young artists" through building a bunch of lofts, but gentrification quickly takes hold and said artists have been priced out of those communities. Yet Madison Ave. continues the "young artist" marketing campaigns.

4. We allow investment groups to buy homes and apartments as if they were shares of stock, which they leave vacant and don't rent out to anybody.

5. Worst of all, we have not honored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that housing is a basic human right.

We're fortunate to have rent increases limited each year, usually to around 2-3% or so maximum. But landlords just find a shady excuse to evict people and get new tenants at higher rent -> but if they get caught they can get fined pretty heavily.

MOST people I know who have affordable rent basically have decided that they will never move. Ever. They can't afford it.. because their rent would go from $1300-1800 or whatever low price they're paying from 10 years ago to $3-4k+ overnight.

As I posted in your other thread, maybe you need to pair up with another couple and split the rent on a two bedroom? Make it more affordable for everyone. IF I end up moving, that's my plan. Rent a full house and get another few roomies to keep the price down at, or under, $1000/person. 5 bedroom house Can be under $1k/bedroom, 4 bed will be $1k/bedroom including utilities I think.

What kind of a apartment are you in? Are you in a large apartment building, or an upstairs or basement apartment in a 2 or 3 family house?

If the latter, or even if you're in a small apartment building run by a mom-and-pop landlord, I'm wondering if perhaps you could try to make some sort of deal with the landlord, e.g. to do some regular minor maintenance chore in exchange for lower rent?

Get a property managers licence and then apply for a job as a property manager of a small apartment building somewhere and get discounted rent included in your compensation package - if you think you could manage that job.. interviews, rent contracts, collecting payments, banking/book keeping (which they may contract out to someone else), basic handyman stuff & contracting to others if it's a higher level task.

A guy I know who's been in the same building for 26 years as a property manager of 55 units pays $900/mo for a 2 bedroom. Market price is closer to $4k. The building owners really like him and his work so they pay him his salary And keep his rent low because he's worth having there.

He had to start out managing a very small building for a handful of years and so his income was lower than welfare rates to start off with as I guess he got a % of the rent collected. Once he had built up a good work reputation he graduated up to bigger buildings. It IS one way to reduce rent costs.

But it's probably much easier to simply find roommates to split the rent with somewhere.