Apartment hunting still makes me crazy

We looked at some more places this weekend.  Most were a disappointment, as usual.  Some places inspired some hope.  We looked at a few more upscale places.  Found one in New Berlin that offers a fantastic place, a super nice 24 hour fitness center, quiet community and premium bragging rights with others.  It’s affordable, but it’s sad to think that you’re paying $15k/year for rent.  Still, there is little other option at this point.  Trying to find a place that will accomidate our space needs, not be an embarrassment to live in (that extra $200-300/month gets you much nicer ammenities, newer appliances, better finish on everything, it’s like going from a Kia to a BMW), be a reasonable distance from work/school and be affordble; is damn near impossible.  Even if we live a little further away to save $100 a month or so, we’ll easily make up for it in gas to make our normal commute.  Argh… I think I’ve even said it before in this blog, but the thing that frustrates me the most about looking for apartments in the Milwaukee area is this: around here, people don’t live in apartments because they want to, they do so because they have to.  That attitude is really reflected in the quality and the management almost anywhere you go.