Author Topic: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?  (Read 12260 times)

marielle

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What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« on: February 17, 2017, 10:21:16 AM »
Inspired by the cheapest house thread!

Living at home with your parents or crashing on a friend's couch for $200/month doesn't count. Roommates sure.

Cheapest was a $385/month student apartment with 3 other roommates (each paid $385) and this included a private bathroom, furniture, internet, water, and electric. Could've had a house for similar prices, but without the benefits of the individual leasing and walking distance to class. Nearly the worst apartments near the area, but it was worth it. A nearby complex with the exact same floor layout was $550+ a month, but it provided a false sense of security to parents since it was gated I guess.

There was a 3 bedroom house for rent near my work for $460 a month, but tenant had to supply a fridge and stove. Wtf? Anyone here rented something that cheap and was it BYOA (bring your own appliances)?

purple monkey

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2017, 10:22:33 AM »
$335 in 1995 in one bedroom 500 sft.

Those were the days!

marielle

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2017, 10:30:00 AM »
$335 in 1995 in one bedroom 500 sft.

Those were the days!

$534 in today's money! Not bad, especially if you're in a big city.

https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=335&year1=1995&year2=2017

Davids

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2017, 10:44:47 AM »
$325 per month in an off campus college apt (lived with 5 other guys, it was fully furnished and all utilities and cable TV covered)

Cwadda

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2017, 10:46:05 AM »
$450/month  + utilities. Living in an unfinished bathroom. I'm buying a house and moving out next week!

swick

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2017, 10:48:34 AM »
500.00 CDN a month for a three bedroom townhouse with a  nice little yard that backed up to a greenbelt. Granted, it was in the middle of nowhere but it was just super lucky timing on our part and LL was renting at a loss to balance out the gains on some of his other properties.

mandy_2002

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2017, 10:49:33 AM »
Half the rent in college was $325 ending in 2007.  Living in a nice part of the East Bay area with a roommate until 2016 was $600, which was the envy of all who knew me.  But currently I rent a ~900 sqft fully furnished apartment in a former soviet country for about $110/month.  If you can speak the language, global arbitrage is very powerful. 

KM77

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2017, 10:51:31 AM »
700/month all included in CT

It was a walkout in-law type 1 bedroom in a family's house on a lake.  It had lake views from the kitchen and living room.  Cheap and amazing....so lucky I found that!

mcneally

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #8 on: February 17, 2017, 10:55:28 AM »
My dad once told me that for a while in college he lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with 5 guys including him. I don't know what he paid but this was in Nebraska and the split had to have been well under $200 in todays dollars.

Dave1442397

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #9 on: February 17, 2017, 10:58:17 AM »
$250/month in 1990, had to pay a few extra bucks for the phone bill. No A/C, third floor apartment with a flat roof in the Woodlawn section of The Bronx. That was my hottest summer ever.

Looking at the pic, my room was the top left window of the middle building.

I moved from that to a basement apartment in NJ for $400/month. Utilities included, but it was an illegal apartment. I had a separate entrance, but no kitchen, just a bathroom. At the time, it worked.

horsepoor

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #10 on: February 17, 2017, 10:58:57 AM »
Twice I had summer jobs in college where I found ~300SF studio apartments for $300/month, in 2001/2002 (different towns in Oregon).  One was in a cool old Victorian house converted to apartments.  The other was in a slummy building over a barbershop. 

It's kind of funny - I paid $500/month for a 1BR apartment in grad school.  Now "my half" of the mortgage on our 3,000 SF clown house on half an acre is a bit less than that (PITI), and we've gained $135K in equity over seven years.

startingsmall

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #11 on: February 17, 2017, 11:00:27 AM »
Not the cheapest, but definitely the best bargain.

From 2006-2007, I rented this cute little house with a fenced yard in a walkable neighborhood for $600/mo.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/903-Wright-St-SW_Lenoir_NC_28645_M67880-32766#photo2
There are photos up, so I guess they tried to sell it recently? Anyway, it was a great little house for the price!

NextTime

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #12 on: February 17, 2017, 11:03:39 AM »
I split $450 rent for a 2 bedroom townhouse with a buddy back in college. It was section 8 housing though.

