Do People Really Pay 1000+/month to rent a home?

[Patrick Jenkins]

I'm looking into real estate investing and the first question that comes to my mind is, "what could I potentially rent out a home for?" So I drive around town (Houston) looking at For Rent homes and call a few of them to ask wha rent is. Pretty much everyone is $1000 + . Then I see some posts on here where people are renting their property for some almost $2000. And then I ask "is that real?" That's just totally nuts to me that people would rent for this much instead of buying a home.  

So to me, it seems too good to be true if this is what property is being rented for. But on the flip side, can anyone explain why someone would pay that much to rent? I'm sure I have a lot to learn, but I need to try to understand that side of it.

thanks