Quote:
Originally Posted by suzzer99
Poor people don't travel much, so they often aren't exposed to very much outside their home neighborhood. That and they are too busy just keeping their head above water to think to move to somewhere with more economic opportunity. My impression is that moving never really even occurs to them.
I moved from KC to SF with $500 to my name. But I knew I could borrow another $1k or two from my parents if I really needed to. Even that kind of money is an insurmountable obstacle for a lot of people.
Moving to an extremely high cost area with no money often requires that you have a place to crash for a couple of months while you get a job, etc.
When I first moved to NYC 20 years ago, the rental market was tight, and not just in Manhattan. SOP for landlords was to demand first (and sometimes last) month's rent, plus a security deposit. Some landlords required a co-signer. Even though it is against the law, many landlords refused to deal with renters unless they worked through a broker. Standard broker fee was 15% of annual rent for one year.
I paid $735 a month for my first apartment in Brooklyn. It was a complete dump. It had only one room, plus the bathroom. There was no tub or the shower in the bathroom, though there was a free standing tub in the main room (lol privacy). There was no kitchen, just a free standing oven/range. The heat went out in the winter for two months and my landlord told me to turn on my stove.
Even for that dump, twenty years ago, I had to make a $3K nut. In today's terms, that's a lot of upfront cash for someone who is indigent.