Also split $800 rent with 2 friends my last year in college for a 3 bedroom split-level home.

Rural

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #13 on: February 17, 2017, 11:07:13 AM »
 Third floor walk up studio apartment in a college town, $195 a month. However, I don't want to tell you what year this was (I was in college.) Let's just say that it would be a lot more in today's dollars.

RWD

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #14 on: February 17, 2017, 11:10:52 AM »
I paid ~$400 per month including food at a cooperative house during college in 2004. I guess that probably works out to about $250-300/month in just rent.

Laserjet3051

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #15 on: February 17, 2017, 11:13:10 AM »
Cheapest was $300/month large 1BR/1BA apt RIGHT on the water in Miami Beach. I could literally drop a fishing line out my window and reel them in.

Oh....this was back in 1992!

ketchup

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #16 on: February 17, 2017, 11:48:45 AM »
About $140/mo with utilities (per person).  2012.  Four people (two couples) in a 1 bedroom 500 square foot house.  Crazy cheap living.  Wouldn't move back there now, but it was an amazing opportunity at the time when we were all making very little.

RWD

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #17 on: February 17, 2017, 11:55:02 AM »
I paid ~$400 per month including food at a cooperative house during college in 2004. I guess that probably works out to about $250-300/month in just rent.
ketchup's post reminded me that this included all utilities and internet as well! Depending on how you want to count that I might just be winning this thread.

SEAKSR

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #18 on: February 17, 2017, 12:09:03 PM »
During a rather interesting period of my life I lived in a 3/1 with six other adults, and my total monthly budget at the time was $250. My share of rent and bills was ~110, food and transportation ate up the other ~140. Lived there for about six months. Looking back it wasn't the worst possible situation, so much as some of the worst possible roommates.

When I left I moved to an efficiency that cost 200/month including all utilities, with a shared bathroom and shared kitchen. I really did subsist on monthly trips to the grocery store (Ramen, bacon, instant mashed potatoes, cheap canned fruit, canned veggies, peanut butter, multivitamin, milk) and rolled my own cigarettes. This was all in 2003-2004. I was also at my thinnest then, cause I walked everywhere.

BrickByBrick

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #19 on: February 17, 2017, 12:10:36 PM »
$0 from living at home post-college with generous parents for a couple years (do I win? /facetious)
 
$250 + utilities (~$45) a month while sharing a four bedroom apartment during college.

YoungGranny

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #20 on: February 17, 2017, 12:17:26 PM »
$250 per person per month in a 4bd/2ba ~1800sqft house in 2012. There were perks to going to college in Indiana :)

AlmstRtrd

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #21 on: February 17, 2017, 12:28:36 PM »
$90! Three-bedroom house with three roommates in Boulder, CO. It was two blocks from the university. But this was in 1978. What do I win??

marielle

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #22 on: February 17, 2017, 12:30:21 PM »
$90! Three-bedroom house with three roommates in Boulder, CO. It was two blocks from the university. But this was in 1978. What do I win??

Nothing because it's $335 when inflation adjusted!

Maybe I should have made this a poll. :)

Spruit

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #23 on: February 17, 2017, 12:33:30 PM »
2006:
165 euros for a 18m2 room with 3 m2 balcony, shared other facilities in the apartment with 3 roommates as a student living in a college town. It was in an apartment hat had been shared by students since at least 1993 (found bank statements burried somewhere in a closet), we shared kitchen + living area + bathroom.

Average rent for a room (for a student sharing a house or apartment) was around 300-400 euros for something similar in the same town, so I got a pretty good deal.

SimpleCycle

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #24 on: February 17, 2017, 12:48:28 PM »
$415/month for a rented room in 2008, all utilities included.

AlmstRtrd

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #25 on: February 17, 2017, 01:30:24 PM »
$90! Three-bedroom house with three roommates in Boulder, CO. It was two blocks from the university. But this was in 1978. What do I win??

Nothing because it's $335 when inflation adjusted!

