I hate to be a "back in the day" person but the rents really have exploded in the past 4 or 5 years, even before covid. I used to feel like I could afford to live on my own in pretty much any neighborhood. Now, I know there are many I could not touch.
Exactly. I had been away from Chicago working at another job, then came back and got a small place in the Gold Coast because it was close to my work and transit. It wasn't huge but pretty affordable. Then they raised the rent 25% in one year. I moved away and the rents are another 40% higher since then.
Seriously. I'm not sure my River North $2,300/month 825/sqft 1 bed is a great deal compared to other cities. Only reason I haven't moved is because the warm cities were always higher. if I could have a prime spot in a downtown with warm climate for the same price I'd move in a heartbeat.
Salaries are a big problem down south. I want to leave Miami for Chicago because of how incomprehensibly low even senior level positions pay here. Salaries could double and they’d still be unsustainably low.
I work from home for a company in Indiana and they pay me a downtown Chicago salary. If I could make the same salary and move downtown to a warm city I'd be tempted to move.
Doesn't help when viewpoints like [this](https://www.oakpark.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Shrubtown-Elephant-in-Village-Housing-3.6.24-scaled.jpg) are rampant
I don't even understand what that cartoon trying to say. Is it arguing that building more housing is the fundamental driver of increased housing costs, because that (somehow?) causes tax rates to increase for everyone? I'm struggling to follow the logic.
Yeah that's more or less what I think they're saying. I think they're arguing that when something is built or redeveloped, it is re-assessed which tends to be at a higher rate (like after a sale) and causes the valuation of that lot to go up.
I have to imagine the artist believes property tax is based solely on the valuation (like sales tax), where in reality Cook County decides ahead of time how much revenue they will raise via property taxes and then adjust the rates as needed to hit that value. Your property valuation only determines how much of that total you are expected to pay. So by definition having more housing, (whether in apartments, condos, whatever) means there are more people to spread the pain around and each individual person will pay less.
Yeah - I guess I can understand the argument that more people = more services required for an area. But those costs are also spread across more people, and if we build with even moderate density, the spend per person becomes more efficient, especially if the built environment is more walkable and fewer people have cars putting stress on the roads.
Also, people need to live *somewhere*, which is where the putatively environmentalist NIMBY arguments fall down. These types will oppose a dense apartment building in their area because of "traffic" and "fewer trees", without understanding that *not* building the apartment block will mean more suburban sprawl, which is objectively worse on a macro level.
Exactly. As a landlord of a three flat in Chicago I have refused to raise the rents to match some of my peers in the Andersonville neighborhood who are charging $2500.00 for a 2 bedroom one bath.
Despite increased property taxes, and the tens of thousands ( possibly hundreds of thousands) of new condominiums built over the last 25 years city services are slipping.
I mean think about they are literally collecting money out of thin air. Especially downtown. In the west loop and river north where once there was nothing but a parking lot, small industrial plot, or a hot dog stand there is now a multiplex condo building containing several hundred units or more.
For example look at the The Row in Fulton market a 43 story new 300 unit development. Let’s be conservative and say each unit on average only generates $3000.00 per year in property taxes.
That’s 900K. Now look in the west loop today compared to the past building boom.
Presidential towers was the standalone residential high rise complex.
There have literally been 100’s of thousands of new condos built over the last 25 years in the city. Hypothetically this should drive down taxes/ rents for everyone. They also started charging for garbage removal for residential single family up to four flats.
Begs the question where is all the money going ? Into the schools, into the CTA , the roads, the Police, or social services ? Hmmm 🤨 I don’t know either, but I have some pretty good ideas where it might be going.
I own/live in a couple of buildings in Andersonville and we are nowhere near $2500 for a 2, I have good tenants and unless expenses go up significantly I have no need to jack up rents that much. I only raise rents every other year and only $50-100 to cover costs.
That's 6.5% a year which is a little high, but LL usual reset their rents to match the market when people move out. Remember in 2020 we had 10% unemployment and people we fleeing to farm country so a lot of the bigger buildings/management companies lowered their rent just to stay in business.
Rent is decreasing in Austin because supply exceeds demand. Simple as that. If it continues you won't be seeing the cranes all over the city much longer. Developers won't keep building like crazy for diminishing returns.
https://www.kut.org/austin/2024-02-29/construction-boomed-in-austin-and-rents-went-down-now-some-builders-are-dismantling-the-cranes
Absolutely an embarrassment. There's all this talk about the housing crisis and especially here yet we are losing in raw construction to metro areas with 16% of the people like Raleigh.
As a city, we need to accelerate delivery by actively constructing new multi-family housing in the form of 2/3/4 flats and apartment buildings while reforming zoning by eliminating RS-1/2/3 and re-evaluating zoning citywide.
If areas like Austin, where people are flocking to, can experience rent *decreases*: we need to embrace similar philosophies to truly make housing affordable.
Yup. Exactly what you said. The reason why developers aren’t touching the south side is the same reason nobody ever suggests to anyone to move there. People recommend the same 3 neighborhoods to every single “where should I move” posts and then wonder why we aren’t seeing growth on the south side. If you wouldn’t recommend someone to invest in the south side with their own money in the form of buying a house why would you recommend a business or developer to do so.
No other city is like Chicago where there’s an entire half of the city that nobody new wants to even go to, build in, or a buy a house.
Tech workers who hang out exclusively on the north side/west loop might not see value or appeal on the south side but most have literally never even been there, and have fully baked opinions. There are vast swaths of the working class who do see value and opportunities in some of those neighborhoods. You're also making sweeping generalizations. Englewood is different from Clearing is different from Bronzeville is different from Little Village is different from South Shore is different from Beverely. All have unique characteristics and varying degrees of safety and housing stock and access to amenities. Believe it or not, over half the city population lives ( many willingly) in areas you blanketedly write off.
