Not true.

Rent for one bedroom apartment was 500$ in 1998, cold / hot water included other utilities are extra.

I was making 35K back then and it was enough to afford relatively good living - car, groceries, gas, occasional meal for 2 at a restaurant.

And gas was 35cents on the Wet Coast of Canada.

$35,000 in 1998 is $72,500 in 2026, which is still a totally fine income. I know people living pretty well on that in New York City.

>I know people living pretty well on that in New York City.

median asking rent in 2026 for NYC is $3616/mo ($43,392/yr) meaning rent alone would be 60% of that income, assuming that the $72.5k figure is after taxes (which it probably isnt).

if you take taxes off, you're probably at like 55-60k. that means rent alone is 70%-77% of income!

"living pretty well"?

Yes, because you really don't have to pay that much. Those expensive apartments go to people who aren't very price sensitive (either because they actually have the money, or because they want to live it up in their 20s/30s and are spending beyond their means) or who are willing to live with enough roommates to make it affordable. If all you can find is a $3.5k unit, you'll need to get a roommate. But you can find better if you put in the work and look beyond StreetEasy.

The median household income in New York City is only $81,000 per year! People make it work!

well, if one bedroom now goes for 2000$ that's x4 increase

where as the 72K vs 35K is only x2 increase

So, no, your math doesn't work.

Who said a one-bedroom is $2,000?

I'd say at least 2K. But the poster above says it's over 3K.

The poster above was quoting the median for all apartments in New York City, the (second-?)most expensive market in the country. Nationally it’s about $1,600 for a 1br: https://www.apartments.com/rent-market-trends/us/

You mentioned NY - logical to look at NY then no?

Is this true? I think SROs were very common in the US in metropolitan areas.

It was common plot point in media to: 1) kick your kids out at 18, 2) if two men lived together they were assumed to be dating.

I think SRO's are very different from "One bedrooms" and even from studios? a studio or a one bedroom has a kitchen, a bathroom, and some living space... I think SRO's typically have a bed, a chair, and sometimes a desk. Bathrooms were shared, I'm not sure how kitchen/cooking space worked?

yep, a ton of SROs have been lost in cities like SF https://ccsroc.net/s-r-o-hotels-in-san-francisco/

also - gentrification of apartment housing stock over time raising the price floor and phasing out of public housing

Many localities will have co-living restrictions for single-family homes.

Apartments exist everywhere with a population over 100. Does no one rent an apartment with roommates anymore?

They avoid it because it sucks

I would think greed is a luxury and always has been, more than a simple adobe and living alone.

Actually the US is a first-world country because it's allied with the US. Russia is a second-world country because it's allied with Russia, and Switzerland is a third-world country because it's allied with neither.