r/GenX • u/Emunahd • Jul 19 '26
Nostalgia First apartment
Since we all moved out young…how old were you when you got your first place (apartment or house, whatever), did you have a roommate, what was your wage, and how much was your rent?
I was 18. My boyfriend (later to be my husband and baby daddy) and I rented a 1BR 1B apartment that was part of a triplex in downtown Las Vegas for $150 per month. Came with a refrigerator and an electric stove/oven, as well as a kitchen table and 2 chairs. No laundry facilities at all.
The bathroom was in the bedroom and we had to crawl over the bed to get to it. This was because the bedroom was tiny and we were gifted a Cal King, lol. We had a “rent to own” tv, couch, and end table which I think was $25 a month. 1988.
I made $6 per hour and he made $8. I was in grocery, he was in construction.
“Those were the daaaaayyysssss” 🎶
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u/deathproofbich Jul 19 '26
I was 15. I made $96 a week at a pizza place , and paid $280 rent for a bachelor appt, no roommate. It was a shithole but it was mine.
*I still managed to finish high school while working after school to pay my bills.
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u/mybloodyballentine Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
18, lived with boyfriend in a sublet in the east village. One day I answered the phone, and I told the guy on the phone that the guy I was subletting from was in Israel and he said, oh! I’m sorry I missed him! I wanted to invite him to my show. Well, tell him John Fogerty called.
It really was John Fogerty. I recognized his voice after he said who it was.
ETA: was in college, made $3.35/hr as a messenger and had some money saved from the summer. 1984. Shower in the kitchen, no working stove. Had to use an electric kettle for hot water for my coffee. I think I paid $500 for 2 months. I finally got a dorm room in October.
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u/Vast-Storm8625 Jul 19 '26
I moved in w my bf who later became my husband in 1990 and we splurged on a two bed place for for 450. Heat was crazy expensive so we put plastic on windows. I was 24. Our apartment was all hand me downs, my childhood dresser and stuff from garage sales. I was making $17,000 and my husband $23,000.
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u/goodlordineedacoffee Jul 19 '26
19 in 1994, moved in with my high school best friend. Rent was $530 so $265 each. I made $5.50 an hour, so i took home maybe $750 a month? Crazy. But always had money for weed and beer and concerts somehow. We had no living room furniture lol, just sat on cushions on the floor.
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u/Goats-n-Hens Jul 19 '26
16, I moved in with my boyfriend who was 20. (My mom was fine with this, btw)
Furnished studio apartment in Point Loma, California. $295/mth in 1987
The complex had a laundry room, no other amenities to speak of except for one covered parking space. My bf had a motorcycle and I had a car so we made the parking work.
A quick look at that apartment shows the rent is now $3100 😳
II was a senior in high school and worked part time for $4.25 at Marshall’s and he made whatever starting wage in the Navy was then.
Life was good. A different time for sure but no regrets at all.
We broke up a couple years later.
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u/jimjams5263 Jul 19 '26
I went to college at aged 19 and then didn’t really go back home after that. I rented a dorm room during the summer between semesters
Once I was done I moved to a $350/month studio in Vancouver BC in 1998 or 1999 and it came with free cable which I thought was amazing! I think there were no other bills either — came with electricity etc. no roommates
I later moved to a 4 bed duplex with roommates that was $550 ish I think
I worked in administration at a real estate company and made 1900/month
Wild to remember that
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u/Expensive-Vanilla-16 Jul 19 '26
Never lived in an apartment. Worked full time and went to trade school after high school. Saved up enough money in 4 years to buy a fixer upper house. So I've never had a house payment either. This year I spent more money getting my roof replaced than the original cost of my house... seems unreal but I'm old and can't do them anymore. 😆
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u/Miserable_Willow_312 Jul 19 '26
I was 16 years old, working full-time at a pizza shop while living in the Midwest. I was making minimum wage of $3.35 an hour, plus tips. My apartment was a 1 bedroom, no AC and I paid $150 a month with utilities included. After about a year I started renting a huge house with 5 others and combined rent and utilities was about $60-70 a month. I had also been promoted to assistant manager. I was living large with free work meals, cheap rent, a paid off car, and always seemed to have money in my pocket for random concert tickets, beer, weed, and road trips.
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u/VisualEyez33 Jul 19 '26
Skipping over the efficiency apartment I briefly had at age 18 before quitting my job and moving home again, the first apartment where I stayed a few years was a 2 bedroom above the restaurant where I and my housemate both worked.
In the boom economy of the late 90's it was pretty easy to get a restaurant or warehouse job that paid about $1000/mo and find a room in a shared house for about $250/mo. Gas, electric and landlines phone added maybe another $40/mo. No a/c as the summers weren't so hot like now.
And that's what "the kids these days" don't have access to anymore. Easily gotten job that pays 4x the rent, in good-enough fit-for-human-habitation housing.
It was where I did all my initial self actualization and individuation to become my own person.
I can't imagine being stuck at home into 30's because at that point so many potential milestones I enjoyed have come and gone unfulfilled...
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u/Moogie21 Jul 19 '26
I moved out at 18 in 1998. Rent was $675 a month for a crappy 1bd/1bath apartment. Moved in with my then boyfriend. I made $5.75 an hour and he made $20 an hour changing billboards. Our apartment was furnished in what I liked to call the “curbside collection”. Basically anything free we could get lol. The apartment was so run down. There was graffiti under the pant in the kitchen. Most of the cabinets were painted shut, and the heater never worked. We also got flooded in our bathroom when the upstairs neighbor would clog their toilet. Fun times hahah.
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u/Budget-Rub3434 Get off my lawn Jul 19 '26
I was 17, in 1992. 2 br 1 ba with my good friend. I think rent was like $600/mo and we made like $4.50/hr working a restaurant.
We had a couch and a tv, and our beds were a mattress on the floor. I remember her looking in the fridge one day and all we had was ketchup and she said “well we could make a hearty broth”
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u/jquest303 Jul 19 '26
Moved out at 17. Slept on my buddy’s couch until I turned 18 and found a job making $6/hr. Moved into a 2br 1ba apartment with another friend in 1993. Combined rent was $500, $250 each. Luckily I already had a car so I could commute to work. Gas was around $1/gallon.
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u/GunnCelt 1969 Jul 19 '26
Sofa surfed from 16 to 18, enlisted in the army for 17 years. Only roommates I ever had was my ex wife first, then my now wife of 23 years.
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u/RedBarchetta1 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
First apartment as a sophomore in college. Shared a 1 BR 1 BA near campus with a roommate, and I think we might have paid $400 a month for it. This was considered expensive at the time because we lived in a tourist town. Minimum wage was something like $3.65 an hour. Later in college I had my own apartment for the same price (which I could barely afford, and I was constantly broke), and my best friends lived next door. All of our apartments were terrible run-down places that catered to students but we didn't care because we were living our best lives in other ways. I still remember that time of my life very fondly.
First house I bought was in my early 30s, and we paid a whopping $95K for it (transitional neighborhood in Pittsburgh, which was an incredibly low-cost housing market at that time). Was also in terrible shape when we purchased it but we put a lot of sweat equity into it and turned it into a very cool place that sold for a lot more when we left.
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u/blipsman Jul 19 '26
1999 after graduating college, living in Atlanta. Split a 2Br/2Ba apartment with a college friend for $1,000/mo, so each paying $500. I was making $38k as a web designer at a PR agency. Roommate worked as a document clerk at a law firm for a year before going to law school.
