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Comment by closeparen | Hacker News Reader

>paying an extra 10%+ in rent/mortgage

Where a one-bedroom is $4000, a two-bedroom is going to be $6500, not $4400.

Obviously a cheaper metro will have lower prices, but is the relative premium for an extra room also so dramatically lower?

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yes ... $4000 US Dollars for a one bedroom is literal crazy talk. Obviously, people are willing and able to pay those prices right now because they have to live specifically there to get those specific jobs. But if they could work remote, they could live anywhere their heart desires ... closer to family, closer to friends, closer to nature, closer to a local music scene, closer to the beach ... whatever their heart desires.

Obviously many people have laid down roots in those extremely high cost of living areas at this point so just moving can be tough, but we need to spread out man, cause $4000 a month for a tin can just ain't a good life.

Even if the absolute numbers are lower, I would still expect to see a premium of closer to 60% for an additional bedroom.

At least on the east coast outside of actually being located in the hard urban part of the city, from what I've seen 1 and 2 bedroom apartments only end up being marginally different in price. For example, one of the places I was looking at had 1 bedroom apartments for around 1400-1500USD per month while their 2 bedroom apartments only increased in price to 1600-1800USD depending on whether you wanted a bit more square footage or 2 bath instead of 1 bath. Likewise 3 bedroom just notched up another 200USD and so on.

Yeah this sounds about right. This is the way it should be. I mean, hell, even that is a bit pricey TBH ... rent prices are generally out of control and need to come down. People have to be able to live without cramming into places with roommates like sardines.

Interesting interaction: the lower the marginal cost of an additional bedroom, the more of a splurge it is to have your own place.

this place im looking at is within walking distance of main street in a nice little town, just outside of a major metropolitan area(think 30-45 min drive), includes water & gas, and the the complex is on the water. Because of that I'd say the place was a steal.

Otherwise though I'd generally agree. Rent is getting crazy in the US.

I was playing it safe and assuming a family adding one more room to a multi-room house. The 10% is on the low side. Where I live, it's an extra $100,000 between a 3 bedroom house and a 4 bedroom (or adding a bonus room), and then bump that up another $50,000 for the total cost after mortgage interest, utilities, etc. But nobody (that goes into an office) seems to want to believe it costs $150,000 to work from home (but then you save some on commute costs, so there's that). My manager actually made a comment about how it must be nice to save money by working from home (commute costs). I laughed.

Add TWO rooms to that house. It sounds like you live in an area with inexpensive housing. Folks who rent face an entirely different economic reality.

I live in the suburbs of a larger northeast city, so not inexpensive, but not city-apartment levels, either. Going from 3 bedroom to 4 bedroom seems to raise the asking price around 90k (from 450k to 540k). Admittedly, that includes houses of all ages/conditions/size/etc.

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