Is it worth finding a cheaper place to rent? (Elk Grove: apartment, rentals)

[Sacman]

I'm currently paying $1300 renting a good apartment. Could I likely find something
cheaper enough to make it worth moving.

There's 3 adults in our household: One can't find work, one works part-time. But we do have $17,000 in savings.

I'm taking into concideration:
- moving expense and time
- location and crime
- Cheaper places are likely to have other expenses

And are the ads for $1000 rentals just scams or really bad areas?
Are rents likely to go down or up as the economy getts worse?

[zen_klown]

Sort of.

If you look around you can find 3 bedroom places renting in reasonably safe neighborhood like this one for less than 1000 a month. If you are willing to move out to Elk Grove or Antelope, you could probably find something cheaper.

DARLING CONDO MANZANITA / COYLE (http://sacramento.craigslist.org/apa/886205861.html - broken link)


But there are sunk costs associated with moving and you might be further from employment centers. A lot depends on how long you think the person who is unemployed is going to be unemployed and the person who is apparently underemployed will stay underemployed. (maybe he is going to school and the part time employment is semi-permament - its not clear). But my hunch is that it probably doesn't make sense to move. Its probably cheaper and faster for the un-employed and underemployed to find better jobs than to move. It costs money to rent a u-haul. There are first and last month deposits and often furniture that worked at one place is inadequate at the next one. There is also just the hassle of finding a new place.

If it were me, I would skip the move and address the real problem, finding the next job.

[PapaDoc313]

On the one hand, I'd say it would be nice to move. For $1300 a month, split three ways, you could most likely find a nice house, in a decent neighborhood for that money. However, like the other guy said, it probably wouldn't be worth it until the other two roommates gain some/better employment. It's not horribly expensive to move, though it's not cheap either. You really don't want to blow all of your savings just to move. And those two finding jobs will be important because it will suck to lose savings just because two roommates don't/can't/won't work.

It's hard to advise what to do because we don't know the reasons behind the un- and under-employment but if it were me, I'd probably stay at your current residence and (if possible) urge the other two to find better jobs. Once they have it will make moving easier and cheaper. If the case is that these two aren't working because they don't want to, as opposed to not being able to, I would give them 3 or so months to turn it around before giving them notice of your departure.

[Sacman]

Thanks for the replies.
The 3 of us are family, and I'm the part-time worker. In this way I'm lucky to have them. The reason for lack of work is we just moved back here from Washington st. Also unimployment is getting worse. Even temp agencies aren't interested in us. They say fax in your resume and we'll call if we need someone with your skills. We've been job-hunting for 4 months.

I thought of moving to save money, since we're not making much. On the other hand, we'd go broke anyway. That's why need more input.

[edwardius]

Its not great work, but this is the time of year that they are hiring. JCPenny telemarketing is located at Fair Oaks Blvd and El Camino. Basically you are answering the phones for people who are placing orders in the JCPenny catalogue, so there is no cold calling. I probably wouldn't want to make a career out of it, because the reading from the script was very boring. But they are generally hiring from now through Christmas. The pay was suprising good when I did it in college. Even though you are hired on a temporary basis, if you do a good job, they tend to extend your employment past Christmas.