How much rent can I afford?
My first advice would be to find a roommate. That way your rent will be cheaper. Have a look at craigslist for DC for this.
This doesn’t exactly address your question, but where I live (Los Angeles), most places will not rent to you unless your monthly salary is at least three times the rent, or if you have 18 months rent in savings. So, even if your budget would allow you to spend, say, 50% of your income on rent, you may have trouble convincing potential landlords that you would be able to afford paying the rent each month.
Percentages are a really bad way to calculate this. It really depends what your income is. Things like food, transportation, utilities, etc are relatively constant. If you’re making 60K/year, you could easily spend 40-50% on rent and still make out fine. If you’re making 25K, probably not. Make a budget that excludes housing if you don’t have one already. Figure out what your expenses are, and how much you want to be saving (if any). Anything left is the maximum you can spend on housing. In the end it depends on what affects your quality of life. If the location enriches your life dramatically, it is probably worth spending quite a bit on as long as you don’t go into debt for it.
The 30% is a nationwide thing. When I moved to DC I was at around 50% (same for most people I knew – however, a few of my friends had parent-subsidized apartments, which is how they were able to survive entry-level hell with a lot less stress). Five years later in the same apartment I’m around 35%. And I think I do okay and have a decently priced apartment. However, part of the cost of my place is location. I was fine with that, but it may or may not be a priority for you. Start budgeting (I prefer You Need A Budget) and then you’ll really be able to see what you actually have to spend. It sounds like you might be living at home still, which may make it tricky to tell how much you’ll need for things like food, utilities, etc. Are there friends that you can ask to see what they spend? Anyway, that might help you see if you can afford to to this, if you need a second job, etc. Some things that will help mitigate the impact is to not live in DC its
