So many choices, so little time

I've never actually moved somewhere where I had much of a choice about where to live. In college, I just had to move into the absolute cheapest place I could find as close to campus as possible. And then I moved to Dutch hell in northwest Iowa, and my choices were limited to the sole apartment complex in town. After that, I moved to a slightly bigger town in southwest Minnesota, and I had basically two choices -- an apartment complex that was the site of a stabbing shortly before I was slated to move, or the duplex that I currently live in.

In Sioux Falls, however, there are choices galore -- in the $500-$600 range, you can get two bedrooms in a slightly questionable place, a closet-sized one-bedroom in a luxury apartment complex, or basically anything else you can think of.

For instance, I can live in the facility pictured at the above right, which features a hot tub and indoor pool, as well as a weight room/fitness center, vaulted ceilings, a gargantuan walk-in closet, and numerous other cool amenities. However, it's only one bedroom and costs $615 a month.

Then, there's the place pictured at the left, which offers two bedrooms minus the huge walk-in closet, but has no pool, fitness center or hot tub. It's definitely bigger, but the carpet is an ugly brown and it's just all around not as nice. It is cheaper however, at about $550 a month.

So this leaves me in a quandary. What would I rather have? More money, more space and a lower-quality apartment? Or less money, less space and a higher-quality apartment? I can't decide, so I'm going to look at about 10 more apartments tomorrow.