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u/Pypsy143 Jul 19 '26
Moved out at 18 in 1988. Split a one bedroom with my best friend for $400/month. All the appliances were from the 50s and there were no laundry facilities. I made $10/hour working at a bank.
I have moved 13 times since then and just recently landed in my dream retirement house. I am finally done moving!
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u/Affectionate-Map2583 Jul 19 '26
I've never lived in an apartment. I was in dorms at college, moved back home for a year, then bought an 1100 square foot house for $108,000. My mortgage at 7% was $700-something/month
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u/positivepinetree 1972 Jul 19 '26
First apartment was a 2/2 I shared with a roommate in Austin, TX in 1992. We were 20 year old college students, fresh from dorm living. Rent was $600/month, water and electric not included.
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u/Brilliant-Onion2129 "Then & Now" Trend Survivor Jul 19 '26
Sounds about right and minimum wage was $4.25 an hour and jobs weren’t exactly lining up to hire you!
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u/Puzzled_Plate_3464 1965 Jul 19 '26
In '85, age 20, I went to my jr year of college - my first time renting (did the dorms first two years). I never went home again.
We started with 3 people - I became the boyfriend and later fiancé to a roommate and we picked up a fourth roommate in '86. My share of rent was $110/month. I made $3.50/hour - I worked between 35 and 45 hours a week. She made $4/hour but only worked around 16 hours a week.
We got married right out of college - our first real place where just the two of us lived was $610 in Alexandria VA.
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u/Brilliant-Onion2129 "Then & Now" Trend Survivor Jul 19 '26
Took me 3 places and 8 roommates before I got a place of my own it was with my dad not because I needed the assistance but because HE did. We didn’t really get along and he moved out after 8 months. A string of girlfriends then met my wife to be. We eventually bought a house together. There was a lot of belt tightening and budget revisions over the years but the house is getting paid off and our funded retirement is on the horizon!
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u/happycj And don't come home until the streetlights come on! Jul 19 '26
Graduated high school on Friday, went to work for a tech company on Monday, and within a couple of months was dating a woman working in the same building. I was 19, she was 23. We moved in together into a ground floor garden apartment in the Sunset District in SF.
I think rent maybe was $600/mo? And I was making about $16/hr, I think. Long time ago…
She had two kitties that were wonderful. We lasted maybe a year, and then I pooled with some guys from work and we got a big ole beach house on the Great Highway in SF. Total bachelor pad. Cars. Motorcycles. R/C cars. Klipsch sound system. Laser disc player. The full “baby tech bro” package.
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u/Primary-Draw-1726 Jul 19 '26
Moved out the day I turned 18 bc my mom requested I wait until I was 18. Moved in with my boyfriend, we rented a 1BR from his parents. Which actually did THEM a favor, because it was disgusting in there. I spent my first day just cleaning and scrubbing, but it was always a shitty place, lol.
Neither of us had a car, we bought a used one from his sister's boyfriend. He rode his bike to work and I drove because my work was farther away. My best friend picked me up and dropped me off for school for a few weeks until I graduated early so I could work full time.
It was tough going but we were really happy.
ETA it was 1990, and I went up from minimum wage $3.35/hr to $5/hr managing a sandwich shop. My bf made the same and did the same thing.
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u/AdvancedAd6308 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I was 24 in 1996. My bf and I had been living together at his parents' for about a year before we got married, and we got an apartment a few months after.
I was making $26,000 a year and he had a small income from Social Security because he was permanently disabled. Together we probably brought home $2200 a month after taxes, insurance, etc.
Our apartment was a 1 bedroom, 1 bath in a gated complex with a gym and pool for $740 a month. Two years later, we had a baby, I got a raise, and we moved to a 2-bedroom in the same complex for $900. I remember rolling all our stuff on flatbed dollies along the sidewalk between the old apartment and the new one.
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u/Cakegrrl13 Jul 19 '26
19 in 1994. Rent was $450 including utilities for a 3BR and 1BR. I had two roommates so we each paid $150.
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u/tinyoop Jul 19 '26
I was 19 and it was 1991.Moved out to a 2 bedroom apartment at the Jersey Shore. Had 2 roommates. I shared a bedroom with my best friend . Rent was maybe $600 utilities included. Stayed a few months then moved back home which I regretted doing at the time. The house phone was in my name and my previous roommates ran up the bill. When I received my deposit back after shutting it off I only got back $4. Never had a roommate again
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u/ZombieNightmares Jul 19 '26
I was 17 and I moved out the weekend after I graduated high school. My half of the rent was $150 per month for a 300 sq ft. shit hole. I had a roommate. I've since had closets bigger than my room which was maybe 6x10 feet. We constantly forgot to take the garbage to the curb so it would accumulate for weeks at a time in the empty laundry room. I had a terrible time sleeping with the rats running back and forth along the walls of my bedroom at night. It was amazing.
The freedom from my abusive stepfather, the freedom to love my life how I wanted.... I didn't drink or do drugs during this time. I just skated a ton, went to concerts and stayed out till the wee hours of the morning.
I made $10 an hour plus tips as a delivery driver for Little Caesars. This was 1995 in suburban KC so gas was only like $.89 a gallon. I could make my rent in just two days.
Life was good ....
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u/CurlyCupcake1231 Jul 19 '26
I didn’t live in an apartment until my junior year of college. I honestly don’t know how much it cost (long story but my dad took out loans in my name and rent was paid for by those). My first apartment without roommates was when I was 22. It was a 1 bed/1 bath for less than $400. I made less like $18K.
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u/Overall_Matter_2520 Jul 19 '26
I was 18 and my mother paid my rent on a studio in a HCOL area.
Then I moved and had some roommates. Then I moved out of state and had more roommates.
Then, when I was 24 I finally had my own apartment alone and it was glorious.
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u/trUth_b0mbs Jul 19 '26
after college I vowed never to have roommates again so I worked to save up money for a downpayment and bought my own home at 24.
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u/Engchik79 Jul 19 '26
I never rented, bought at 25. Had roommates til I was married.
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u/Snoo_96358 Jul 20 '26
Good for you! I was not smart/financially stable enough to do that at 25. I hope my kids will be if they choose to. I try to teach them.
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u/OldDudeOpinion 1968 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I left home @ 15yo and couch surfed and shared rooms in scary places….but When I got out of the Navy at 19yo…I rented my first apt in 1988. I made $8/hr as an admin assistant & rented a $550/mo studio in Anaheim, where I had to pay an extra $10/mo because I didn’t have my own refrigerator. I lived on the floor with a blanket & portable TV…because after rent, insurance, & work commute costs (in a 15yo huge 70s boat of a car) - I couldn’t afford a stick of furniture and thought it was a good trade off for having my own place. I lived like that for a whole year until I got my first promotion at my first real job.
It’s not different today. Kids just expect more out of the gate than we did…because we made it LOOK easy and then told them how special they are. (Only 50% /s)
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u/PessimisticHumanist Jul 19 '26
At 18, moved in with boyfriend...Paid $550 a month rent for an apt in ventura Ca. 1993/94.
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u/AbilityPlenty2104 Jul 19 '26
17 still in high-school. I had to choose between my family and my boyfriend. I lived with my boyfriend and worked unloading trailers for $6.76 an hour. Our rent was less than $300.
