I’m looking to move.
I don’t want to leave the US.
I work from home so I can live just about anywhere, but I must have reliable phone service (preferably a land line) and I must have an internet connection but speed doesn’t matter (at least not yet).
I read on these boards sometimes about people paying rents of $500-$600 a month and I think you have to be kidding, right?
ok
It posted before I was done.
Right now I live in MD (Anne Arundel County) and the cheapest rent I have found is just under $1200 for 2 bedrooms. That is in a not so nice complex, when my niece lived there her car was broken into 3 times in one year. For anything even approaching nice I am looking at $1400+.
I could move closer to Baltimore where it’s cheaper, however the crime rate is going to go up and at 55 I’m getting a little old to be dealing with drug dealers on every corner. The last time I lived in the city my car insurance more than doubled, so the cheaper rent is probably not worth it.
So without giving out too much personal info
What is the going rate in your part of the country?
In Kansas City, you can live in a pretty nice loft or house for $1200.
If you want to live somewhere where your car may or may not get broken into, you can easily spend less than $500.
You can live in a pretty decent place for $7-800.
Central Valley, California. Modesto area. 500-600 is pretty much rock bottom for a POS apartment or a lot in a mobile home park.
I’ve heard stories about the SF Bay Area of people who are paying over 1000 for an eight hour shift in a room.
You don’t want the Boston area if cost of living is a concern. Most of the Northeast is out for that matter unless you want to live in some place really sketchy or very rural.
Near where I live you can buy entire move-in ready houses, with yards, for under $5,000.
But you’d have to live in Flint, Michigan. 
Note that within ten miles of Flint there are very upscale, low-crime cities (Grand Blanc, Davison, Fenton, Linden), and even there apartment rents for nice places are under $500 a month.
Hartford, CT and the immediate suburbs thereof. You can get something for $600-$800 but you’re probably talking about one of those places where you’re worried about the car being broken into. There’s a significant supply issue for studio/one bedroom apartments in quality areas - the occupancy rate for such apartments is high 90s % downtown, even given the other economic issues the city has - so the pricing on the nicer places ends up being $900-$1200 for a one bedroom and $1400-$1600 for a two bedroom. Once you get about 20-30 minutes out though the pricing drops a bit, especially if you’re heading east (i.e. away from NYC, but still not quite close enough to Boston; it’s also pretty rural, though).
Northern Wisconsin area rents - for my smaller town/rural area at least - you can get a really nice 3 bedroom house rental for under $500, or a duplex style for around $300.
There are comprehensive cost-of-living analyses all over the internet, taking into account rent but also taxes, groceries, transportation, etc. Generally speaking, the South is your best bet. Memphis is a popular choice for liberals seeking to take advantage of the lower cost of living without too much Southiness. If that’s not a requirement, pack your bags for Plano or any number of perfectly nice, cheap cities. Get yourself a two-bedroom single family home for a $750/mo. mortgage.
If all you truly require is a phone line and internet (and not Starbucks, much less an art museum), then $500-$600 is plenty of rent to live in many parts of the country–even the beautiful ones. Move to the mountains of Colorado. Gunnison is nice.
I live in Indianapolis and my rent is $500/month for a 2 bedroom. The neighborhood isn’t great but it isn’t bad either (my brother lives in Chicago, so I know what a bad neighborhood looks like). I am close to all the stores too. Finding rent for $500/month in Indiana or the midwest in general (just so long as it is in a small/midsize town or not in the heart of a large city) is not hard at all. Condos in low crime areas (at least according to the Indy crime map which tracks crimes reported) start at 40-60k. So you add in the mortgage and condo fees and that comes to about $500/month.
I paid $500/month in college also.
Springfield, Illinois:
You can rent a decent apartment in a decent neighborhood for ~$700 per month. The lower your rent gets, the less desirable the neighborhood gets.
If you want to get a little more rural: in the town where I work (Taylorville, IL: Pop. ~11000, about 30 miles from Springfield), I just saw a lovely 2BR- 1BA, ~950 square foot house for rent for $650 per month.
