A woman has admitted how “humbling” her apartment search has been based on the results she received with her budget.
Influencer Grace Lemire took to TikTok to discuss how discouraging looking for an apartment has been for her. “My budget isn’t even that low????” she captioned her video.
After typing in her budget to the website she was using, the results told her she could only afford a parking space. “No, because I’m looking for apartments right now, and I just put in my budget and the only thing that’s coming up is parking spaces,” she said in the TikTok. “This is the most humbling experience I think I have ever had.”
Since it was posted on 16 September, the video has been viewed more than 200,000 times with 200 comments. Many people related to Lemire’s frustrations and shared their own apartment search struggles. “Sometimes I get storage units,” one person commented about when they search for apartments by price.
“Girl, I’m in the Midwest trying to move to a bigger city and I don’t even wanna see those numbers. Time to find 50 roomies,” another comment read.
In the comments, Lemire wrote that her original budget had been $2,300 per month for rent for an apartment in Boston. But since those apartments were “falling apart” she had to increase her budget to $2,500.
Other commenters explained that they either had to move back in with their parents or not move at all due to the increase in rent prices. “And that is why I had to move home and back in with mom after grad school,” one comment read.
According to the New York Times, many college graduates and low-wage workers are being priced out of big cities, the latest pitfall of post-pandemic inflation. Because of this, the economic landscape has shifted dramatically for members of Gen Z, who in the past may have been able to afford things like a studio apartment.
This isn’t the first time someone has spoken out about the economic hardships that Gen Z-ers like Lemire have faced. Last month, Gen X mom Jessica McCabe posted a video on TikTok expressing her frustration with the way the US economy has made it nearly impossible for young adults to strike out on their own.
With rent and insurance rates rising, the 51-year-old retiree argued that the system in place has made it difficult for her adult children to stay afloat financially.
“I told my son, all you have to do is work hard, go to college or join the military like I did,” McCade said in a video.
Her son got his degree, and upon moving back in, he promised his mom that he planned on moving out within two months. Despite being a college graduate, McCabe’s son could barely scrape together enough money to afford a one-bedroom studio apartment, due to the exorbitant hikes that have priced even studio apartments up to $2,000 a month.
McCabe tried to find a silver lining for his situation: “I told him: ‘Hey, when you turn 25, at least your car insurance will go down.” However, McCabe and her son were in for a rude awakening when they discovered that when her son turned 25, his car insurance “went up to $150.”
She also mentioned that despite having insurance, her son “had to go to the emergency room because he couldn’t get anybody to see him with the health insurance that he has.”
“Now, he’s out money for that, too,” she added. “It seems like you can never get ahead.”