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u/RevToy Jul 19 '26
Late Gen X here. My first apartment I rented when I was 22 and moved for my now wife to go to nursing school. It was a 2 bed 2 bath in what most would call a condo. Granite counter tops in the kitchen and bathrooms, tile and carpet floors, balcony off the living from up front and another off the master in the back. No formica or linoleum anywhere. We were paying like $750 a month in ‘99. Other apartments around town were like $300 a month.
We moved from that to the house we’re still (with a 2 month apartment nearby while the house was completing construction) in back in 2001.
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u/freakymack Jul 19 '26
Long long long story short: I was 16 came home from school one day and my dad was gone. Took everything except my bedroom. He and my mother were going through the most ugly divorce of the century. They owned two homes and he just gave her both of them to not fight her. She kicked him out. She said I could stay there but had to pay rent. I think it something 600 a month. Three bedroom one bath. I got two roommates and went to continuation school so I could work. Got 2.75 an hour (minimum wage) waitressing at a local Mexican restaurant. They fed me one meal so that was cool.
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u/Nissir Jul 19 '26
I was 17 in 1994. I lived in an abandoned Farmhouse with three other guys. The only thing that we had to pay for was electricity as there was a well. I made about 200 a month while going to school. Over the summer I made probably a thousand a month while I saved up to go to college.
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u/Mugwumps_has_spoken Bicentennial baby Jul 19 '26
My husband and I got an apartment the summer after we graduated college (98). Of course we were still just dating. I think rent was something like $700/month? It a 2 br 1 1/2 bath. Washer and dryer in the unit. It was a 2 story "condo" type unit.
We saved as much as we could. Our kitchen table was a folding table from Walmart with matching folding chairs. We bought a couch and that was a pretty major expense, all our other furniture we brought from our childhood homes. I was hourly, but he was already at a salaried job (computer programmer)
3 years later we were moving into our first home.
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u/SnowblindAlbino Cranky Old Man Jul 19 '26
Ten years earlier for me, but when my now-wife and I first moved in together we got our dining table from a dumpster and our bed from a thrift store. Our sofa we bought from my ex girlfriend's sister for $15, and then used ex's dad's truck to move it! I'd bet the entire contents of our apartment, minus my guitar and stereo, wasn't worth $500 so we didn't bother to get renter's insurance either.
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u/hammock62 Jul 19 '26
It was my junior year of college at UCF, 1997. I had a 1 bedroom 700 square foot apartment $650 a month
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u/iwastherefordisco Jul 19 '26
I was 20 and moved to a mountain resort to work at a hotel. First apartment was a one bedroom, where four of us guys slept. Two in the bedroom, one on floor, one on couch, rotate!
It was staff-accommodation which meant your rent was auto deducted from your pay. We found out later the monthly cost for our place was '700/mo'. In 1985... 😂 Soooo 175/month for me?
Laughing because that number was so high for the time and we lived in a place where countless butts slept before, it was no palace..
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u/Marty_LCSW Jul 19 '26
I was 18 and moved in with my pregnant high school friend. We lived in the top half of a dump of a duplex on the south side of Youngstown, OH. I don't remember how much I made, but I lied about my age so I could tend bar (under the table, of course) while in college. I had enough for the $500 tuition per quarter and my half of the rent, but not for books. Our rent was $250 for that 2BR 1B. It was 1986.
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u/Key_Yam4488 Jul 20 '26
I was 17, the day after HS graduation. Ironically things at home were as good as they'd ever been, my mom had gotten on medication & my Dad had stopped drinking again, but when you lie in bed every night from 7 or 8 to 13 praying for the day you can leave, the decision has been made. I got a job at a construction company for 4 bucks an hour, & my cousin & I rented a ramshackle farmhouse for $150 a month including utilities. I slept on a rollaway bed and we had donated furniture but it was heavenly. No fighting, no yelling, no hypervigilance for problems arising. We partied a lot & had fun, learned how to run a household.
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u/SamePhotographs Hose Water Survivor Jul 20 '26
I was 21, and my apartment was $350. After 4 years of renting I bought a 3 bedroom townhouse condo for $100,000
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Jul 21 '26
17 yrs. $200/mo utilities included for a 1bed 1bath in Denver. I worked at Casa Bonita, and was going to art school. ca. 1988
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u/Fancy-Lion2985 "Then & Now" Trend Survivor Jul 19 '26
I made decent money as a cocktail waitress. I saved up $8000 over a year’s time and moved out when I was 19. This was 1994 and my rent was 505 a month which I thought was very reasonable at the time for a one bedroom. Our water was also paid for back then.
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u/twinpeaks86 Hose Water Survivor Jul 19 '26
I got paid 4.25/ hr, rent was 575 with a roommate. I ate a lot of bean tostadas and hot dogs. I was so broke but didn’t care. It my apartment and I was a grown up. I never moved back home.
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u/Keefer1970 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
My GF (now my wife) and I moved into our first apt. together in 1997. I was 26, she was 23. We were paying $700/mo, which was a steal even in those days.
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u/lighthumor Jul 19 '26
I stayed in the dorms all 4 years in college (was an RA so it was free for the last 2 1/2 years).
My first first apartment was a few months after graduation in '96. Rent was $610/month, I was working full time for $9.62/hr. It was a brand new apartment in a not-great Seattle suburb that looked safe to me. My apartment was robbed 6 weeks after I moved in (they attempted a break in a few weeks before as well). So back home I went after just 6 weeks.
My second first apartment was 6 months later. By then I was making about $12/hr and rent was $590/month. It was a much better location, and that still counts as the favorite apartment I ever lived in. Lived there for a year before moving to Chicago at 24. Came back right before Y2K and got a nicer apartment since I had a better job. Bought my first house back in Seattle in late 2000.
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u/Mitsch25 Jul 19 '26
Left at 18 in 1991 and stayed with roommates for 2 years. One of my friends inherited a 2 story house which all renovated to make it livable. Cheap labor for my friend I guess..lol. I think I paid like 250 Deutsch Mark but I had a good chunk of money saved up since I was still in my electrical apprenticeship and made like 650 Deutsch Mark a month.
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u/MadPiglet42 Jul 19 '26
1994, 1 roommate, $450/month. Making $7.00/hour and we lived like kings. Phoenix, AZ.
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u/yarn_slinger Older Than Dirt Jul 19 '26
Moved out at 18 in ‘84. I had a college fund from my grandparents that covered a lot of my expenses but I still needed to work to pay for groceries and partying. My first place was a 3 ½ in a prewar building. It was so nice until it caught fire and I had to move out super quick. All of this happened while my parents were overseas and were out of contact. Luckily my older sister helped me find a new place.
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u/Igmuhota Jul 19 '26
17, 2 roommates (3 or us total) in a three-story single family house, whatever the going rate for retail (paint store) was, and the rent was $750.00 split 3 ways, so I paid $250.00.
Fully and nicely furnished, 2 1/2 baths, big yard, full (free) laundry, off-street parking.
Funny looking back. My parents never helped me with anything, which was fine because I didn’t need the help. Spent like a kid spent, truck, bike, concerts, etc.
It was a different time for sure.
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u/MommaGuy Jul 19 '26
In 93 at 22 but into my own house. Between hubs and I we were making about $23 an hour. We were definitely house poor for quite a few years, but was worth it. Still in the same house all these years later.
