Apartment Prices

Has anyone recently priced apartments in the metro-west area?  They are outrageous.  $1300 for a one bed one bath apartment?  It seems a lot to me.  What do you thing is that a lot.  I am looking for an apartment now, and I was considering a two bed two bath but they start at $1500 and go up plus utilites etc.  Maybe it is just that the current economic crisis has forced them to raises rents?  I know many places don't even have open apartments because people are too strapped to move out, so this could be driving the premium price tag on the open apartments.