Yeah, unless you wanna live in a box under a bridge (but even that's becoming more challenging), you'll find those prices you quote to be very accurate. And at $1500 you're not living in a nice area. That's about the cheapest we could find for a two bedroom in Clairemont with lead paint on the walls and asbestos in the ceiling. And buying is no better. $500K here will get you a square box in a "gentrifying" section of town and it'll need a lot of work.

Tldr: housing is NOT cheap on a national basis...only by comparison to NYC and the Bay Area. An easy Google search shows how unaffordable it is here.

So it's great here if you've got, or can make, a lot of money. But for everyone else, it's tough.