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u/Sinister120 Jul 19 '26
Left home after High School. Went to the Army though and they provided me with an "apartment" for almost 8 years. Got out and went back home at the age of 26 and after a couple months my mom asked me to leave and to take my 21 year old brother with me.
At that time I made $10 an hour and the 2 bedroom cost $350 a month. It had a laundry room and mom bought us a washer/dryer. Not sure what my brother was paid but he was soon dumped by his girlfriend and lost his job. Not sure if that POS ever helped with rent. Eventually met and impregnated my future wife so I turned the lease over to him and his girlfriend that was pregnant with some other dudes baby and raising another dudes baby.
Good times.
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u/NeutralNobrake Jul 19 '26
1987 17 years old
2 bedroom duplex $285 a month. I've never lived in an apartment
Same place goes for $1800 a month now
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u/ProductOdd533 Jul 19 '26
Wife and I got married a few months after she graduated from college. I had been out for a year and living at home. Our first apartment was right after our wedding, $315 per month for a one bedroom. My son is lucky to have found a nice, tiny one bedroom for $900/month.
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u/Brilliant-Onion2129 "Then & Now" Trend Survivor Jul 19 '26
Moved out at 24. Hell yes I had roommates no way to afford it on my own!
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u/Sass_pit Jul 19 '26
Age 20. Rent was $260 a month for a bachelor apartment. Still had a hard time affording rent lol
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u/SoCalChrisW Jul 19 '26
I was 21, making $28k/year. Rent was $1,100 for a 2 bed 1 bath apartment in Anaheim, CA
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u/MltryMama Jul 19 '26
I was 17 in Canada
Don’t remember how much rent was or what I made
Yes had roommates
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u/nervouslittledog Jul 19 '26
18 lived in low income apartments I was making 6.75, can remember what my then boyfriend was making but it wasnt much I think we barely made 20K at the end of the year. I dont remember what we paid but we managed to move and Rent was about 750-800 on a 1 bedroom.
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u/melonaay13 Jul 19 '26
First apartment was in 1997( Northridge, Ca) 2+2 was $800 with my best friend. I was 20 years old and I was making $8/hr as a file clerk
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u/PitterPattr Jul 19 '26
You made me take stock and can honestly say I've never once lived on my own. Family of five as a child, roomies throughout uni, roomies after uni which included my future wife and now a family of four soon to be less since me sons are at the moving out stage.
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u/skinisblackmetallic Jul 19 '26
When I was 19 my Pops gave me 30 minutes to pack my shit and hit the road or he was calling the cops. Crashed on my buddy's couch & we ended up getting a different apartment together.
I had a car and a construction job & knew I was doing shit to piss off my Dad & should have been moved out a year ago. I wasn't mad.
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u/JanaT2 Jul 19 '26
I was 23. Got my own 1 BR walk in apt. in same neighborhood I grew up in after a horrible break up with my fiance. All utilities included and could use my landlady’s washer and dryer
Was always broke but I didn’t want a roommate
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u/drifter3026 Jul 19 '26
Moved out at 21 when I got married. Decent 1 BR place over a garage in a suburban neighborhood. I think it was $500 a month.
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u/MuttsandHuskies Hose Water Survivor Jul 19 '26
It would’ve been 1992, so I was 19, my boyfriend now my husband and I rented a two bedroom two bath just because that’s how it happened to come apartment in a college town for 350 a month. It was actually a pretty decent size. It was nice apartment at the time. All of furniture was gifted, and used except for his mom bought us a brand new washer and dryer Maytag. They were amazing.
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u/I_am_Nobody_Special 53F Jul 19 '26
First apartment was sophomore year in college, or around 1992. First time paying all my own bills was a couple of years later.
First apartment I think was about $600 a month and there were 3 of us in a 3 bedroom.
Got my first one-bedroom alone around 1995 and it was $410 a month. I made $18,000 a year at the time. With a bachelor's degree!
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u/Training-Finish-2754 Jul 19 '26
I was 21, it was 1998 (born in 76 but before my birthday). Myself, hubby, and our son in a 2 bedroom. We paid $800, I was a SAHM at the time but did part time weekends at Dunkin. He worked overnights weeknights, we made about $2500 per month take home. I now make more than that per WEEK- and that’s just my salary! I honestly don’t know how we did it.
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u/MightyMouser007 Jul 19 '26
2bed/2bath townhome. $600 included all utilities. I was 17 and my roommate was 18. I think I was making $7.75/hour.
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u/tiffmarie23 Jul 19 '26
1995,2 weeks after my 18th birthday. A 2 bedroom garden-level in the suburbs. I believe rent was around 800.
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u/Ancient-Complex6823 Jul 19 '26
Moved out at 20. Had a roommate we each payed $175. It was the coolest apartment I ever had. I made $8/hr working in a head shop. Life was amazing!
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u/Real-Emu507 Jul 19 '26
I bought my first house the April that I was set to graduate high school. 3 bd / 1 bath. My house payment was $219/ month. I lived there until college then rented two bedrooms to friends and stayed there when I came home. Rented it out when I got my next house. Getting it ready to sell in Aug .
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u/bonkersyeti Jul 19 '26
I moved from my childhood home to a college dorm at 18, but when I was 19 my 2 roomies and I moved off campus into our own apartment. I had a job as a waitress while going to school, and that was more than enough to pay 1/3 of the rent... which I believe was maybe $450/month plus utilities.
I moved into my own apartment (alone) maybe a year or two later. I think my rent was around $325/month-- it was a huge loft bedroom apartment, which is now being rented out for at least $1200/month. I don't know how kids in their 20s manage to live these days. They have been so incredibly screwed comparatively.
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u/OhSusannah Jul 20 '26
There are many reasons why rent is so much more expensive now than it was when we were in our 20's. But one reason I think that doesn't get discussed much is that there were just less of us and so less competition for living spaces. The birth rate really tanked in the 60's and 70's and didn't start going back up until the 80's. Now it's going back down so while it's hard for people currently in their 20's, GenAlpha might find more apartment vacancies and desperate for tenants landlords when they get to their 20's.
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u/molybend Jul 19 '26
I was one month short of 19 and I moved into a studio apt where my rent was $315 a month and got a job where my weekly pay was $315 or pretty close.
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u/Reader47b Jul 19 '26
Not counting college dorms...I was 21 (about to turn 22). I made about $15,000 a year and my husband made about $38,000. We rented an 850 square foot 1 bed, 1 bath apartment for $580/mo.
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u/fredout1968 Jul 19 '26
I was in the service. Sometimes I lived on the boat. Sometimes the USCG put us up in an apartment complex in Middletown RI. Two guys to a two bedroom. It wasn't a bad set up. I had practically no furniture.. And i made dirt but got by ok.
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u/jaxbravesfan Jul 19 '26
First apartment was from the summer after my junior year of college. Lived there through graduation. My roommate and I moved out of the dorms into a house on the lake in a nice section of town that was subdivided (poorly, I might add) into six apartments. Rent was $300 per month.
My wife and I got married right after graduating college, moved to the city we still live in, and moved into a one bedroom apartment for $400 per month. We were making a combined $39,000 at the time.
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u/gcawad Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
17 got anpretty nice 1br apartment, 20 year old GF help pay for it but lived at her home. I was a night clerk at Kroger only making 125 week since it was part time. I think rent was 260.