And if you want to get even more rural: in the town where my wife hails from (Viburnum, Missouri: Pop. ~900, about 85 miles from St. Louis), you can rent a lovely 2BR - 1BA, ~950 square foot house for rent for probably $450 per month, if not less.
Eh. I live somewhere pretty damn rural, and the going rate for a 1 bedroom apartment is about $750 a month. To reach $500-600 a month in the northeast, you’d likely need to live in the northern most parts of NH, VT or ME.
Michigan’s UP. You can get an apartment in a nice place for $500-$600/month. Alternatively, you can buy a pretty nice house for about the same payment.
If you go a few miles outside of the semi-hip college town I live in, you can get by with a LOT less. I’m talking pretty decent houses starting at $50K, maybe even less. But you’re living in a working-class (but semi-cute and safe) town with not a lot of entertainment options.
Plus, there’s snow & cold. If you don’t like that, don’t live here. IMO it’s one of the best things about this place, but most people don’t share that feeling.
Mr. Athena and I both work from home as well, and can live anywhere, and we chose here. Internet service is great. Lots of outdoor activities, from biking to hiking to skiing to sailing to kayaking. Decent enough restaurants and nightlife (though nothing that would compare to a city). Pretty woods, no long commutes, friendly natives.
I’m inside the beltway, so no help for the OP here. I’ve been out of the rental market for a long time, so I just looked up the rent for a 2 bedroom apartment at the complex nearest me. $1,730 - $2,180/ month for 1060-1215 square feet. I don’t think they’re especially nice, but the location is pretty good. There’s another complex nearby that’s section 8, I think - their 2 bedrooms are smaller and go for just under $1300/month.
San Francisco. My favorite city so far, but outrageous rents. Good public trans, OK food prices, but finding a studio below a grand is tough. I’ll have to move within a couple of years.
Missed edit :
In a not rich, not poor, but good, 60% Chinese neighborhood in the Sunset, we pay just over $1500 for a small 1-bedroom. I just checked Craigslist, and there are currently three one-beds under $1500 in SF that allow cats for rent. In all of San Francisco Craigslist.
The cost of living in the Greater Dayton (Ohio) area is very reasonable. Furthermore we have:
Nice, safe suburbs.
Lots of green.
Plenty of low cost housing. Can buy a brick house w/ yard for less than what others pay in rent for an apartment.
Close proximity to WPAFB ensures lots of trickle-down money to drive local economy.
Very little traffic.
Easy access to major interstates (I-70 and I-75).
No water shortage; large underground aquifers.
No flooding problems.
Taxes relatively low.
Four seasons (autumn is particularly beautiful).
Good, public, two year college (Sinclair) and four year college (Wright State).
Lots of small towns.
Friendly people.
I’m used to Indiana and Illinois, the larger but not largest metropolitain areas of both, especially college towns which tend to have better cultural and entertainment offerings. You can get a nice multi-bedroom apartment for $600-$1200 depending on your definition of “nice”, and houses or condos in good neighborhoods, large enough for a single person/couple/single child family, starting at $100k.
Commerce, Ga. You can get a nice 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment for $475/month. That is in a gated community, and includes your water and exterminator. Each apartment has washer/dryer hookups, dishwasher, garbage disposal, storage, a deck. The rooms are good sized. The community has a pool, laundry mat, gym, sports court, and ample parking. Playground for the kids. Central heat and air.
Commerce is a small town, but it is 15 minutes from Athens (home of UGA), and an hour from Atlanta.
I lived in that community for a year, and there was never any trouble. I left the windows down on my car, left the doors unlocked on it, and often left the apartment unlocked as well. In fact, if I can find work out that way, I’m moving back to that community.
San Francisco: $1,500 for a minimal apartment, street parking only, probably no laundry on site.
Berkeley: $1,200, see above re: parking/laundry.
Twin Cities: $1,250 for a 2-story, 3-bedroom Craftsman home with a full basement, yard and garage.
Dubuque: I was paying $525 for a 2-bedroom apartment, off-street parking, laundry on-site.