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You were the one who said half an hour away. I don't know where you find suburbs like that in the US - I had the misfortune of being marooned in a suburb of DC for about a month during COVID, and the only things that could be reached without a car were a patch of forest full of discarded needles and a Starbucks that could be reached by walking through that forest, another 20 minutes through a sort of industrial/warehouse area and finally crossing a six-lane highway.
Are you talking about something like Manhattan or the Bay Area? I got a place on the ridiculous order of 60m² for that in the small college town where I lived in the US (which locals seemed to believe was unusually expensive), and 30m²+ studio apartments in every European city I have lived (I gather Paris and Munich are more expensive now, but that might be about it?). I even had friends with a 1BR in Brooklyn that was on the same order of magnitude that they only paid 1400 a month for. No roommates in any case cited, and all but the first
I'm a no-traffic half hour away from the nearest major city. I don't generally go there. Not more than once every few months.
I just now checked a few suburbs along the west coast. Not counting the bay area. Typical prices are $2k+ for studio or 1bd. I was able to find sub-2k listing, but those are very few. The suburbs around Portland stand out as strangely cheap with plenty of sub-2k listings. Everywhere else almost every apartment ad is over $2k. I saw one for just over $1k but the size was less than $250 sq ft. "Harry Potter" style.
I've lived in various suburbs across the West coast. I don't know if I have ever lived more than 2 miles from a grocery store and series of large shopping centers. I have never had to cross a freeway to get to a store, unless you mean by biking along a normal road under an overpass.
I never lived outside of DC. Maybe they are particularly shitty.
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