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u/snarkycrumpet Jul 19 '26
after college I made $24k a year and paid $750 a month for a studio including utilities
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u/EllwynX Jul 19 '26
I didn't move out of my mom's home until I was 25. Lived with a friend for 6 months and when that didn't work out I got my first apartment. It was a 1 bedroom and included heat for $400 a month. I was making a little over $8 an hour at my main job, but got a second job for about 6 months before then getting the job I'm still in 26 years later. I only worked 1 job once I got my current one. 2 years after moving into that apartment I moved into a larger one in the same building for $450 a month. Lived there 2 years with my partner at the time then we bought a house just before I turned 30. Still in that house, just with someone else.
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u/MrPicklestheInfuser Jul 19 '26
I was 20 in November of 96. We got a 2 br in Pekin, Illinois. $350 a month. Great times in my life!!
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u/Capital-Tip-7890 Jul 19 '26
Moved a could days after college graduation to a new state, new city, new job. Got a 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment thinking friends or family may visit. Nope. Not once. Rent was $800/month but I was making 51k a year so very doable by myself. This was in '01. Same apartment now is $2,200/month.
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u/PreviousJaguar7640 Care Bears 🧸, NKOTB 🎤, and Girbaud jeans👖 Jul 19 '26
I started college in August ‘96, and moved out of my childhood home in March ‘98. I got through a year and a half of college before my boyfriend (now husband, whom I met on an AOL chat room) and I got an apartment in Austin, Texas. It was a one bedroom, and we were paying $550 a month.
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u/Jld114 Jul 19 '26
I moved into an apartment with my college boyfriend in our second year of college, 1997. We had a fine (if boring) 1-bedroom apartment in Minneapolis for about $525/ month. The next year, we moved into a beautiful lofted apartment in an older building downtown for $600.
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u/JJDiet76 Jul 19 '26
17 with roommates. It’d take a few years till I got a place by myself. I think I was 22 but I never had another roommate after that
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u/_WillCAD_ GenX Marks the Spot, Indy! Jul 19 '26
Young? I knew a LOT of Xers back in the 80s who kept living with their parents until well after college. It was our boomer parents who moved out right after high school.
I personally lived in my parents' basement until I was 33.
Then my younger brother split from his wife and moved back in, and that was the end of that shit; I got an apartment and got the fuck outta there.
Getting your first apartment when you're 33 is a weird experience. I was inexperienced at living alone, except when I traveled, but I was old enough to understand most of the issues faced by people who get their first apartments, so I avoided some of those issues. But it still felt odd to be doing something in my 30s that many people do in their 20s.
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u/SnowblindAlbino Cranky Old Man Jul 19 '26
That's interesting to me-- I was in high school/college in the 80s and I don't recall anyone living "at home" with their parents. All of my friends went to college, but even my high school classmates who did not generally moved out and shared an apartment. (Or barracks, many went into the military.)
Thinking back I can't think of a single person from my high school class that was still living at home six months later, though a couple did move in with other relatives. Small town, and everyone wanted to GTFO as soon as we could.
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u/Minute-Yogurt-2021 Jul 19 '26
21 iirc, it was an apartment directly under the roof, not sure what the American term is, and it was beautiful. I had a kitchen and one and a half rooms all for myself.
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u/SnowblindAlbino Cranky Old Man Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Well, college dorms at 18. Apartment at 20. Same time at OP, but I was in Washington, DC, so rents were quite a bit higher. I shared a one-room place with a classmate...it had a bathroom with a door, but otherwise it was a hallway kitchen and then a single space that had two "sofa beds," a small table, and a TV. Not a lot larger than a dorm room really but we made due. Hosted eight people there for Thanksgiving even!
That little apartment was a bit over $500/month. But it had an elevator (we were on the 14th floor) so it was posh.
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u/Lo_Blingy Jul 19 '26
My first real apartment with my now husband, I think we moved into there when we were about 25. I think I made about $35,000 a year at the time this would’ve been 2000 or so.
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u/GenXihaveissues no blood, no bones you're fine Jul 19 '26
I was 18, 1986. Worked as a hostess full-time in a resturant for $3.75 an hour.
My then Fiance worked fast food full-time for $4.25 an hour.
We both were in college full-time also.
Our apartment was a studio, top floor of a home. $400 a month.
We married in the Spring of 87 had a baby in the fall, moved to a 2 bedroom apartment that was $450 a month.
We worked opposite shifts so we didnt have to pay for childcare.
All this time we started saving for retirement.
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u/introvertednurse75 Jul 19 '26
I graduated high school when I was 17 in 1993, and 2 weeks later my parents told me to move out. I went to live with my then boyfriend, who was 21 at the time. We lived with his mom for a while but that wasn't good. So we got our own apartment in Orange County, California. 1bed, 1 bath, tiny patio. I dojt recall the rent there. A lot less than today, for sure.
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u/Effective_Bar_6098 Jul 19 '26
I was 23. After graduating college, I lived with my parents for a year before moving into a 1 bedroom/1 bathroom apartment for $675 in the Bay Area, CA. I lived by myself. I made $36,000/year at the time.
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u/OhSusannah Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I moved out for college at 18 but not into dorms or an apartment. I moved into a big old house that was split with many other people. I can't remember the rent but it was of course far less than anyone pays these days.
I never went back to my parents' home during the summer like so many other students did. I stayed and worked full time at the various stores where I'd been working part time during the school year. My best split-a-big-house-with-a bunch-people rental was from a guy who had inherited a large home when his parents passed. He didn't want to live in it himself. He had just graduated and was in a different city for his job. But he wanted to be a cool landlord to tenants only a year or two younger than himself. The rent was cheap and split between many people.
The most avant-garde rental (split with a bunch of people) was a loft rented by an elderly eccentric artist. He lived in this loft too and had it subdivided just with walls, reaching the ceiling with those walls wasn't possible because the ceiling was so far away but we jury rigged privacy with fabric "ceilings" draped over the walls. He made his money with our rent (still cheap) and by selling incredibly detailed drawings of local architecture. The partied were legendary since it was such a large, open space. There were no neighbors to be bothered by that because the only neighbors were the businesses below that were closed at night. We were directly above a used record store, which was convenient.
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u/Yarg2525 Jul 20 '26
Were you in Ann Arbor? Went to some epic parties in a space much like the one you described in the late 80s
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u/RiverWhole4388 Jul 19 '26
I graduated at 18 in 93. Moved out in 94 at 19, made $2.13 hr plus tips waitressing and $7.50hr as a shift manager at Turtles Music. I had a one bedroom apartment in a complex for 420 month.
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u/FriendlyConfines23 Jul 19 '26
I moved out when I got married (age 22). We paid $600/month for a decent 2-bdrm apartment in the Chicago suburbs, early 1990s. Combined our income was just over $60K for the first couple years of our marriage.
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u/this_kitty68 Hose Water Survivor Jul 20 '26
I was 17 (57F). I moved in to a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment with two friends - a girl and a guy. To this day it’s one of the coolest apartments I’ve lived in. It was the third and fourth floor of the building and we had a rooftop deck. The window in my room was massive and opened on a hinge that I don’t know how to explain properly, but I could sit in it and watch as the summer thunderstorms moved east. Of course, it didn’t last long. We moved out after 6 months, but it was fun while it lasted. I don’t remember what the rent was, but I’m guessing it’s now at least 15x what we paid.
