Renters: What can you get for $500 a month?

Albuquerque, N.M.

• One-bath studio with kitchen
• 452 square feet
• Rent: $540 

Desert Creek Apartments is just off Interstate 25, about 10 minutes from downtown Albuquerque. The complex – 241 units on three floors – has a fitness center, clubhouse, storage, free parking lot, swimming pool, sauna, playground and basketball court. It's near shopping and eight public and private schools. A 5,000-square-foot community room with a dance floor and a kitchenette is used for weddings and parties. Studio units have central air conditioning and radiant heat, vinyl and carpeted floors, an electric range and refrigerator. All utilities are included in the rent price.

Atlanta

• One-bedroom, one-bath apartment
• 611 to 739 square feet
• Rent: $449 (special)

In this gated, three-story complex in Stone Mountain, Ga., 15 miles outside of Atlanta, rent includes a washer and dryer and wood-burning fireplace in each unit. The apartment has air conditioning, ceiling fans, a disposal, dishwasher and icemaker, a patio or balcony, refrigerator and blinds. The 23-year-old complex has 989 apartments and town houses, four outdoor swimming pools, two fitness centers, racquetball courts, tennis courts and a sauna. There are also two clubhouses that include a conference room and business center with computers.  The apartment’s managers host kids' nights and bring in a team of tax specialists for residents at tax time. The complex is near the Stone Mountain Park theme park and is about a half-mile away from shopping and highway access.

Boston

In metropolitan Boston, you will not find an apartment available for $500. However, you may be able to rent a room in someone's house or share an apartment. For example, in Chelsea, about four miles north of Boston, a young married couple posted an online ad recently hoping to interest someone in renting a bedroom for $500 in their three-bedroom apartment. They asked for "a very responsible, trustworthy and dependable person to reside with. Someone who won't make us ask them for the rent 100 times and is currently in a steady job."

Chicago

• Single bedroom in a shared three-bedroom apartment
• 182 square feet
• Rent: $495

Rent for a bedroom in this second-floor, 1,800-square-foot apartment on Chicago's North Side includes heat, water, trash pickup and shared use of the kitchen and big living and dining rooms. Parking is on the street, with no permits required. Owner Sebastian Toma recently bought the stylish, 1930s-era three-unit building and refinished the oak floors and added new cabinets, granite tile counters and a dishwasher in the kitchen.  "It's a very nice building – a vintage Chicago three-flat," he says. "We had to do a few updates, but everything's very solid." Outside is a quiet neighborhood with immigrants from India, Africa and Eastern Europe and "regular American working-class people." Greenbriar Park is nearby, as is the East Indian commercial district on Devon Avenue. It's a seven-minute drive to Lake Michigan and Lakeshore Drive and a half-hour drive to downtown Chicago, which also is roughly 45 minutes to reach by train or bus.

Dallas

• One-bath studio apartment
• 529 square feet
• Rent: $425

Efficiency units are the lowest-priced apartments in this two-floor, 124-unit complex. The most expensive unit, a 978-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment, rents for $635 a month. The complex has a swimming pool and community laundry facility. It's within a five-minute walk to a rapid-transit station and is near freeways, shops and entertainment. Units are air conditioned. Kitchen appliances include a dishwasher, and each unit has a sundeck.

Denver

• One-bedroom, one-bath apartment
• 500 square feet
• Rent: $600

Two weeks' free rent is thrown in with a lease of this apartment just south of Denver's downtown. Rent includes storage, a dedicated covered parking space and all utilities except electricity. Listing agent Jason Meyer says the apartment is in a quiet 14-unit building near Washington Park, a neighborhood with shopping, dining and entertainment. Recent improvements include new carpets and floors; white cabinets; updated appliances, countertops and sink; light fixtures; and plumbing fixtures. The unit has central heat and a wall-unit air conditioner. The building provides a coin-operated laundry.

Detroit

• One-bedroom, one-bath apartment
• 575 to 625 square feet
• Rent: $545 to $665

Rent in this complex includes extra storage, parking and swimming pool access. Units have window air conditioners and carpeted floors. Heat, gas, water and trash pickup are included in the rent. The complex, which has 153 units on two floors, is close to Interstate 75 and is about 15 miles north of Detroit, in Madison Heights, Mich. Shopping, restaurants and entertainment are nearby, including a golf course, water park and city park.

