Hit me hard when I learned people in big cities pay $2,500 a month for a studio with no laundry

I was looking at rental prices online out of curiosity last night. Not moving or anything, just bored. Anyway I pulled up listings for San Francisco and New York and my jaw hit the floor. A 400 square foot studio with no washer/dryer in the building running $2,500 a month. And the comments on the forums were like 'that's a steal' or 'good deal.' Meanwhile I'm sitting here paying $950 for a two bedroom with in-unit laundry in a midwestern town. So here's the debate: are people paying that much just for location and job access, or is this some kind of collective insanity where everyone agreed rent can be this high? I get city life has perks but no laundry for that price? Has anyone else run the numbers on what you actually get for your money in those markets?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jamie1mo ago

Moved from Chicago to a smaller city a few years back and yeah, the sticker shock was the same. My old place in Chicago was a 1 bedroom with no laundry for $1,800. Now I'm in a 3 bedroom house with a washer and dryer for $1,200. The tradeoff is real. For me, the extra space and not having to haul quarters to a laundromat won out pretty fast. No regrets.

morgan_king361mo ago

and that's exactly what i've been trying to tell my friends who are still in the loop. like, yeah, okay, chicago has the food scene and the lakefront and stuff. but i'm sitting here in my living room right now and i can look out the window and see actual trees, not a brick wall. @sethfoster knows what i'm talking about. i think people forget that having your own washer and dryer is like a huge quality of life thing. i used to spend like two hours every sunday just sitting in a laundromat scrolling my phone. now i can throw a load in and go do something else. idk, maybe i just got old, but i'll take the quiet over the noise any day.

sethfoster1mo ago

@the_jamie nailed it. Same story: traded laundromat life for a house and never looked back.