you'll recoup the extra costs by not having to move again in a year.

I like the way you think! And also: so true!

I'm moving from New Hampshire, so everything down here is a huge sticker shock.

I'm already thinking of what kind of flowers I could plant around the sunny south-facing backard, and trying to get permission to attack the invasive brambles along the road and planting a pretty perennial bed with privacy hedging (because I won't get enough of gardening at work, oh no sirree).

At the little studio I'm imagining how to get the parents to invest in a storage shed for their rusty yard tools, ten trash cans and toy, um, collection.

(Should 7-year-olds still own toy baby-carriages?)

The rent thing in other cities flips me out, becaue I make 1800 a month! But I pay 485 for aspacious one bedroom with attic. I hope if I lived in a more expensive place I would make more money doing the same job.

But I pay 485 for aspacious one bedroom with attic.

I'm paying 1150 for a studio. A fairly large studio with full kitchen, but still a studio.

We pay (only because Hec has been here 20 years) 932 for a 2-bedroom. If we moved out, the landlady could easily double it.

Our neighborhood is slightly insane, I've concluded. About nine months ago, a rundown but structurally gorgeous Victorian on its own lot behind a big fence (similar to Deb G's house, for those who've been there, but a single 2-story dwelling instead of split into 2 flats) went for 1.5 million. In the past 3 months, three different flats--not houses, flats--went for 1.5 million each.

Meanwhile, one of the Google sponsored ads that keeps popping up in my gmail account is announcing a 4-BR 3BA house in Noe Valley (a cleaner, quieter, sunnier neighborhood with exponentially fewer scary aggressive drunks and homeless elderhippies) for 1.1 million. Which is still ridiculous, but I cannot for the life of me imagine why we'd be almost half a million more for half as much house.

Places like Jersey City, Newark, Elizabeth, there's 1 BR's for 550 including most utilities, but I am not a 'burbs/urban girl, and roomies for as low as 400/month, but man, get a whiff of "countryside" down here and the prices double!

Another odd note is that landlords in the more urban settings are more likely to accept pets than those on the edge of horse country.

Well, I am living in the city with the highest murder rate inupstate NY!

Another quirk that I ran across in apartment hunting is the mystery of how landlords/ladies determine how much to bill you for oil/gas/heat/water/hot water/electricity when there's only one meter and one thermostat and one source for any of that. Is there a separate bill that the electric/oil/water company sends, or does the owner arbitrarily decide what your percentage was and give you a separate bill from themselves? And how can you be sure they're not stiffing you.

*stocks up on candles and sweaters and fanboys (the boys with fans, for the summer)*

Or the floor of the subway?

I noticed when I visited friends in NYC that they don't even touch the rails walking down into the subway stations.

I think you don't know if they're screwing you, Julie. If there's only one meter, there's no way to know.

Me, I'd tell my cats they have to be indoors now, and go for the place with the nice kitchen, but that's probably why I don't have pets, and bake a lot of cupcakes. :)

If there's only one meter, the landlord is making a wild guess. Ask to see the previous tenant's bills.