How much is a decent apartment for monthly rent on St. Thomas (US Virgin Island)??

Question

And how much are basic services, such as water, tv, phones etc? I am planning on moving to St Thomas on July and need to know this info.

Thanks =)

Answer 1

I manage a 75 unit condo property so I'm pretty up on expenses here..

a decent one bedroom in a safe neighborhood is at least 750 a month; 1200 is probably about the mean.

EVERYTHING is shipped into the islands so you have to pay that; while there isn't a "sales tax" per se, there is a3% tax merchants pay on all transactions so that's built into prices......as a rule of thumb, I would say you'll find everything 25-33% more expensive than the States; Federal Gov workers posted here get a 25% COLA bonus and its usually not enough. Gasoline this morning is 3.29 a gallon.

The real "shocker" will be electricity. Since we're an island, not tied into any big grid, and all our electricity comes from burning fuel oil, the kWh charge is this month is $0.28..that is about 3 times what you pay in the States .......I have 46 one bedroom apartments here; people who do alot of laundry, cook a lot with electric stoves and most importantly run their A/Cs have $400 - $500 A MONTH electric bills...

Now offsetting this is you don't have to have a winter wardrobe or pay to have the driveway plowed!

Answer 2

Living in St. Thomas is like living in New York, everything is too high. I guess coming from the mainland, you would be able to afford it.