How much can I afford in renting an apartment?

Okay so 50k per year you times it by ,83 to get your salary after taxes. That results in 41500 or 3,458 per month. You should try to spend less than 33% on housing. So you should try to find somewhere for $1141. I searched on zillow for appartments under $1100 in chicago and 1,495 results came up. If you had a roommate you could probably get even cheaper than that. I wish you luck! Just got to budget everything out.

Figure about 1/3 of income monthly for rent.

the rule of thumb is you need to be earning 3x the rent per month...so going based off salary alone, that means you can qualify for up to 1400 rent....less is better....you can set aside the commission for extras such as unforeseen major expenses.

but to be sure you can afford 1400, you really need to write out a budget..if you have a 700 car payment and 300/month car insurance and 500 month health insurance, you likely can't afford 1400 rent

Spent on rent no more than 1/4 of your monthly salary.