Kansas City, Mo.

• Two-bedroom, one-bath single-family house
• 792 square feet
• Rent: $500

This 1923 bungalow in Kansas City's Midtown neighborhood is in the Kansas City School District, which lost state accreditation in 2000. There are several parks within a five-block radius, nearby neighborhood corner stores and easy access to downtown, which is about eight miles away. The home has a dining room, a mix of hardwood floors and carpet, an unfinished basement, fenced yard and alarm system. Four years ago, houses in this neighborhood were selling for $70,000 to $80,000, says Ben Edsall, whose Turn-Key Properties leases and manages homes. "Now you can buy them all day long for between $5,000 and $10,000 — many of them short sales and foreclosures," he says.

Los Angeles

• Studio apartment
• Approximately 350 square feet
• Rent: $595

Finding a rental under $600 in the Los Angeles metropolitan region is a big challenge. This 350-square-foot studio apartment is in what the property agent calls an “entry level” neighborhood in Long Beach, about 24 miles south of downtown L.A. The apartment is near a Blue Line mass-transit station. It's in a two-story building built in 1961 that has 12 studio units. Water bills and landscaping service is included in the rent. Parking costs $20 more.

Louisville, Ky.

• One bedroom, one-bath apartment
• 450 square feet
• Rent: $499 

This high-rise building with studio and one-bedroom apartments is in historic Old Louisville, and is near Fourth Street Live, Kentucky Center for the Arts, the University of Louisville campus and downtown.

Miami

• Two-bedroom, one-bath apartment
• 772 square feet
• Rent: $481-$752

This building, which is close to the Bay of Biscayne, freeways and downtown, has 186 units on 14 floors. It has a community clubhouse, playground, laundry facilities, fitness center and swimming pool. Parking is free and high-speed Internet access is available. The units also have air conditioning.

New York

Rents are dropping fast in New York, but not for low-end apartments, says real-estate agent Becky Yee of Rapid Realty. Within a 30-minute train ride to downtown Manhattan, $500 to $1,000 a month buys a bed in a dormitory-style boarding house, Yee says. For that price, "you get a super, super small room, about the width of a twin bunk bed, and you get a dresser that you can lock," she says. Immigrants and newcomers to town use such rentals for a month or two while focusing on finding a roommate so they can rent a shared apartment. "The apartments that are $1,600 a month and over, they are all coming down in price," Yee says. "But there are certain apartments that will never go down. A $1,000 apartment will never go to $800." Even in this climate, though, a $1,400 apartment in a good neighborhood will rent in four hours, she says. "I'm not joking."

Seattle

• Studio apartment
• 400 square feet 
• Rent: $600

This studio is in a modest building in Seattle's First Hill neighborhood. The 42-unit complex is near Harborview Hospital and is a five-minute walk from downtown. The studio has wall-to-wall carpet, an efficiency kitchen and limited closet space. Parking is available for $50 more monthly.

San Francisco

• A room in a four-bedroom, one-bath apartment
• 120 square feet
• Rent: $550

In San Francisco, $550 for a room in a shared apartment is a bargain. This room is in the recently remodeled first-floor apartment of a three-story, three-apartment Victorian home in the city's Mission District. The room is furnished with a futon and desk and it has a closet. It is "small but livable," says the listing agent. The apartment is shared with three other roommates. Everyone uses the one bathroom, large kitchen, outdoor deck and washer and dryer. The Mission District is a popular location with bars, shops, cafes and restaurants and a Bay Area Rapid Transit station.

St. Louis

• One-bedroom, one-bath apartment
• 550 to 750 square feet
• Rent: $525

This apartment in a small, turn-of-the-19^th-century building has a living room, dining room, eat-in kitchen, sun room  and study. There are stained-glass windows, built-in cabinets and new carpets. Rent covers water bills and trash pickup. Units have air conditioning, kitchen appliances and hardwood and carpeted floors. The building is in the Compton Hill Historic District near the city's arts venues, parks, stadiums and major interstates and midway between the clubs of the historic Soulard neighborhood and Tower Grove Park.