Maybe I should have made this a poll. :)

Darn! Foiled again! Speaking of living cheaply, my dad spent $64 in ten weeks traveling all over the US back in 1938. He stayed with friends and relatives... hitchhiked and hopped a freight train or three. PA to CA and back.

Catbert

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #26 on: February 17, 2017, 01:45:20 PM »
Cheapest rent was $125 a month for a 2 bedroom in a beach community.  Since I shared with a roommate it was only $75 a month. 

Of course this was 1971-74 so maybe not such a bargain (I had just gotten a raise to $2.50 an hour when I moved in).

Rimu05

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #27 on: February 17, 2017, 01:51:13 PM »
$350 currently living in my aunt's house. I have my own room and all.

Was going to move to a $700 all included apartment with a roommate, she quoted me that and I stayed!

My previous apartment with two roommates was $412 a month.

I'm amazed at how cheaply some here have rented. For me, it was $600 for a room in college and that was with utilities not included!

StarBright

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #28 on: February 17, 2017, 02:01:27 PM »
$500 a month for 350 sqft studio in Baltimore in the mid-aughts. It was a crappy crappy basement apartment (think it had once been a boiler room) and didn't have hot water and only had a two burner stove but it was in a really nice and safe neighborhood.

Cowardly Toaster

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #29 on: February 17, 2017, 02:33:06 PM »
$795/month for a very nice 2 BR house right next to the Olympic Natl Park in Washington.

raven2963

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What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #30 on: February 17, 2017, 02:41:05 PM »
$375 + utilities for 3/1 in 2002 - South Texas rented from a friend while building current home.  Rent on that house would now be about $1,400
« Last Edit: May 11, 2017, 05:07:07 AM by raven2963 »

galliver

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #31 on: February 17, 2017, 02:42:38 PM »
$200/mo in 2010. central IL, smallest bedroom in $800/mo 3/1 house with 2 roomies, one of whom was usually out. In-unit laundry, internet was included, other utilities maxed at probably 80-85/mo in Jan/Aug.

After 2 years I moved into the larger room and we decided not to look for a third, so rent went up to 400/mo.

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westtoeast

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #32 on: February 17, 2017, 03:21:36 PM »
$180 for half a room (split with another gal) in a 4 bedroom house (college, circa 2009 in Portland, OR).

I later moved into my own room and paid $310. What I would give for rent like that again!

SnackDog

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #33 on: February 17, 2017, 03:23:47 PM »
$200/mo for a shared 2/1 duplex in central Austin. The landlord had owned it for a long time and never raised rent. I also lived in a 1/1 apt in Houston for something like $150/mo while the owner was renovating the building. He was a jerk but it was well located in Montrose.

My rent today is eye watering. The monthly HOA fee alone is ten times those figures.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #34 on: February 17, 2017, 03:32:23 PM »
Cheapest is what I pay now.

$550 (my half) of a nice 1 bedroom apartment, includes a giant fenced backyard with fire pit and BBQ, electric, water, heat, lawncare, internet.


alsoknownasDean

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #35 on: February 17, 2017, 04:09:27 PM »
$346 a month (each), share house with five people. That was in 2013-14 (it was more expensive at first when there were four of us).

House was a bit of a dump, but hey, it was cheap and close to public transport.

There was a 3 bedroom house for rent near my work for $460 a month, but tenant had to supply a fridge and stove. Wtf? Anyone here rented something that cheap and was it BYOA (bring your own appliances)?

In every rental I've lived in, the tenants have been required to bring their own fridge and washing machine. I've had my current fridge for six years and it's gone through three moves :)
« Last Edit: February 17, 2017, 04:12:35 PM by alsoknownasDean »

crispy

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #36 on: February 17, 2017, 04:49:59 PM »
$117 per month for a cute 2/1 house with a large yard. This was 1998/1999. The whole rent was $350 split 3 ways.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2017, 11:15:11 AM by crispy »

SilveradoBojangles

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #37 on: February 17, 2017, 05:07:05 PM »
$286 in Berkeley in 03/04. This was for my portion of a rent controlled apartment (had 2 roommates), and was about 40% of rents at the time. It had been passed down for years by people who went to my high school. It was a foul hole (there was a mushroom/mold blob of sorts that grew out of the window sill periodically until beaten back with some bleach) in a great location. It was very fun. 

