Rental Rates – From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

The Associated Press carried a story that showed the effects of the North Dakota oil boom on rents there.

The AP says the average rents in Williston, ND are the highest in the US, with a 700-square-foot, one-bedroom unit renting for nearly $2,400 a month. $2,400 a month!

AP says an apartment that same size in New York City would be just over $1500, or just over $1400 in Los Angeles.

Just for the sake of ridiculous comparison (or non-comparison, as the case may be), the first apartment I rented in Huron in August 1973 cost $65 a month (it was a dump!), and a few months later I "moved up" to paying $85 a month for a much nicer place, a unit in a motel that isn't there anymore. But with that one I got free cable, and clean sheets and towels every Friday!

My first apartment in Sioux Falls cost $150 in January 1975, and it was almost more than I could afford on a TV reporter's salary.

Sure, the economics are all different now, in salaries, buying power, all of that. But things have changed a lot, haven't they?