And what city? Good or bad neighborhood? How big of a place?
I live in a fair but not great neighborhood in Boston. Tiny studio apartment, but in a great building.
I pay $910. That’s pretty cheap for around here.
We have a $1500 mortgage payment for a 1200 square foot 3/2 home with 2-car garage.
One bedroom in Portland, ME. $640 including parking but no utilities included. It’s got a LR, DR/Den, Kitchen, Bath, Bedroom, nice bay window overlooking City Hall (if I crane my neck). The parking sucks. It’s just a driveway in which 7 cars are jammed.
I lucked out though, I probably have the cheapest one-bedroom in this city, at least that isn’t a complete rat-hole. I am on the edge of a bad neighborhood though.
Tucson, central, kind of bad neighborhood. I pay $625 for a tiny, tiny 2 bedroom half of a duplex. But it has a new washer and dryer and a huge back yard. Plus it’s so small that your body heat can warm it up, so I save on gas. 
I could’ve gotten a normal-sized place in a slightly better neighborhood for what I pay here, but there was a move-in special.
Also central-ish Tucson. $700 for a decently-sized two-bed-one-bath townhouse. All appliances were brand new when I moved in. No private yard, which I’m going to be looking for in my next place.
Queens, NYC, very nice, almost suburban neighborhood (mixed apartments and single family homes) large 1 BR, $1250 includes gas, heat & water (and live-in super who is awesome). 21 minutes to midtown on the LIRR. We’re rent stabilized as well, so the rent cannot be raised more than a percent set by the city in any given year (usually ~3%).
Just before we moved in, they replaced all kitchen appliances & cabinets, redid the bathroom, refinished the floor (hardwood), upgraded the electric outlets and replaced all baseboard/windowsills.
Middle Tennessee - rural area with no crime and three cops as neighbors. 160 year old farmhouse and 14 acres and a barn. Mortgage is $640/month including taxes and insurance. Cost for the homeloan alone is $450. 15 years. 4.25%
StG
Burbs of Philadelphia in a small 1-bedroom apartment above shops. $661.50. Great neighborhood.
USD1040 for half a shipping container prefab. I have one room, a kitchenette, bath and closet. We have a mess hall (meals included) tennis court, pool and weight room.
I am paid cash for my accommodations, so I am “making a little money” the deal.
Is that considered a good deal? If I found something like that in Boston, I’d consider it hitting the jackpot.
Rural South. 3/2 house, 2 car garage, half-acre lot. No crime, sometimes get a deer wandering through the back yard. Current mortgage payment of about $600/month (includes home insurance and taxes), will be going down to about $550/month when my homestead exemption kicks in to reduce property taxes. Only downside is the lack of high speed internet access.
$1,950.00, for a small ranch style house int he VA suburbs of Washington DC. All other utilities, trash p/up, lawn care, etc are on me.
We have a mortgage now, but up til 2 years ago, I was paying $950/mth (inc utils) for a one-bedroom apartment in the Annex in Toronto.
Compared to other rents for the area, I was getting one hell of a deal, especially since I had the entire 2nd floor of a semi-detached all to myself, including a 100 sq ft deck out back. Plus the Annex is one of the best neighbourhoods in Toronto for a young professional - very hip, very safe, lots of great shops and restaurants, close to downtown.
My guardian angel was smiling upon me the day I found that place.
$2000 morgage for a town home with a 3000 sqft backyard, 3/3, and two story with a 1 car garage my truck doesn’t fit in. But I’m 10 min from the nearest ski place, not a resort it only has one lift, and about a half hour from the closest resort.
We own a 10-unit apartment building in southwest West Virginia; the mortgage on the entire building is $500.00. We live in the “owner’s unit”, which is a 3BR, 2 bath. Large living room, large kitchen (no dining room), semi-finished basement (under our unit; the basement under the rest of the building is a packed-dirt floor) that has a laundry room.
We pay the water for the whole building, as well as the utilities for our own unit.
On the whole, it’s a cheap way to live.
We live in Baltimore COUNTY not Baltimore City, but just by about half a mile. We pay $1000/month for 900 sq ft. 2br 1 bath.
We moved there for the schools. The quickest way to describe it is that it’s the absolute crummiest place in a really nice neighborhood. Ours is a 2 family house, but there aren’t any others on or near our street. I’m sure the neighbors consider it a blight.
Two years ago were paying $975 for a much more spacious 2br 2 bath apartment in a well managed complex with all sorts of amenities…but the middle school for that neighborhood has (had? I hope) fewer than 40% of it’s students achieving at grade level. That apartment was also in the county.
Just by moving over the city line the rents for comparable apartments drops by around $200. There certainly are luxury apartments, too. But I’ve never had any reason to research those too much.
Calgary, AB Canada - in the trendy Beltline area - $1100 for a ~1000 sq ft 2 bedroom in a 1960 brick walk up - and it is considered a good deal for the neighbourhood.
Albany, NY. I pay $800 for a two bedroom ranch home in a fairly nice neighborhood, with maybe a 1/2 acre lot, and even a shed and parking areas (no garage). This is actually a bit cheap for the area; generally rents are more like $1000, but we were lucky to snag this one.
I love this house.
What I pay is typical for my neighborhood but New York-wise it is considered an excellent deal. The thing of it is, is that it is notably inconvenient to any place considered “hip.” Astoria, Williamsburg, the Lower East Side, any place in Brooklyn – it takes an astoundingly long time to get to these areas from where I live. So, in that sense it is “undesireable.” But if you want a quiet safe neighborhood that is convenient to Manhattan and Long Island with reasonable rents, it is perfect. People seem to not know about it though, unless they grew up in Queens (I didn’t, but my mom did – my grandma lives down the block from me).
Cincinnati, in the University’s faculty neighborhood - tons of old Victorians, lots of trees, gaslights, an art-house cinema, about a dozen Indian restaurants, etc.
I pay $725 for a ~ 700 sq. ft. one bedroom with a dining room, balcony, and hardwood floors. It’s in a 1920’s-era courtyard building with a coin-op laundry, free off-street parking (a big deal in this neighborhood), and basement storage bins. My heat and water bills are paid by the landlord.
If I were planning on remaining a bachelor for the rest of my life, and they made this building in to condos, I’d buy my unit in a hot minute.