What Challenges Do You Face When Renting a new apartment?

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Renting a new apartment

When you’re looking for a new apartment, you might have difficulty understanding the terminology. Is a one-bedroom an apartment with one bedroom or an apartment that has one bedroom? In some states, these terms are interchangeable and sometimes it can be hard to know which term is being used.

This article will try to unpack the meaning of each type. This will make it easier to understand what is being described by different people when they talk about Apartments for rent in San Jose. Each rental will have different attributes that are important to understand.

One Bedroom Apartments:

This term is used to describe an apartment with one bedroom. These apartments can contain anywhere from 500-650 square feet of living space and are usually the smallest of the apartments available for rent. A one bedroom usually has a balcony off of the living room or off of the master bedroom. These resale apartments can be a little bit more difficult to find than larger apartments. An apartment is priced reasonably if it has about $600 in monthly rent for the one bedroom, according to the Coalition for Economic Survival.

Two-Bedroom/Two-Bedroom Apartments:

This is an apartment that contains two bedrooms. These apartments can contain anywhere from 700 square feet of living space and up. A two bedroom typically has a balcony off the combination of both bedrooms or off the master bedroom. The two bedroom has a higher price point than a one bedroom. These apartments are more rare to find and offer greater value for the renter due to the overall level of space in the rental unit.

Three-Bedroom/Three-Bedroom Apartments:

This is an apartment with three bedrooms. It will often have anywhere from 900 square feet of living space and up. A three bedroom normally has a balcony off of the combination of all three bedrooms or off the master bedroom. This size apartment does not offer that much extra square footage for an increase in rent compared to a two bedroom apartment.


As an example, one of my friends was renting a small place with his girlfriend and sister. They lived in the living room and both bedrooms with the bathroom being in between the two bedrooms. When they moved in, the rent for their apartment was $1,100 a month making their gross income about $2,400. This is $11 per hour at minimum wage for each person according to the 3-2-1 rule. Unfortunately, they were on the bottom in terms of credit scores and that was affecting their ability to find a bank to loan them money.

The owner of their complex also only allowed one long term tenant at a time so they had to move out a few months ago. They found another place that had two bedrooms for the same price at $1500 a month. However, this was with three other roommates who did not have the same credit scores or job history as my friend did when he first moved in. The rent for this place was $1,650 a month which works out to $7.50 per hour at minimum wage for all four roommates.

This could be the same kind of setup that you are in now. It helps to find out how much the two bedrooms are renting for so you know how much of a rent increase to expect when you move into one of them.
When looking at houses on the market that have three bedrooms, they are rarely anything more than $200,000.