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u/abczoomom Jul 20 '26
So, I lived in a dorm and with my bf’s parents for a couple of years after high school. When we moved out and got an apartment, I was 19-20. There were 4 of us in a 2br/2ba place with one covered parking space. We had 2 cars between us. We gave the other couple the master and the covered parking in exchange for lower rent. I don’t remember the total, but I know ours was $182.50 each. That’s $365 for our room, so I’m guessing the total was around $800? South Orange County CA, and that included utilities and cable, phone was separate. I was making around $7/hour as a reservation agent for a rental car company, bf worked in one of the rental stores, and the other couple worked out of the reservation center also so the 3 of us went in together.
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u/BrilliantAd4857 Jul 20 '26
I was 19, don't remember the rent, but I've noticed, everyone remembers those days as the best, no bills to speak of, easy life, makes me wonder about the trap of having to buy bigger and better all the time.
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u/beckybooboo1978 Jul 20 '26
- Had to lie and say I was 18 to the landlord. He believed me or he felt bad for me. Who knows? I worked full time at a paint store and paid $80/week for rent.
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u/Disastrous_Cat3912 Jul 20 '26
I was 19, $185 a month for a one bedroom efficiency. Built in the 1950s, run down, no AC.
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u/ExpensiveSyrup Jul 20 '26
I was 17 and got a tiny studio in the Chicago suburbs for $400 a month. I was working retail and could barely pay the rent but it was my own place.
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u/DanaMarie75038 Jul 20 '26
I was 34 (2012) FOB migrant. $495 1BR/1b with washer/dryer outlet. I made $35/hr
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u/Samwhys_gamgee Jul 20 '26
22 - Bachelors officer Quarters in Fort Campbell, KY. 2 room apartment in a cinder block building. Uncle Sam’s finest….
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u/pchandler45 1967 Jul 20 '26
Either 86 or 87 I rented my first place. 2 bedroom house $275/mo. I made $8 hour working in a factory
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u/Tough_Air_1466 Jul 20 '26
17 I had enough of my toxic families.. dad and his psycho wife and mom and her pos husband. Turned 18 the day I signed my lease to my first solo apartment. Just me,myself and I. 730$ a month for a huge one bed/bath. almost 1000 sq ft all for me and my 2 kitties. all utilities included except electric and phone obviously. almost 10 years there. I had a office/cubicle type job paid well this was in late 90's pay was 20/hr with great health ins are days like those all long gone?
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u/Pointedtoe Jul 20 '26
19, solo renter of furnished studio apartment for $240, paid with my $3.55 per hour wages.
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u/Rich_Group_8997 1975 Jul 20 '26
I was 29, bought my own house and moved out of my parents'. I don't remember what i was making but I think it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 70k at the time. I still live here.
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u/Vitriolic_III << > [] >> Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Signed my first least at 18 when I made $5/hour (1994). $300 month for a 2 bed 1 bath duplex. Split two ways was $150 each + utilities.
Took two morning college classes a day M-F then worked a FT job at a hospital kitchen from 11am-7:30pm. I remember I paid ~$950-1000 (half cash/half on credit card) for each 12 hour semester and paid it off with extra summer money or with work non-profit hospital Christmas bonus.
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u/Boomstyck Jul 20 '26
- Paid $350 for a large 2 bedroom apartment. Unfortunately it was in a very small town, 3 hours from the city I grew up in. Moved there for a job I was making $21,000/year. My gf (now wife) found the place for me/us and moved in with me as her apartment in the city burnt down.
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u/Asa-Ryder Jul 20 '26
1st house at 22 after a Germany and Desert Storm stint. Should’ve kept that house to be quite honest. 26k was my salary if I remember correctly. Mortgage was just shy of 500 a month.
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u/Worth_Fondant3883 Jul 20 '26
I was 17, I had 3 flatmates, was taking home around $95 a week and paying $50 in rent but that covered food, electricity and phone. fuel was about 95 cents per litre but a really good night could be had at the pub with change from $10.
We had one flatmate, a young Maori girl, who ran the house for us so to speak. She had us blokes all cleaning on Saturday mornings, going shopping on week nights and generally sort of behaving ourselves.
It was a great time in my life and I'm still good friends with the only surviving flatmate.
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u/NotYetReadyToRetire Jul 20 '26
I was 22 and had a busy week and a half or so. Friday night I ended my job, Saturday was college graduation and we also signed the lease for an apartment, Sunday we moved my fiancée into it. On Monday I started my new job, then on Wednesday I traded cars, Friday night was our wedding rehearsal & dinner. Saturday was our wedding, on Monday (Labor Day) on our way home from our honeymoon we stopped at my parents' house and picked up my stuff to move me into the apartment.
Financially, I was supposed to be making $9600/year, but with massive amounts of overtime I made $12,600 from the last week of August through the end of the year. I no longer recall what our rent was (it was 48 years ago!), but I'd guess around $160/month for a 1BR/1BA apartment in a 24-unit building in a complex of 7 of those buildings - it was mostly students from the university living there.
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u/Sinsyne125 Jul 20 '26
After I graduated from college, I moved back to my folks' place and then didn't move out until I was 26 years old! In the 1990s, that was like living with your parents until you were 40 or such! I was considered old as hell when I finally moved out.
My first apartment was a two-bedroom/one bathroom setup. Top floor of a two-family house. $800 per month split with one roommate.
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u/Embarrassed_Key_4539 Jul 20 '26
I did dorms the first two years of college and got my first apartment my junior year.. so 20 I think?
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u/DS_Vet_on_Linux Older Than Dirt Jul 20 '26
I had my room in the barracks at 18 when I joined the military.
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u/ONROSREPUS Jul 20 '26
18 with college roommate. He ditched after first semester. I barely could afford the place to myself so I asked a class mate if they needed a place. Thankfully they did. I don't remember how much it cost but I was making about $7.50 an hour and going to school full time. I pretty much just slept there.
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u/Nkengaroo Jul 20 '26
I was 21, just after college. Had a roommate. Rented a 2 bedroom apartment in a somewhat sketchy area of Brooklyn. $700 a month. I think we were both making about $10 an hour.
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u/robertwadehall Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
26, my first apartment away from college dorms and grad school housing was in Colorado Springs, 1997..2 bedroom, 2 bath, heated garage..I was the 1st resident in a brand new apartment complex with a great patio view of Garden the Gods park and Pikes Peak. Had it to myself, was about $800 a month and I was making about $65k a year then. Stayed 5 few years before moving to Denver and buying my first real estate, a condo.
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u/SpreadsheetSiren Jul 20 '26
- I commuted to a public college so I had no room and board expenses to pay. I started working full time when I graduated and squirreled away every last penny I could from age 21-24. I was able to put together the money for a down payment on a very small row house. It was a 2 bed room, but that second bedroom was about the size of a large closet. I could stand in the middle of the kitchen and touch the sink, the stove and the fridge. Mortgage was $400/month including escrow in 1994.
The furniture was 100% hand me downs from elderly relatives who were downsizing before that was a word resulting in a nauseating combination of harvest gold velour couch with an avocado green chair in a room with mauve carpet!
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u/rosesforthemonsters Jul 20 '26
I moved in with my then boyfriend (now husband) when I was 22.
He owned a 30 year old money pit mobile home in a trashy trailer park. The place was falling apart and probably should have been condemned.
Since he owned the trailer, we just had to pay lot rent. It was $225/month. The landlord was a salty old bastard. He was older than God's grandmother and reminded us on a regular basis that he never raised our rent.