Orvell

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #38 on: February 17, 2017, 05:07:59 PM »
2011-2012 I shared a pretty shitty duplex with a roommate in a small town in Minnesota that defined LCOL. My portion of the rent was $220.
There was a lot that didn't agree with me about that place. The cost wasn't on the list, lol! I miss that rent.

MrThatsDifferent

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #39 on: February 17, 2017, 05:20:28 PM »
From 1997-2004, I was paying $200/month to rent a furnished room in San Francisco. Considering price and location, that can't be beat.

Zikoris

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #40 on: February 17, 2017, 05:37:05 PM »
$400 for a basement suite in Vancouver in 2005. It had no kitchen, and my landlords had to walk through it to get to their storage locker. I don't miss those days.

Saving in Austin

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #41 on: February 17, 2017, 05:50:50 PM »
I use to pay $300 a month from 1988 - 1998 for a little two bedroom house on 10 acres of land in Lakeside, California (East County San Diego). Those were the days.

My mortgage today is $2,100 a month for a 15 year fixed.

RunningintoFI

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #42 on: February 17, 2017, 06:27:21 PM »
$530/month currently in a 2 bedroom 2 bath 920 sq feet on a lake.  I had free rent in college when I was an RA though - does that count??

MsPeacock

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #43 on: February 17, 2017, 06:56:57 PM »
$135 for a bedroom, plus utilities in a 6 bedroom house in about 1986. I moved to a larger room in the house after a year and my rent was around $165.

MBot

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #44 on: February 17, 2017, 07:55:10 PM »
$625 for a 1-bedroom basement apartment in an owner occupied house.  including all utilities, Internet and cable in a nice Toronto neighbourhood (Leaside) in 2006. It would have been $575 if there was only one of us.

Even then that was way below market. The ad was one line with no pictures but given the neighbourhood I checked it out anyway. So glad I did.

Inaya

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #45 on: February 17, 2017, 08:06:42 PM »
$400/mo for a small 1b/ba in my rural college town in 2011.

Hargrove

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #46 on: February 17, 2017, 09:42:36 PM »
700/month all included in CT

It was a walkout in-law type 1 bedroom in a family's house on a lake.  It had lake views from the kitchen and living room.  Cheap and amazing....so lucky I found that!

Not bad. Around 500 for a solo 1 bdrm you can basically expect mold, in CT. O_o

Mine is what I pay now - 437.50 with a roommate. For CT, that's so low I'm not worried about not having equity until the landlord raises rent. He lowered it once in our half decade here and that was it - we're overwhelmingly his most stable tenants.

deborah

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #47 on: February 17, 2017, 10:03:33 PM »
You guys aren't even trying. $8 a week - so $34 a month (Australian) for a four bedroom house on enough land to have a humongous vegetable patch. It was a while ago, 1982, but it was in the middle of Melbourne (which is well known as having very expensive house prices). There were 4 of us sharing it, so it cost $2 a week each. The place is worth about $1.1million now according to the real estate estimators. It had a roof, and it didn't let in the rain, and some rooms had electricity, and it did have a reasonable kitchen and bathroom, unlike the previous house we lived in which was $12 a week for 3 bedrooms. Someone else had wanted to move in, so we looked for somewhere else and found a better bargain!

Kenbo

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #48 on: February 17, 2017, 10:21:02 PM »
160 a month for my portion.  I lived in a 3/1 for about a year with one of my best friend's and his girlfriend.  I had been introduced to Dave Ramsey but hadn't stumbled on MMM yet.  I did pretty good killing my auto loan.  Definitely wish I had a situation like that again.  Could be saving some bigger bucks if that were the case.

Nudelkopf

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Re: What is the cheapest rent you've ever paid?
« Reply #49 on: February 18, 2017, 12:21:35 AM »
Currently my share is $110/month. Live with my partner in a 2 bedroom unit with a decent sized yard.

All because I chose to work as a teacher in a small, rural town. (Our incomes are about $75k & $95k per year, so theres not tooooo many down sides of loving in this small town).