not that KR is a beacon of information on this topic, but...

my 1 yr lease ends at the end of this month.
my rent is $1558/month

if i re-sign another 1 year lease, they'll do it for $1725/month
if i re-sign for 14 months, they'll drop it do $1690, and if i do 4 months it hikes up to $1800.

this is ****ty, in and of itself. because i don't want to move.
and $1558 is already kindof my max.
also these lease periods, 12, 14, or 4 months are extremely odd, i think?

BUT HERE'S THE KICKER.

in the hunt for a new place i found my ****ing neighbour's place, in an ad on craigslist, which is identical to mine, except about 90 sq. ft bigger -- for 1499$/month.

how the ****!?

how do i convince my landlords that this is bull****. they're upping my rent by 250$/month, while they're renting the unit next to me for 60$ lower than what i'm already paying.
their argument in the renewal letter is that rates have increased as the economy has improved, and that all units will now just be more expensive to adjust to what they would cost on the "open market".

which is clearly bull****, as on the open market right now, an identical unit is going for LESS than what i'm paying and they're trying to charge me $250/month to stay!?

i hate landlords. mine is a giant property management company.
it's not just some random dude.

ps. lets not ***** about how expensive that is. this is the bay area, it's the second most expensive place to live in the US outside of new york. so. it's not my fault.

__________________

i am so vain. and yet, so masochistic. how can the two coexist?
-francesca woodman

move next door.

Games for flat-earthers.

Do you have rent control? Here there can be great variences in what landlords can charge depending on how many times and how recently the apartment has changed hands (if I hadn't wanted to have a family, I'd probably still be in the studio with the leaky ceiling in Brooklyn Heights, because it was just that cheap, and it was going down as a portion of my income even as they made their allowed increases). Do you know what your neighbor paid?

srsly? do you think they'd let me do that? literally move one door over, to prevent a rate hike? i feel like there's probably something in the 90 pg. contract i signed with them to prevent me from doing just this.

soph, i looked at places in Ben Lomond/Felton/Boulder Creek/SC, as it's much much closer to work and in the 900-1400$ range for a little cottage, but it's a solid 40 minutes to any kind of grocery store or movie theater or anywhere anyone i hang out with would be -- accessible only by back-roads and one lane mountain highways, which, i really don't want to have to commute everyday. here's also no cell reception there, and sadly i love my iphone too much.
not to mention the commute from Palo Alto (where grad school is) to Boulder Creek is fully 2 hours. which, i can't swing on the daily. i just can't.

__________________

i am so vain. and yet, so masochistic. how can the two coexist?
-francesca woodman