IMO the bigger problem in Paris is the requirements (such as someone with sufficient revenues to guarantee you'll pay your rent/pay it for you). With regards to

IMO the bigger problem in Paris is the requirements (such as someone with sufficient revenues to guarantee you'll pay your rent/pay it for you). With regards to price, there are options - it might be crap sharing an appartement in a crappy suburb, but it exists and there are tradeoffs that can be made (nicer but farther away, crappier but closer, shared to bring costs down, etc.). Also there is student housing which is quite affordable but the system is ridiculously bad. However on both points there are improvements - there's a state guarantee program for students, and the system for requesting student housing is improving, even if there still isn't enough in Paris itself.