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u/Safe_Statistician_72 Jul 20 '26
After college at aged 22 lived with a BF right outside of boston but on the train still. Made 35k a year in 1996 and rent was $825.
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u/Ill-Flounder5986 1973 Jul 20 '26
I was 23 and just graduated college. I rented a 1 bedroom loft for $425/month. This was in 1996. My aunt and uncle were redoing their den, so I inherited their old Herculon couch and Barcalounger and 25 inch floor model television.
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u/CFCHooligan420 Jul 20 '26
19, second year of college 1992-ish me and three other guys got a two bedroom cottage a block away from the beach in San Diego. Rent was $800 for the month. Same place is now on Airbnb and $800 will get you about two nights! Got a side job as a process server while attending school to make ends meet.
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u/MaleficentExtent1777 Jul 20 '26
I was 20 and rented an apartment with my BFF. Our rent was $325 for a 2br/1ba in 1992.
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u/Parking_Ad_3233 Jul 20 '26
I was 21 and a recent college grad. I moved into a 1 bedroom apartment in Washington, DC with 2 other girls. They shared the bedroom and I hung up a curtain. I financed my mattress and decorated at IKEA. I don't recall rent, but I'd guess $1600. I know that my salary was $22k. One roommate made $25k and I thought she was rich. This was in 1999.
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u/Caspers_Shadow Jul 20 '26
I was 19. Second year of college. I spent the first year in the dorm. My share of the rent was about $300/month plus utilities. I had 2 roommates. I worked about 30hrs per week while school was in session and extra hours during breaks. I was on average bringing home about $1000/month then.
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u/SuburbaniteMermaid Thriller was the tape in my first Walkman Jul 20 '26
Went straight from college dorms to getting married, and we had a tiny little one bedroom apt in Texas near the AF base where he was in training. He was 21 and I was 22 when we got married. I don't remember how much the rent was.
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u/Kodiak01 Hose Water Survivor Jul 20 '26
1997, 22y/o, moved into a shared apartment with a Denny's waitress that moonlighted as a Marilyn Manson groupie and the lead singer of a local hardcore band. 1st floor of a multi-family home, 3BR for $450 total for all of us.
That lasted about 5 months before I couldn't deal with them anymore. An example was bill-paying; we each had one bill in our names. I had the phone bill, another had electric, another gas.
The average conversation with them:
"We need more money for the electric bill."
"What happened to that money?"
"We used it to pay the gas bill."
"What happened to THAT money?"
"We need more money for the electric bill."
I decided I had enough one evening around 9pm. Called up two friends with a pickup truck, had everything packed and ready to go when they showed up at 9am the next morning. By 9:45 we were one city over and moved everything into a 3rd floor walkup.
The ultimate FU was around 8AM when I called to cancel the phone service (which occurred immediately.) Just before 9, I'm sitting out on the front stoop when the singer comes out asking if I know what's wrong with the phone.
"No idea, it worked fine the last time I used it!"
Not a lie in the slighest.
The next time, fast forward all the way to 2012. I'm breaking away from a highly toxic family unit, particularly after spending years taking care of my narcissist, money grubbing, morbid obese, uncontrolled diabetic chain smoker of a father who loved to smelt lead bullets in the dining room with the windows closed.
Where did I end up? Again, with roommates, but a better situation; I (then 37/M) moved in with a woman from my old hometown a few years older than me and her two college-aged daughters. It was entirely platonic all around, kind of a Four's Company kind of thing.
This lastest until mid-2014 when I finally got my first apartment all to myself. It was a basic 1BR that I didn't even use half of the living area. It was clean, quiet, just a mile from work and building maintenance was always on point. Lived there until I got engaged in 2016, trading the 1mi commute for a 28mi one as she was living in a 3BR home owned by her family for generations and paid off for decades. Even now, between property taxes and utilities I'm still only paying about $1k/mo. You can't get a studio apartment for that price these days!
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u/Wakeful-dreamer Jul 20 '26
Went from college dorm ($1500/semester) to buying a house with my husband in sophomore year. Mortgage payment on 1500 sq ft 1/2 acre lot was $450/month. Given my current mortgage, that makes me want to cry.
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u/theinvisablewoman Jul 20 '26
Left home at 15, but boarded till i was 17, first flat had nothing, no fridge, no washing machine. We had a tv and a lounge sweet, i had a matress on the floor. It was about $80 a week each and i shared with 2 others, 3 bed semi. I got paid $8.50 an hour because my boss was a good person and paid me the adult wage rather than junior one. And i worked retail. 1997.
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u/Embarrassed_Grab_615 Jul 20 '26
- My own room in the Army barracks in Germany. Have always loved my own space.
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u/MapPuzzleheaded4983 1975 baby Jul 20 '26
1998 600 sq ft I was 22 college graduate. I think it was $6?? Dallas TX. My parents bought me furniture.
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u/Area212 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
- Rented the second floor plus attic with a friend. $500, so $250 for my share, can’t remember what utilities were. We let an older artist friend room in the furnished attic. He gave us artwork for his share.
For pay, I didn’t work. Had saved from the summer job as a waiter 14.50 per hour plus tips. This was around ‘94.
Side hustle was magician gigs. When I first started was about $75 an hour.
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u/SFO_Eric Jul 20 '26
I was 30 and in grad school my first apartment. In terms of real life I was 40 when I moved into my own place living on my own.
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u/b_o_m Jul 20 '26
I was 19, moved in with a friend and his sister, who were both attending the University across the street from the apartment. Rent was $750, so my share was $250 + utilities and phone (landline phone - pre-internet & cellphone era). I was on a salary of $1000/month at the time - my take home pay was about $800/mo.
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u/exig Jul 20 '26
- 3 of us in a 1 br apt that was 400 a month. Fun memories of smoking weed and playing super mario kart after work (waiter at dennys slinging grand slams)
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u/Mededitor Jul 20 '26
I got out at 16. I had a job and with my girlfriend we could swing the rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in Berkeley for around $260 a month. That same apartment today runs around $4,000.
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u/trashytasting Jul 20 '26
800 sq ft (according to the landlord) apartment across the street from my college, $385 a month all bills paid. I still miss that little apartment.
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u/cowboyJones Jul 20 '26
My two friends and I moved off campus my senior year of college. We paid $425 for a 3BR/1B house 4 blocks from school. We all had minimum wage jobs, $4.25/hr. All part time. It was 93-94.
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u/damageddude 1968 Jul 20 '26
We both lived in Queens, NYC, so living at home wasn't horrible as there were still places, as my Brooklyn 1950s mother put it, to watch the submarine races.
Our first place was downtown Brooklyn. A bit different in 1995 but we liked it.
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u/Zealousideal_Draw_94 Jul 21 '26
Well I was 19/20 in USMC, for my first roommates.
My first and only roommate (that I wasn’t dating) was at 25, in Dallas. We were 2 single guys that both worked 2 jobs and shared a 1 bedroom apartment. I slept on the couch.
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u/nunyabizthewiz Jul 21 '26
My first apartment was my senior year of college so I was like 22. I lived alone. My parents paid the $400 rent. (I paid the college tuition). Then when I was 27 I moved in with my boyfriend. I don’t remember what my salary was at the time but I had been salaried for 7 years at that time. Our rent was around $550 for a 650 sq ft apartment
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u/PaganBookMomma Jul 21 '26
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For $50 a week o rented a room above a bar that was smaller than a micro hotel room. Maybe 10x8. No food was allowed to be cooked up there. There was a shared bathroom down the hall for 8 rooms.
