The rent is too darn high

Post date: 2024-04-22 12:20:04

Torn between re-signing my apartment lease despite a dramatic rent increase (over 20%) and moving. It should be an easy decision, but finding a new apartment would mean a significantly longer commute and/or losing some amenities I kind of depend on. Plus... I'm hopefully buying a place next year, and I hate the thought of moving twice in such a short time span.

In favor of staying:

I can afford it, barely.
I don't want to move twice.
I really like having a dishwasher. I will have more migraines if I don't have air conditioning. I really like having in-unit laundry, although I could be persuaded to give that up. All of these are amenities that are not very easy to find in my price range.
I like my shortish commute.
I have had some terrible landlords in my time and the thought of gambling on a new apartment where I don't know how much they care about maintenance is giving me hives.

In favor of moving:
My personal feelings of outrage at being charged in the neighborhood of $1800 for an apartment that's so small I had to put my dresser out in the hallway.
I feel like I should be saving more money than I am, and that will be hard to do if my rent goes up by that much.

These don't seem as strong as the reasons in favor of staying, but whenever I look at that rent number I think "I can't spend that much" and "I shouldn't spend that much" and "What on earth makes them think I'm going to spend that much."

(If you know where I should rent in Milwaukee, please by all means let me know, but it has to be under $1500 including parking and pet rent! It doesn't make sense to move for someplace much more expensive than that, because I'm going to have to pay for movers twice.)

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