He said he had no other big bills so safe to assume no car payment, probably just insurance or maybe he uses public transit now?

I just looked at 1BRs for rent in Pawtucket and they’re around $1,000-1,5000/mo so if it’s just you and no big bills, you absolutely can. That’s about $18k a year in rent. If you don’t have a huge grocery bill (we do have aldi here which is great!) the only other big bill you may have would be heating/cooling costs depending on the method where you rent. Many NE homes still have oil tanks. Totally doable and RI (New England in general) is an amazing place to live.