My situation:

current place: ($1530) -1:15 drive from work

• small building, linear studio apartment shape, maybe 30x9 feet? small kitchen/bath
• rural, 20 min drive from city, hour walk to nearest town
• finished interior, but mice/rat problem
• landlord kinda weirdly tracking my movements, she doesn’t want me working from home too many ways a week

cheaper place: ($600) -50 min from work -standalone MIL in a shared house, bath/kitchen in main house, 9x9 feet

• more suburban, roads might be too dangerous to be walkable but if not, maybe 15 min walk to town -unfinished interior… no idea if there is a mice/rat problem but the kitchen area is separate.
• got along well with potential housemates

I make $3780/mo after taxes, budget now feels tight, but not sure if the extra $1000 a month would be worth a smaller/unfinished space. I feel it might be worth it because I could save/invest extra money, or use extra money to make the rental nicer.

I’m failing to see what’s wrong with the cheaper place.

It’s moving from my own place to a shared space, and I have to go outside to another building to use the kitchen or bathroom.

OK. Yeah. Those are sacrifices. Shorter commute and no pests? Huge upgrades though. It sounds worth it, unless you really really value your privacy.

Commute of fifty minutes? The max for me.

And I feel something like pests would be a great reason to spend more on housing. But in this case spend less.

Definite market failure there are not more housing options at more price points in more locations and quality.

Heard - unfortunately no pests isn’t a guarantee, it’s more of an unknown. The floorboards are unfinished and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something.

Yeah the housing market here is rough. Only found this cheap place through contacts.

I don't think unfinished floorboards necessarily makes rodents so much more welcome.

I'd say go for the cheaper one. You save 50 minutes every day, you probably don't have to deal with rats any more, you can invest $1000 per month for savings, and you get rid of your creepy landlady. Flatmates might be a blessing and they might be a curse, but a good first impression is a start.