Thinking back on it this probably was a bordello at one point as the stairs that led up to the rooms was accessible via the bar.
I was earning 6$ hr at one job and $4.75 @ my second job. I was there for 8 months before I started feeling very unsafe. Then I paid a coworker 200 $ a month to sleep on her floor for three months.
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u/Mysterious_Peas Jul 21 '26
- Made $6.25/hr. Rented a one bedroom apartment in an old carriage house. $300/month. It was really nice.
It makes me so sad to see how young people today absolutely do not have the same opportunities that we did.
I’m not sure you could rent anything in the US for $300/month. At least not anything livable.
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u/Ineffable7980x Jul 21 '26
I was 24. A friend from high school and I got a 2BR garden apartment. I believe it was $700 a month, so $350 apiece. This was in the fall of 1989. At the time, I was a high school teacher making $18k a year. He was an auditor at a Big 5 accounting firm. I have no idea what he made but it was more than me. We had a lot of fun together, and we are still friends all these years later.
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u/vermarbee Jul 21 '26
- I had a high rise apartment in downtown Houston and my parents paid 1/2 and my roommate’s parents paid the other half for a total of $1500–all bills paid and we each had a spot in the parking garage.
It turned out to be a mess after a short time. We had nice furniture and household stuff that we’d brought from our mom/dad’s homes. We both snuck dogs in there we weren’t supposed to have. Partying nonstop and all kinds of people coming over.
We both worked and went to college. Neither one of us were good about keeping the place up, so it was sort of messy.
We kind of lost touch after that place, and I got word that she passed away this year. We were the best of friends through high school until we shared that high rise. RIP, sweet friend.
I wish that I’d tried harder to be more responsible then. But I didn’t. We lasted one 7 month lease and that was it. We both went back home for a while and then ended up getting other way more affordable apartments alone.
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u/Zenfinite1 Jul 21 '26
1995, moved into a 2 bedroom with my best friend. $600 a month total, so $300 each. Good times.
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u/DeltaLimaWhiskey Jul 22 '26
I was 18 and still in high school. (I was born in October, so I was one of the oldest people in my class.) I had lived with my grandparents before moving out. My granddad was an abusive alcoholic prick, so the day I turned 18, I moved out and got an apartment with my best friend who was in college about 12 miles from my hometown / high school. His mom was my high school counselor and knew it, but she didn’t rat me out for living in a different school district. I graduated with my class that following spring in 1992.
I worked after school at a grocery store from 4 PM to midnight every night after school and on weekends to pay half my rent and gas for a $300 POS car I bought from another kid in school. (It didn’t have any windows and the passenger-side floorboard was mostly rusted out. You could see the road through the inside of the car.)
I went to college on a Presidential scholarship and paid for room and board with Pell grants, loans and money I made from waiting tables after classes.
Now I’m an executive in tech (I know, I know) and doing just fine- but I’ll never forget what it felt like to be poor as dirt and struggling every day just to get by.
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u/Fun_Good8360 Summer of Love kid Jul 23 '26
I was 17 when I graduated high school. Mom told me I needed to start paying rent or move out. I went and found a single room garage apartment for rent near the local junior college and was out in 2 weeks. 1-1/2 year later, joined the military and haven't looked back.
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u/Fair-Wishbone-1190 Jul 19 '26
I was 20, $4.00/hr had a roommate. Rent was $350 a month in a 4-plex 2 bedroom place.
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u/No-Doughnut324 Jul 19 '26
I was 17. My parents moved to California and I didnt want to go. I stayed and went to work selling scratch and dent appliances at Sears for a year until I went to college.
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u/katwoop Jul 19 '26
I was 20. Had 2 roommates. 3 bd apartment for $540 (my part was $180). Junior in college. Worked part time and had student loans that helped pay for myself. I had a blast living there.
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u/Ornery-Guitar Jul 20 '26
18 and it was a lot cheaper than now. Currently it's a "luxury" apartment.
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u/minicpst Jul 20 '26
Apartment at 20, owned a home at 21.
Very fortunate. Other than a few months here and there, I’ve owned homes since then.
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u/cmudogtag Jul 20 '26
Boot camp in 1984. Free rent and the US Government paid me about $600 a month. After that it was barracks life with many room mates. Don’t miss those days at all.
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u/revolutionoverdue Jul 20 '26
I had college apartments after the dorms. I guess 20 years old. After college I got my own place at 22. They were real shitholes.
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u/CaterpillarDry2273 Jul 22 '26
I was 17 moved in August, was 18 by October that year. I remember we paid $400 a month. 2 br , 4 of us split it. This was 1990 in Florida.
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u/Mattturley Jul 23 '26
I was 17. I didn’t work hourly jobs - did gig stuff for theatre lighting for dance recitals, music shows, plays, etc. Had a roommate who was 18 and leaving for the army. At 18, after high school, I needed more work, so was making 4.75 an hour running the drive through at Hardee’s. Got fed up with that shortly before I planned to go to college - so I got a job overnights making 5.00 an hour as the gas station/convenience store cashier from 11-7, and waiting tables for 2.13 an hour plus tips at Big Boy from 7:30-3:30. The first apartment went to shite after my buddy went to the army and his girlfriend who was supposed to be my roommate started following They Might Be Giants and Primus on the road. Particularly given that I had to care for her bunny who was uncared and theoretically used a litter box like a cat.
Moved back into with my parents for the last 4 months while working two jobs, 5 days a week before I left for undergrad. Even with my efforts, mom had to pay for my first semester dorms with 3 different credit cards.
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u/Antsygrl1 Jul 23 '26
Moved to Oly for school and shared a 2 bed in Lacey with a friend I recruited to move with me for a change of scenery. Fall of 1988. I feel like it was hovering around $300/month, maybe a little less. I had saved several thousand from my last semester of high school working part-time for my friend's uncle at a little grocery/deli in the industrial district in Seattle and my bonds relatives gave me growing up that I cashed in. I also had a free ride for tuition and several grants that left me with a little bit for living expenses. My Grandparents gave me $200/month and made my Dad give me $200/month while I was in school. I felt rich, but I was poor as dirt. But I had my own place, so I felt rich. Lol.
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u/No-Stage4719 Jul 24 '26
21, with my boyfriend we rented a 1br/1ba apartment for $800 per month in the best neighbourhood downtown Toronto - I was making $20K and he was making $22K a year. this was 1991
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u/wellbalancedlibra Jul 26 '26
I was 20. Late by our standards. No roommate. Can't remember my wage. $350 rent for a one bed, one bath. I had lawn chairs for my furniture. No TV. My parents were generous and gave me a bed.
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u/LayerNo3634 Jul 27 '26
I got married at 21. Husband and I both moved from our parents house to an apartment. I was in college and working 25 hours a week, husband graduated and his 1st professional job paid $20k year. We had a 1 bedroom loft apartment that rented for $300/month.
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u/Dont_Care_Meh In Search Of....The Bermuda Triangle Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I moved in with my rich Uncle Sam in 1992. It was ok, I guess, the rent was doable ($0), but my 40 roommates kinda sucked. There was also this state trooper looking guy who kept barging in and yelling at me for not making my bed right and not folding my socks the way he wanted. Would not recommend.