apartments part 2

Thanks @hodown- I found a decent calculator. I had looked before, but the one I found said "you shouldn't spend more than 1/3 of your income on rent" and the calculator had a box for 'monthly pay check' and then you click 'calculate' and it puts a number in the box. Gee thanks, I can divide by 3.

So the expensive place has 1 month free rent, and if I divide that by 12, it reduces the rent enough that it's about $100 over my recommended budget. If I have to, I could cover $1200 out of savings.

But you're all right... it would suck to live house-poor.

But I think location (both safety-wise, and 'fun'-wise) is important. Both places are equally close to work, so that's not a big issue.

And as far as keep looking... well that's tough since i'm going back to buffalo tomorrow. But I looked at 6 buildings- and then spoke to a realtor friend who said there's nothing else he would recommend (just some dumps).

And I didn't take pix, but here are the websites-

This is the $$$ one (floorplan M)


And this is the more practical one, with the penthouse-

(the middle floorplan in the 2BR section.)

And FWIW, the 1BR in the first place and 2BR penthouse in the second place are about the same size- 1050 sq ft more or less.
The cost difference is $300/mo.