Feeling a little defeated looking for a place to live

This could be the case just about anywhere in the US right now but.... Rent prices, man. My husband and I want to move with our kids to Ogden so I can get a degree through Weber State. I'm going back to be a teacher, but won't finish my degree for another three years, meaning we'll probably be paying for at least some childcare with student loans (which is a whole other beast financially). I got prereq's done somewhere else and have been excited to move back closer to my parents, which is why we settled on Weber State- we have two kids that we want to bring closer to their grandparents, who actually live in Salt Lake, but an hour drive is closer than five states away.

My husband should be able to find a job just fine but has nothing lined up yet, so we may be without income for a while. Our bad, I know. The absolute cheapest place I can find is $1300 for a 2 bedroom apartment in a terrible location- not including utilities or other mandatory fees that get exposed last minute, of course. My parents are willing to help out financially or cosign leases and we have savings, but we're not ready to buy, and rent seems to be going up anywhere we look by the minute. I want to move sooooo badly- I'm tired of living so far away from family- but we're going to take a huge hit to our savings to do it. I'm excited to be near mountains again. I'm excited at the possibility of finally being a teacher in a few years, and to dive into school again. I just keep getting this sinking feeling like things won't work out for us financially and I'll have to stop going to school to work until the kids are in school themselves, or that I'll have to default back to being a stay at home mom for a few more years rather than pursuing my career.

I'm not starting classes until winter semester, so I guess we have a bit of time to figure things out, but I'm just mad at myself for not planning more in advance and for thinking this was a good time to move and restart college just because we wanted to live by family again.

Anyways. Just a rant. If anyone has advice as to where to look, the best places in or around Ogden to live with a family, or even just encouraging words to share about the area, etc, feel free to share. Please no judgment for the lack of planning or foresight to get things lined up in advance, we already know that winging it is not the move in this economy but here we are :))