$3000 for what? That seems high outside of in-demand urban areas. In the rural parts of Oregon and California where I've lived, $2000 would get you a nice house with 2 or 3 bedrooms, and $1750 would get you a studio or 1 bedroom pretty easily. It just depends.

As a single dude, I don't think I've ever paid $3000 for rent, anywhere I've lived, urban or rural. I think $2200 was the max and that was for a nicer short term rental.

Some figures: https://www.apartments.com/rent-market-trends/us/

3 bed 2 bath house in the suburbs. In an above average, but not affluent area outside of a major city.

Average rent for the city + suburbs is around $2400/month but that includes houses as well as apartments.

It looks like the link you shared is focused on 700sqft apartments. The national average rent for a 3 bed house shows to be $2400

Yeah, I can believe that.

I've never been rich enough to be able to rent a single-family house to myself, only with several roommates or a partner. So to me "rent" has always been "cheap small apartment in a relatively safe but not luxurious part of town". It's all relative :)

Even now, with a steady partner, both mid-career and in our late 30s/early 40s, we can only afford to rent one half of a duplex (for about $2000). That gets us 2bd/2ba next to a nice little hiking spot though, so we feel quite lucky!

It's a very different life than the millionaire FAANG folks live, I assume. We barely scrape by month to month, but we're content and grateful for what we do have :)

Just means no Vision Pro in our futures, lol. But if someone comes out with a good $300-$500ish wearable virtual monitor, I'd love that. Curious about the Xreals...

Detroit Michigan rents out studios for like 600-700 bucks

Have you ever wondered where the people who make less than $70k/year live?

No, I know people who make that much.

They are either married or have roommates and spend roughly %20 of their income on housing.

At $140k/year that works out to about $2300/month.

There are also countries outside the US. Rent is different per country and region and lifestyle and age range and a whole bunch of other factors

Lots of places (specially southeastern portion of the US) if you work remote - studio sized apartments in Georgia can easily be found for around 1000 / month.

I lived in the Stone Mountain area a few years back in a small house (2bd 1ba) for about $1200 / month.

It looks like my gut reaction was due to a mismatch in what is being rented.

I live in the suburbs where apartments are rare. The average renter is a family renting a 2-3 bedroom house for around $2400/month.

> I lived in the Stone Mountain area a few years back in a small house (2bd 1ba) for about $1200 / month.

a quick peak at zillow shows only one house listed for less than 1400/month in Stone Mountain. Average for a 1200sqft 2b1b today seems to be around 1800/month.

I'm sure its more now than it was ~5 years ago. A cursory glance on Trulia shows you can still snag reasonably sized houses for around $1400-1600. It doesn't have to be Stone Mountain (Tucker, Decatur, etc are all adjacent) and fine areas.

There's not a huge number, but I see some:

$1600 / month (3bd 2ba ~1400sqft) https://www.trulia.com/home/5449-pepperwood-ct-stone-mountai...

$1400 / month (3bd 3ba ~1400sqft) https://www.trulia.com/home/640-woodcrest-manor-dr-stone-mou...

$1600 / month (3bd, 2ba, ~1100sqft) https://www.trulia.com/home/1616-w-austin-rd-decatur-ga-3003...

So it is very doable in Southeast US. I'm not sure where you live where the average rent is $2400 for a similarly sized 2-3 bedroom house, but if you work remotely - it's trivial to find significantly cheaper rents.

I live in a fairly urbanized walkable city so I haven't rented a house in a while. Here $3k / month would get you a pretty posh pad, but it's far more than I spend on my flat.

i live in Portland OR and we visited your area 3 years ago. i was amazed by the affordable price of big, nice houses in fantastic locations outside Atlanta. always front of mind when i think of best-value places to move if we ever decided to uproot