Rent Increase

I've been living in my apartment (a studio with separate kitchen and bathroom) for 5 years, since my second semester of grad school. I continued to live here after I graduated as the rent is very reasonable, and it is in a nice neighborhood and a responsible manager.

My first apartment in this city was only one block away from campus, so the rent was higher, and it didn't include utilities or parking. The apartment itself is fine, but it was a separate unit in a house, and the rest of the house had 4 freshman girls. First of all, it was illegal in this city to have more than 3 unrelated people living in the same house/apartment, second, the land lady didn't really care much about what was going on in the house. I have asked her before I rented the apartment whether it would be a quiet house, and she said yes, but when I called her because of noise issue, she wouldn't pick up the phone. I gave up, and started looking for a new place to live after a few months.

I found my current apartment through the school's housing website. It was the first one I saw, and I didn't need to consider other places. The place is a little bit further away from campus (20 minutes walking), the rent was cheaper and included all the utilities, and it is in a small upscale village where I can walk to stores etc and be two blocks away from the lake. A similar place in this neighborhood would cost $100 more, and probably not covering all utilities. I have asked the manager before I moved in whether the rent would go up next year, as it was only a six month lease but I intend to stay longer than that. He said no, unless I would be living here for ten years or something, the landlord would not raise rent every year.

One year went by, two years went by...at the end of the year I always wondered whether my rent would be raised. Thankfully, it did not, until today my manager told me that because of the raising energy costs, the landlord has decided to raise the rent by $75. I don't blame him. In the past year everything is significantly more expensive, and after all, I've had a cheap place for 5 years without a rent increase. It is just, because everything is so much more expensive now, my budget is getting more and more swollen. I'll have to redo my budget now - it is going to be painful!