What’s your point? We’ve already shown there are room for rent for the correct price range in some parts of the US. Are you trying to show us some weird people post ads on Craigslist?
I think he’s trying to show you that even $450 won’t get you a room there without “services added.”
If Grandma left somone a trailer, and they have foodstamps but need cash for the monthly lot fees, I could see them renting a bedroom for $150. There are neighborhoods in Atlanta and Detroit where you can buy a house for $15k. But you have to be able to pay the property taxes too. So yes, I could see a poor person trying to pull themselves up helping another person and getting what they need for $150.
Those deals are vanishingly rare, but within the realm of possibility. More likely for that you get the public sofa in a group home and not much sleep.
It’s an interesting addition to the thread. Now I know how to write an ad to get a roommate with benefits who will give me $450 a month.
This is the Straight Dope. Who said we had to stay on point?
TruCelt - Thanks. (It’s she, BTW).
StG
The only way this makes sense is if it’s a friend or special circumstance. If it’s a stranger renting to a stranger, there has to be something sketchy going on. Anyone in a safe neighborhood isn’t going to want to deal with the risk and hassles of renting to a stranger for $150/mo–that’s only $5/day. If someone can only afford $150/mo, they are likely going to have issues that will make co-cohabitating difficult. There are much easier/safer ways for the owner to make $5/day than rent a bedroom out for $150/mo. And if an owner were to agree to rent out a bedroom for $150/mo, it probably means they are desperate for money and don’t care where it comes from. There’s a good chance the owner would be on drugs or would steal from the renter.
Well, as What Exit? notes, it seems to be at least possible. I wonder where, in Alabama, that room for rent is located – I suspect it’s far more likely to be in a small town or the middle of nowhere, than it is to be in Birmingham. 
The OP’s limit of “in the U.S.” still gives a wide range of places, with a huge range of costs-of-living; $150 is going to get you a lot further in BFE Alabama than it is in Manhattan or Silicon Valley.
Special circumstances are either going to be positive (friend or relative cutting you a break) or negative (the landlord is crazy, somehow up to no good, or is planning to take advantage of the renter).
Outside of those circumstances, as noted by other posters, if it’s possible, it’s probably also far more likely to be a situation of a homeowner having a spare room to rent out (like the attic room), than a case of having one’s own bedroom in a multi-bedroom apartment with roommates. And, it’s likely to be either (a) in a small town or rural area, where the cost of living is far lower than in a big city, and/or (b) in a home owned by a very poor homeowner, for whom an extra $150 a month is a big deal.
I let a friend of a friend stay in my basement for $200/mo flat. That is 1/5 of my mortgage & utilities in a boring suburban town. He had been trying to live in his car in a storage garage down the street and I thought that was pretty bad so I let him stay here. He slept on his own air mattress in my un-finished basement.
I would do it for any friend of a friend if they asked, and MAYBE take $150 if that’s all they had but if I made this dude pay $200, then $200 is probably my price.
I had to kick him out when an actual close friend needed a place to stay. That friend stayed here for $50/mo which was the cost of half the utilities (he showered and did laundry a LOT). But that’s a whole different situation than Basement Dan.
For a stranger, it’d have to be well worth my while. At least $400, I’d say.
Yeah thats my view. If the rent is too low, then only dysfunctional people will sign up and apply. Because of that there is going to be a market floor on rent. Even if you could rent out a room for $150, it wouldn’t be worth the hassle and the kinds of people who can only afford $150 aren’t worth the trouble (unless maybe they are a good person who just happens to be disabled).
Even in a college town (which is full of functional but poor people) rent & utilities tends to bottom out around $250-400 per person for a bedroom.
On second thought, I think the rent at this place was actually $110/week…so never mind. :smack: