Better be a close roommate to rent a 1bd Apartment. I’ve had roommates when I first started out over 50 years ago after college. But it was 2-3 bedroom apartment. Those start at $2,000 in the WORSE parts of town. Any decent area is north of $3,000/mo.
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Yeah that would be a problem. In college we rented converted garage, basement, or single room from private folks but they all provided separate single beds. Never had a room mate after college except my wife.
It should be noted that someone working full-time in NH @ $20/hr takes home $2,932/month after-tax ($35,185/yr) due to the low income tax they pay (7.8% effective federal rate and 0% state).
In 1994, my first job out of college paid $30K/yr ($14.42/hr) which is equivalent to $62K ($29.80/hr) today. Even on that income, I needed a roommate in a 2 bedroom apartment (Detroit suburb) and never would have expected to be able to afford my own place. I think expectations have changed a lot in the last 20 years.
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I noticed the car livers on a business trip to LA in 1960. Also the public parks were full of people living in tents.
I’m fully sympathetic to folks having a difficult time these days but there have been many that had difficult times for decades and found their way through it all. Ask your folks or grand folks about it. Sleeping on orange crates when they used to be wood, victory gardens, second and third jobs, etc.
When Bruce Williams was alive had had his no nonsense radio show, his answer to many of people complaining about their condition was MOVE. No jobs, move, prices too high, move. Of course Bruce was extraordinary and not everyone could do what he did. It wasn’t too many years ago in that little town by the lake and the South Dakota border, that you could buy a house for under $20,000. Folks drove 30 miles for jobs. You could rent a farm house for a couple hundred a month. Often they were just burned down rather than go empty.
Just saying there are ways and choices to be made.
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After I retired from the Air Force in 2001, the wife and I started RVing around the country trying to decide where to settle down, we were both originally from upstate NY, but it had been over 30-years since we called NY home and it had changed so much, it wasn’t home anymore… While staying at the RV Camp ground on Little Rock AFB, northeast of Little Rock, Arkansas, we became friendly with the Camp Ground Manager and his family…
They were from a rural part of Arkansas and the Dad had lost his trucking job when the business went bust. They had lost everything and had managed to get the job as manager at Little Rock AFB. What really irritated me was their compensation was only about $10 a day and a free campsite. They were on call 24-hours a day, they were expected to clean the shower/bathroom facilities, take care of the laundry room, and perform the grounds maintenance (mow the grass and general camp clean up…). All this for $50-$70 a week and a campsite that normally cost only $3.00 a day,
They did not have an RV, or a trailer, or even an old camper, they lived out of three tents set up in the no-facilities area… I really wanted to do something about this; the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) director had taken advantage of this family. The Dad was not even considered a government employee, they paid the Dad out of miscellaneous funds as a “casual expense.”
As a retired Chief Master Sergeant who had served as a Senior Enlisted Advisor, I could still raise a stink at Command Level, but under the circumstances, I might have made things worse, they might have lost what little they had and maybe MWR would have to submit a request for Contract Services that the family could not qualify for… So we helped them out the best we could for the couple of weeks we stayed there.
To pick up some extra money, they bought and resold some items that RVers often need, like: Electrical Adapters, Toilet chemicals, a sewer kit seal, RV-friendly toilet paper, a water pressure regulator,
drinking water hoses, leveling blocks, and some other stuff…
The Dad needed to make a run for some supplies and I offered to drive to the RV Sales Store. While down at the business, we joked that he needed to look at their “Re-Sold Lot” and they told us they had a lot for “used units” and I said, no we need the lot for the units that you can’t sell.
We told them about the families’ predicament and that they cannot afford a used unit. The folks at the RV store told us to keep shopping and they had some things to talk about…
The came back a little while later, and very apologetically (I think so they did not insult the Dad…) and told the Dad that they had taken in an old Airstream Camper as a trade-in, but it was not worth the time to fix it up for sale. They said the engine did not run, it needed new tires all the way around and it did not have the modern conveniences like a microwave. But it was in pretty good shape, it was clean, the plumbing was good, it had a full kitchen (three burner stove and a small double sink), and the furnace worked, but it had no A/C unit. If he wanted it, it was his to take… Dad was estatic…
I asked if it could be towed and they laughed and said, “How do you think we got it here?” I told them that I can tow it with my truck (Ram 2500…). But the Air Force Base does not allow unregistered vehicles to be driven onto the base and I asked if we could borrow some Dealer Plates and they agreed and mounted them like the plates had been issued…
This was 2001 and the bases only used a base decal for entrance to a base back then (oh, how things have changed…).
I towed the Airstream to the base, told the guard that I had just bought it and was towing it to the base automotive hobby shop for repairs and he waived us in… At the campground, we pushed the unit into one of the camper spots and then jacked it up and leveled it and set it on cement blocks… We knew it wasn’t going anywhere and we did not want it looking like a wreck with flat tires…
And perhaps the best part was when we hooked up the sewer pipe for the Gray and Black Tank, and the Mom got to turn on the water supply to the unit for sink, shower and toilet… and she said, “Thank God, now I can stop wearing boots to the toilet at night…”
I remember the show well, his advice is still as solid today as it was years ago… Here is a YouTube link to almost 50 of his 3-hour broadcasts…
Got it. Thanks. Used to listen to him all the time.
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That’s IF you have a job in NH. Over 100k people who live in NH travel out of state for work (mostly being MA)., so MA will collect that income tax. But apartments and homes in MA is even worse.
That’s a fair point. I guess what I’m saying is that expectations are higher today than they used to be. Expecting to have your own place to live (without a roommate or two, or partner) on $20/hr is as unrealistic today as it was 30 years ago.
40 years ago you could get a 2-3 bedroom apartment with a few people for lower wage workers. But today…you need 6-10 people for the same apartment. I’ve heard of situations of 2-3 married couples renting apartments together.