Hi folks,

Besides Craigslist.org or Airbnb, I was wondering if there are any great resources in the search for the right apartment or group of roommates. I live in a popular American city and the going rate is at least $2300 for a tiny apartment or at least $700 for a private room living with multiple roommates in a bad neighborhood. I fear that if I don't find any suitable place the prices might go up next year. I am a middle age man with a modest income, some savings, and very good credit ratings. All my bills/rent have never been late or skipped. Currently living at home in the same expensive city.

Thanks!

Have you tried penislist.org?

You probably shouldn't because I don't think it's a real website and it would just be a waste of your time.

I thank you for bumping up my thread but fail to see what your troll post is implying. However, your profile picture, your 2+2 name, and your fascination with male genitalia matches up pretty well though.

I would move. Absurd pricing.

Try the Apartmenternet! Apartments.com

"At home" as in with your parents?

That is generally what is meant by that phrase.

Padmapper.com and hotpads.com are pretty useful

Tesh,

Do you live in SF, NYC, or elsewhere? The specific city matters, because the way people find roommates is very different and specific to each city.

$2300 for a tiny apartment where you live on a modest income? There are no great resources to make that situation work out. Living at home presumably for free sounds like your only option if for whatever reason you're unwilling to move to somewhere other than SF / NYC. Why don't you move?

I feel OP's pain. My rent is being raised $800 per month, so I've been looking. There are a lot of foreigners in the SF Bay area and apparently it's not so uncommon for them, but I see some weird ads. Like a 1 br apartment split among 3 (presumably hetero) guys, 2 sleep in the bedroom and there's a cot in the living room. All for a mere $850 each.

If you are in LA maybe try westsiderentals - those prices sound like LA prices.

This really depends on where you live.

Have you already exhausted your social network for leads?

If commute is important to you, you could scope out the area around your workplace, then start googling the names of the nearby places for reviews.

When I was living in Sydney, there was a news article about 16 people sharing a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment in the CBD. Including 2 that were living in a tent on the balcony...

I live in San Francisco if that helps. I make under $30,000 a year but I have savings so I can rent an apartment if need be.

It's not the price but the method of finding a place to live that I'm seeking. In a couple of years, the minimum wage will be $15 per hour. By then, the rent will be insane.

To get a better deal, rent a room from some old person who won't want young adults around. A decent amount of oldsters know about craigslist. Otherwise I'm not sure what resources are in SF.

You might even check the printed newspaper (!).

Also: what about the other way around? Rent something yourself and then look for room mates

Ridiculous prices.

To pay more than a half of take home pay for rent.......... Tough life.

I assume that you have to move out, for whatever reason and that you can't move to another city.

How do your friends live? I would additionally to the internet, just set the information, that you are looking for a room/appartment, free. May be one of your friends is looking for ways to reduce accommodation costs.

May be it makes sense to look at the homepage of your city administration. I mean they deal somehow with housing problems and at least in my city they have some info about affordable housing and how to qualify for this or that help in this area.

gl man.

A lot of people either live in the ghetto or some distance outside of San Fran and commute in to work.

Paying rent with your savings would suck.

Is buying a small starter home out of the question? Maybe your folks would help with this. They may be very happy to get you out of their house. You can still look for room mates and have more control of the situation.

GL

Herbert: starter homes around here start around $500k.

Tesh: what do you do? Are you in the service industry? Where do your co-workers live? I am in SF and know this housing environment well.

ED - How has the tiny house movement not caught on in SF? Zoning laws? Seems like SF would be one of the most vibrant areas for the movement and one of the few major metro areas that could get the zoning laws changed.

You still need land to put the house on. A lot of the tiny houses you see on tv shows are in a field, or on some land already owned. The residential land in SF already has buildings or is earmarked for complexes. You would have to get undeveloped land, because subdivided land usually has covenants with minimum sizes.

If you want to see how crazy bay area housing is, fire up zillow.com for Cupertino, set the upper price limit for a million, and see what you can get for under 7 figures.

chop,

Like pig says, not really land for that in SF. Tiny house thing has caught on a bit in surrounding areas, though. In SF, tiny condos have started becoming a thing.

Here's a 291 sq ft place for $300k. http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2015/0...quare_feet.php

Damn, SF is getting worse than Tokyo.

What is it about cities that are doomed to destruction?