Rents in and around DC have gone through the roof.
In 2003 I rented a 4 bedroom, 3 level, 2 car garage, single family home in Gaithersburg for $1500 a month. The owner was smart enough to sell the thing near the top of the market in 2006. I went to a 3 level townhouse nearby that had 2 bedrooms and a single car garage that was too small to actually use for $1500 a month. Now I’m in a very large one bedroom high rise apt in Alexandria for $1800 a month. Much closer in, and at least 70% of my neighbors are head banging, burka wearing, baby factories.
Suspect DC is not the only ones that have huge rental increases. First, last and only time I shared a wall with anyone was when I did a three month tdy with my employer back in the early 1980’s. First question I asked was what you do with your stuff? Response was either “What stuff?” or “Pay for storage”. Considered selling home in Houston suburbs while back and renting but couldn’t afford rental rates to live in a safe area. We have our own set of problems here, too.
Will be interesting to see what happens to all those new high rise rentals in Houston if oil price doesn’t start coming back up and layoffs don’t stop. Noticed they finally stopped tearing down and building more in some of the areas. Most young people now can’t afford to buy a house, maintain it and pay the taxes and insurance. Plus I would think they would want to stay pretty mobile considering the state of our country.
Sorry about your current limited housing possibilities but sometimes you have to do what you have to do to survive. At least hope you can keep and carry some kind of personal protection in your area.