Were apartments $300/month in the deep suburbs of cities though? Because I'm always surprised to hear my parents tell me rents for 1 bedrooms in the place I grew up in outside of Boston are in the $2-2.5k range (confirmed just now, not an affluent suburb). Census data seems to put the equivalent in Massachusetts at $120/month in 1970, which would be roughly $1k/month in 2026. $300/month in 1970 might even be high for what people were paying in Manhattan in 1970.
It should be noted NYC nearly went bankrupt in the '70s, the Bronx was burning - I wonder if there's any studies that account for the share of the rent increase that's explained by the higher paid jobs, decrease in crime, etc. i.e. all the ways these places have changed materially since the reference point.
