My first apartment cost $425 a month. I was able to afford that while working full time, making $8 an hour, as a cashier at Market Street Grill.
The Bigelow Apartments on 200 South 400 East is where I called home. Was it a luxury apartment? Not by a long shot. Was I able to afford it, even on a meager wage, while still having money for necessities and extras? Yes.
The Bigelow Apartments have been shuttered recently, thus further shortening the list of affordable housing in Salt Lake City.
A number of years later in a different apartment building, I received a letter in my mailbox informing me that the apartment building had been sold and my rent would be increasing nearly 40 percent.