Shocked about rent

I’ve been renting in this state for 13 years and I moved from a shitty one bedroom apartment to the one I’m currently in about five years ago right before Covid hit. Long story short, I looked up my old apartment out of curiosity today when I saw an article about how rent has increased so much in NJ more so than others places and my jaw hit the floor. My apartment was 500sq ft, shitty, I was broken into several times. Five years ago I paid $1450 and now I see it’s listed for $2,500. It went up by a thousand dollars in a span of five years with no real renovations. It’s sad to say that if I every broke up with my boyfriend and leave the place we are at now, I literally would not be able to go back to my old place from five years ago because I wouldn’t be able to afford it. I then looked at other shitty one bedroom apartments and it’s all the same, studios and one bedrooms are now starting at $2,500.

What the heck this is insane.