No disrespect taken, thanks for your comment. I hadn't really even considered the area prior to the above commenters suggestion. I suppose it's certainly possible that my subconscious guided me to the self-selection, but it wasn't intentional.

Looking in Tacoma I'm seeing quite a few 1 bedroom apartments for <$1.5k a month which seems decent to me, and I imagine Tacoma is more expensive than some of the smaller surrounding towns. This doesn't line up with your comment so my question is, what am I missing?