In my last year of grad school, I splurged and got a three-bedroom apartment in the guest house behind the mansion of an auto industry magnate, with utilities paid for $745. This was an amazing apartment, too (though maybe it was only amazing in comparison to the cookie-cutter apartments I had stayed in before).
I think it's quite possible to find rent in the low hundreds for a place that is "half decent".
Sorry, I should have clarified - I'm thinking of a few friends in particular who would be fresh-out-of-undergrad developers coming from shared apartments where they were paying $300-$350/mo. The change from 8k debt/year to 80k income/year is significant enough that there are people who wouldn't question the 80k number as a far-more-than-enough wage.
I think it's quite possible to find rent in the low hundreds for a place that is "half decent".