How much can I afford to pay in rent?

[Sooga]

The thing is, in certain places, renting is the only option for some people. For instance, in the L.A. area (where I live), if you want to buy a condo, you won't find a decent one in a decent neighborhood for less than $350k, which, unless you can put at least 20% down, will run you about $2k/mo or so (I asked around and did some research on that this summer). Contrast that with paying about $900/mo on rent, and it's not really much of a 'choice'. My plan right now is to keep renting apartments for a few more years until I have a good chunk of money saved up, and then move to somewhere a lot more affordable (i.e. probably out of california).

[Blarg]

California prices really are insane.

You can get by on spending a hell of a lot less than $2k a month, but you have to accept living in neighborhoods you don't want anything to do with, and maybe where the people don't want anything to do with you either.

There are actually a lot of city programs enabling very low cost mortgages, and community colleges offering courses on how to get those low mortgages. Friend of mine did that; smart girl.

But nobody without money is moving into nice neighborhoods anytime soon. It's a long process. Still, compared to paing rent, it rarely loses money. The nightmare stories I've heard my friends tell me usually count as nothing compare dto what they would have spent paying rent.