First thing every morning, five times a week Margaret (not her real name) sits at her desk in the Hamilton firm where she is employed and quickly scans the real estate ads in the daily newspaper.

She starts with the furnished apartments, then the unfurnished. The whole exercise takes about a minute before she closes the paper and begins her work day. Frustrated, she prays tomorrow will be different, but knowing Bermuda's housing situation, she doesn't hold out much hope.

Margaret hasn't even bothered to check the Executive Rentals section. It would only be an exercise in further frustration, for there it is not uncommon to see an owner or agent advertising a unit upwards of $5,000 a month.

For Margaret's needs, a large studio or one bedroom apartment would suffice. Unfortunately, she knows she will have to cough up more than the $700 she has been paying for the studio in Hamilton Parish she has been renting for 12 years. Recently she was served with a notice to leave the apartment so that her landlord could carry out renovations, though she has been searching even longer since the relationship between the two parties became strained.

There is an art, she has found out, to securing suitable accommodation, like knowing somebody who knows somebody who is looking for a tenant.

"I check the classifieds every day, I've actually gone and put posters up and even called the David Lopes programme," said Margaret.

"I went to the Housing Corporation but they said, because I am a single person, they won't even consider me. They figure a single person should be able to find accommodation much easier than somebody with children.

"They give preference to people with children because they do not want to see children on the streets, which I understand."

The notice to vacate was served on Margaret less than a month ago, after her landlord applied for the notice in court. She has to be out of her apartment by the end of September but hasn't had any luck in finding a place.

"I've been looking since May, actually I was looking long before that because my landlord doesn't do anything (repairs)," Margaret stated.

"I hadn't been looking as hard as I'm looking now, because I wasn't told to get out so I knew I had time. Now that I have been forced out, with a deadline, it makes a big difference."

Margaret is up against hundreds of others, from all backgrounds and income levels, going through the daily, frustrating search of finding suitable accommodation.

"If I see an ad that does look promising I will call... nine o'clock in the morning! But a few times I have called the answering machine is full with enough calls already," she stated.

"I don't think the availability is the problem, but the affordability. When you look in the paper and see $2,500 for a one-bedroom apartment it's ridiculous.

"I look at the price first - that's what stands out - but sometimes there is no price. I don't look at the executive rentals at all, it's way out of my price range. I would have to work a couple of months just to make one month's rent.

"The executive rentals are what is pushing everything up. People are going for the highest bidder. Years ago you would see a one bedroom for under $1,000, but now if people know they can get $2,500 for an executive rental and you can only afford $1,000 you will never get it.

"They will always give it to the person who can give them the most money. When those people come in to work for the Exempt companies, they get top dollars to work here and sometimes their rent is being paid for. But most Bermudians are not getting help with their rents.

"We are made to feel like second class citizens in our own country, which is sad."

Margaret, who has been renting for 22 years after leaving home at the age of 19, is looking for an unfurnished apartment, preferably in the eastern parishes.

"I lived in Warwick for nine years and have been in Hamilton Parish for 12 years," she says.

"I like Hamilton Parish, as compared to the Warwick area, it's just easier to go to work, you don't have the backup of traffic."

Margaret admits she is also open to the idea of buying a house, but, again, affordability is key.

"When I see the cost to rent, two thousand-odd dollars, that could be going towards my mortgage each month," she says.

"I checked into buying and the market to buy is just as bad as the market to rent. I don't think anybody should be putting most of their pay cheque towards rent - that's crazy."

The ads Margaret ran in the newspapers in June and July failed to produce a single response. She knows why.

"I put my price range, up to $1,000, and nobody was going to call for that," she accepts.

"If I had left it blank I probably would have got some calls. It still comes back to the dollar, if they know they can make $2,500 why would they give it to me?

"Like I told one gentleman whose place I went to look at, who told me he thinks he can get $1,400, I said I can afford up to $1,000 and I can guarantee he will always be paid. People are getting so desperate they are willing to pay that because they have no other choice, but they are having a hard time paying the other bills."

Rents - like the cost of homes - have climbed steadily over the decades, rising faster than salaries. Twenty years ago you could find a one-bedroom for less than $500 a month. Even ten years ago, an ad in the newspaper advertised a ''large waterfront studio, water and electricity included'' for $800 a month. Today, that apartment is probably renting for close to twice that.

"When I first moved out I was 19 years old and the apartment I got was a one-bedroom apartment and I was paying $165 a month.''

"It was small but it was nice. When I left nine years later I was paying $400-odd, but being 19 I wasn't getting a big pay cheque. People have been struggling, no matter what era you live in.

"I don't know what else to do, short of going on TV and crying my heart out. That seems to get everybody going, seeing somebody crying, and then the phone is ringing off the hook."

Margaret says she is trying to make the right decisions so that she won't struggle 20 years from now when she reaches the age of 60. If she is going to buy a home she would rather buy a house with an apartment to rent to supplement her income.

"I'm in my 40s now, I don't have any children and I have life insurance too, but it's not going to be enough to retire on," she says.

"I'm looking out for my future as well, I don't want to pay rent the rest of my life. Otherwise, I'll be back in the same situation I'm in now, looking for affordable housing.

"If I can't find it in my 40s, what is it going to be like in my 60s?"

Margaret considers herself a good tenant, but she concedes there are also bad tenants - and bad landlords - out there.

"So many people have had such bad tenants that they refuse to rent to anybody,'' she says sadly.

"You can't blame them because it is their investment. You really have to know someone in order to get a place.

"To get a good tenant and good landlord to match would be the ideal situation, but most times it doesn't work like that. You have a landlord, you pay him on time every month, you don't cause any problems, yet you have things that need to be repaired and they don't do it.

"Like me, once you start complaining, it's 'if you don't like it, get out'. That's how it is with me, now."

In the meantime Margaret's search continues, but time is running out.

"I've been looking for at least six years, not actively, but there is nothing out there," she says with little hope.

"As of the 30th of September if I'm still there he (landlord) will have to go to court to file for an eviction notice. If he wants me out, I don't have a problem going, but be reasonable and give me time to find something."