Apartment Hunting General Discussion

[FISHMANPET]

I have had 5 unrelated people in a three bedroom unit, but the landlord said that was the limit.

The fact that there were a lot of East African immigrants in that building, and some of them had plural marriages in Africa that are not recognized in America, it led to me overhearing an interesting conversation with the landlord and a tenant as I was walking out and I heard the landlord say "I know he's your husband, but..." My assumption is that her "family" wouldn't legally fit in a unit because they weren't legally a "family" here.

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[seanrichardryan]

interesting, though not unexpected. The elevator always takes longer when you're in a hurry.

https://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion ... tudy-finds

[blobs]

How...how are folks affording these rents?

[winterfan]

How...how are folks affording these rents?

I don't understand it either. Even if you're making 50-60K and the standard deductions are taken from your paycheck (health insurance, 401k, etc.), a studio apartment is still almost half your pay. That seems crazy to me. Are a lot of people just making a lot more money now? Or have people just accepted that rent is high and will consume 40-50% of your income?

[at40man]

Dorm. I lived at home and missed A LOT.

I guess that depends on the person. Not having a dorm and living with my parents the first two years allowed me to avoid student loans altogether. I don't feel like I missed much by not living in a dorm.

[trigonalmayhem]

How...how are folks affording these rents?

I don't understand it either. Even if you're making 50-60K and the standard deductions are taken from your paycheck (health insurance, 401k, etc.), a studio apartment is still almost half your pay. That seems crazy to me. Are a lot of people just making a lot more money now? Or have people just accepted that rent is high and will consume 40-50% of your income?

If you're talking about 40-50% of take home, yeah people are pretty used to that now. Also being a DINK household makes it pretty affordable and there are quite a lot of decent paying white collar jobs here lately. Average incomes here are above the national average by a lot more than housing costs are.

I think a lot of people find paying so much for rent weird because they don't think about how much the extra things that are included cost separately when you own a house. Sure your mortgage is less, but you have a ton of add on costs not included in that and if you're talking about the same level of amenities you have to buy a lot if stuff for your house and join a nice gym and have several more expenses.

[Tiller]

So, I've never rented (or owned) before and I'm looking for an apartment somewhere along W 7th/near the 54 bus, and I figured this would be a good place to ask for help.

It has to be at least a 2BR apartment (aka probably just a 2BR apartment to minimize costs). Aside from that, pets being allowed, having a pool, and in-unit laundry, respectively, are the top amenities we'd be looking for, though none of them are absolute must-haves.

A total cost of $800-$900/month would be nice, though we know the housing market is tight, so we're ready to make some trade-offs, either in price or amenities.

We have already been looking at some various apartments and trying to do research, but again sorta new to this, so any help would be appreciated.

[VAStationDude]

You're not going to get any amenities for that money. My last apartment four years ago before the housing market went bonkers cost more than your price and it had none of your amenities.

[Tiller]

Yeah, we sorta figured that. We've been trying to figure out whether to drop them or to bite the bullet on rent, or some in between, though we're pretty clueless about the market. It being a 2BR that hasn't broken down in some major way is basically our baseline.

[xandrex]

Even though I assume St. Paul is slightly cheaper than Minneapolis, I haven’t seen a decent 2BR rent for $800-900 in…years. It’s even getting hard to find good 1BR units in that price range (I know because that was my price range when I was apartment hunting last year).

In that price range, you’re likely looking at a 60s/70s-era box-y white apartment with zero amenities (no pool, basement coin-op laundry, maybe a parking spot) or not-terribly-updated pre-war building (again, not a whole lot of amenities).

It seems like the only places that have pools and/or in-unit laundry are the new places. And you’re definitely not getting a 2BR unit in those anywhere near your budget. You might be able to get laundry in a house, though the only pool you’ll get there is a kiddy pool you buy at Walmart.

As for pets, cats are generally good anywhere. Dogs are trickier.

[seanrichardryan]

The only places along W7th with the amenities you're asking for, *minus the price*, are:

Victoria Par-k http://www.victoriapark-apts.com/Apartm ... %5D/86916/
River Crossing- http://www.rivercrossingapts.com/Apartm ... %5D/34167/
Oxbo- http://www.oxboliving.com/floorplans.aspx

When I rented a 2br 8 years ago it was $1000. My short stint in a studio 2 years ago was $875. Neither had any amenities to speak of, minus onsite laundry.

On the more affordable end:

Highland on Park- http://www.highlandapts.com/property/highland-park
Sibley Manor- http://sibleymanor.com/index.html

This might be the sweet spot, if you can get in:

Davern Park- http://stpaulavenueapts.com/as_davern-park

[Didier]

A guy I know will pay you $1000 to take over his lease at Vintage on Selby.

https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ram/ ... 83669.html

[seanrichardryan]

So that's what a mobile island is!

[mamundsen]

$1945 for 867 sq ft. DAMN. I just don't understand it.

[QuietBlue]

Yeah, that seems like a lot of money to basically live off of a freeway ramp. Especially when there are very likely much less expensive places only blocks away. You could probably rent a whole house in the area for not much more than that.

[Anondson]

Apartmentlist.com put out a report of median rents in the Twin Cities.

http://www.twincities.com/2017/04/03/mi ... t-paul-mn/

Minnetonka is the most expensive 2-bedroom at $1,730, St. Louis Park ranks 2nd at $1,700, Minneapolis is 3rd at $1,640

St. Paul is 9th at $1,200

Averages over citywide.

[QuietBlue]

I wouldn't have thought that Burnsville would have higher median rents than St. Paul, but now that I think about it, I know that several big apartment complexes there have changed hands in the past couple of years and have had renovations. Still surprised to see it higher than Eagan, though.