After 3 years, we finally have a wonderful neighbor renting upstairs.
After 6 months, she's moving.
$1,550 for an attic. OMG.
I have no idea what our millionaire landlords are thinking, but no one, or couple, is going to be able to afford an attic at that price.
Have I told you how much I love California?

The last apartment that my wife and I rented in Cambridge, MA, went from 450 per month to 850 per month from one day to the next--and this was back in 1982, when 850 was real money. We moved asap. The problem we faced was that we had five cats. Have you ever tried to talk to an apt. owner and said, "We would like to move in, but how do you feel about five cats moving in with us?" Not easy. We tried all sorts of tricks--we got down to Platonic essences as one point: "how do you feel about cat." Finally we started inviting potential landlords/ladies to check out the apartment where we were living, and one of them though that we did pretty well for having five cats, and she rented out an apt. to us--the next town out from Boston, Arlington, in a neighborhood that at the time was pretty reasonable. I suspect that nowadays it's not reasonable. Last time I was in Boston, I checked out rental values. Yikes! I don't know how people afford to live there.

This room cost $2,000 a month
You can believe it, man, it's true
Somewhere there's a landlord laughing till he wets his pants

Lou Reed - Dirty Boulevard

I will miss him.

You can all consider yourselves lucky that you don't live in NYC. I rented a small loft in Manhattan from 1999 - 2003 (Al, you and your family visited a time or two). 1,000 sq ft — basically one big open room with a galley kitchen, W/D hookups, one bath and one closet! $3,300/mo!!!

And speaking of Boston, yeah, I check the apartment listings every few weeks because, by hook or by crook, I plan to move home in a year or two. But for a Boston area rental, I'll have to pay at least double what my mortgage and HOA fee, combined, are in Dayton!

These prices are insane in renting places now in California. Complete ripoffs.

oh yeah--NYC is worse than Boston. Salaries in Boston don't keep up with the costs (personal experience!). How about NY? Or San Francisco?

BUT you still get Renter's credit on your state income tax don't ya?

Not that that is a big deal, but it lowers the pain from a 10 to a 9.5 !

Problem is...
it's not just the rent...
as the price of EVERYTHING climbs
you're left with NOTHING in your pocket
to cover the INEVITABLE rent increase when it
DOES come, from there it could be Tail-Spin City.

Always living that close to the edge ...always waiting for
"The Other Shoe To Drop" (A Transmission Job or whatever)
can get to be too stressful to ...umm... LIVE WITH ...at our age.

btw sorry about the loss of a good neighbor.
It can make a tremendous difference in your
personal comfort/enjoyment level.

We've lived in this apartment (upper floor of
a 2 family dwelling in the suburbs of Newark)
for nearly 30 years, and have seen downstairs
neighbors come and go, but in the last 10 yrs
we went from the BEST to the WORST >EVER<
"In One Swell Foop." just sayin' GOOD LUCK.

The 11:38 minute jam... no less.