Rent is far cheaper in the U.S. My last apartment was $450/month for 600 sq ft in a good neighborhood. I paid $650 for less than half of that in rural France.
Food is probably cheaper too, though not as dramatically.
I'm sure there are lots of perks to living in Europe, but rent is not among them.
For 600 sq ft? That's not hard to find anywhere in the Midwest. Here are dozens of results for Waterloo, IA for below $600, many of which are much larger than 600 sq ft:
Those figures don't normalize for apartment size. The "cost to buy" figures do, however, and they show the US costing less than half the price in Germany.
Strange, to me it's the converse experience, my appartement in downtown Montpellier, is cheaper and bigger than my girlfriend's appartement in south Scottsdale, AZ.
Food is probably cheaper too, though not as dramatically.
I'm sure there are lots of perks to living in Europe, but rent is not among them.