There’s a publication that comes out every week that has a listing of apartments for rent. I think it’s called Masa u’matan. It comes with the BP Weekly. If you know anyone in Lakewood, you can ask them to either give it to you or check for you. I think it comes out on Wednesdays.
There are short term rentals. They are more expensive though. I’m not sure of the prices because I never did short term. You may be able to find someone who will let you do a long term rental for a one-month trial. That way, you won’t have to pay short-term rental price.
The prices for long-term go up and down, so I can’t really tell you. There are better seasons and worse seasons. When I was there, it was hard to find for less than app. $650 – $700 (but I also had certain limitations regarding where I could live).
The prices were going down at the end of last year, so you might be able to find for less. You also may be able to find cheaper (app. $500-$550) if you are willing to live further out or in a room (as opposed to a whole apartment).
I did find that when I spoke to potential landlords, they were often open to giving me deals and lowering the price because I was single so they saw me as being more long-term (yeah, I also thought that was funny).
Health lives there now so he can probably tell you more about current prices.