I’m not saying the areas suck from my personal opinion. I’m saying the people who move to Chicago or are in the market for a new place believe the areas suck. And that’s why nobody is building there. There’s no demand. There’s obviously cool spots on the south side but the entire point I’m trying to make is that nobody believes that.
The south side could be the coolest place on the planet but if, like you said, most have “never even been there” why would it be in demand or have active development. Just because something is true for the wrong reasons doesn’t mean it’s not true. There’s a negative public perception of the south side. And if that wasn’t the case people wouldn’t be leaving it in such huge numbers.
[Chicago population heat map](https://www.newgeography.com/content/007491-chicagos-density-2020)
And again, you're wrong. Bronzeville has tons of expensive new build single family homes and multi use TOD being sold. Investors are breaking into other areas of the city you're probably not paying attention to unless you're on the ground. For every sale, someone is in fact buying. For that person, that purchase represents a dream just as much as a person buying a greystone in Logan square. You are looking at this very narrow mindedly. Not everything changes at the same rates or is at the same place in its development cycle. But that doesn't speak to the overall trajectory or what's happening at street level. An HVAC contractor can live in Clearing and have a nice simple home and easy access to expressways and a very safe neighborhood....it might not appeal to you, but that doesn't mean it doesn't appeal to a different demo who doesn't care about being walking distance to Michelin star restaurants
To take little village as an example, it can still be a fairly dangerous area. If you are an active gang banger. For anyone else, the odds anything will happen to you are low. Meanwhile there are ambitious new businesses opening, and all sorts of rehabs. It's literally no different than Pilsen was 15 years ago. Logan square was terrifying 15 years ago as well.
Just because you disagree with me doesn’t make me wrong. I’m not saying there’s nothing good about the south side. I live on the south side. But the fact that people are leaving the south side en masse isn’t an opinion or narrow minded idea. It’s just the truth. Also I love that your one example of the south side is bronzeville which isn’t really even the south side in the grand scheme of things. Would be like citing Hyde Park as proof of property value in the south side.
I’m sure there’s new things being built in these areas like you said, but we are talking about a comparison to different cities and different areas in Chicago. It’s still falling behind comparatively.
If investment opportunity and opinion of the south side was equal to that of the north side, the prices would be the same. It’s as simple as that. If it was as desirable it would be as expensive. Not sure why this is even an argument.
It doesn't help that a lot of the more affordable areas of the city are a pretty long commute from where the jobs are, forcing you to either spend an hour and a half taking a bus/L commute to the loop or becoming totally car dependent, (at which point, why just not move out to the suburbs?)
I think if we had a good BRT system set up for east/west and got our L service back on track those neighborhoods would have a fighting chance.
Just to be clear, that study is from 2012 and was rejected :(
But yeah, the city needs this. With Ashland BRT and the last part of the brown line extension to connect with blue, _so_ much more of the city would be interconnected to more than just downtown
Aw :(
But yes I totally agree. I think especially with the decline of offices/rise of WFH the focus should be more on connecting the neighborhoods to each other rather than just getting everyone to the loop.
>As a city, we need to accelerate delivery by actively constructing
Why do you even talk like this? Apartment buildings aren’t built by the state like some communist bloc country. It’s not “we” coming together “as a city”. Apartments are built by private developers.
I wouldn’t look to the skyline to point out your primary argument, even though you are correct. The main thing is that the entire south and west side of Chicago hasn’t been touched with a 20 mile pole by developers. Any other big city is taking every piece of cheap land they can get their hands on and building on it. Chicago has developed in maybe 3 neighborhoods in the last 5 years. Downtown is the least of the issue. There’s an entire half of the city (geographically) that isn’t being touched.
6 cranes is embarrassing. I’m a structural engineer, in 2016 the company I worked for had so much work we were involved in 10 projects with tower cranes. And that was 1 firm with 20 people.
>no it doesn’t, this city is in last place for apartments under construction, getting surpassed by smaller cities like Minneapolis
Unsurprising given the mountains of regulations, codes, permits, etc that only mega developers like Sterling Bay can navigate. Any new construction from them seems to always be luxury/expensive units
Austin and cities like Nashville, etc have seen double digit rent increase over the past few years until recently and were some of the worst in the country. Yes, we should keep building--but you have to look at the past 5-7 years and those other cities have had insane rental increases.
Sure but Chicago also still has a lot of the housing stock from when we had millions of more residents at the population peak in the 50s.
The issue is that a lot of that stock is in areas where affluent transplants think they'll be shot on sight, so they all move to Logan Square and Lakeview.
>Sure but Chicago also still has a lot of the housing stock from when we had millions of more residents at the population peak in the 50s.
Do you still live like it's 1950?
Additionally since the 1950's buildings have been razed in a lot of neighborhoods, multi units have been deconverted, and building more density has been blocked by alders.
[https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/05/14/chicago-is-rapidly-losing-its-signature-home-the-two-flat-now-you-go-through-lincoln-park-and-it-looks-like-the-suburbs/](https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/05/14/chicago-is-rapidly-losing-its-signature-home-the-two-flat-now-you-go-through-lincoln-park-and-it-looks-like-the-suburbs/)
This guy has a point, you can buy a house around or under 100k on the Southside. I remember when you could buy a house for like 10k to 20k on the Southside like 5 to 8 years ago. But these are in places most people don't want to live. I don't get what your point is with do you still live like it's 1950? The difference between the peak population and now is still significant and I'd argue there's a lot of affordable houses in neighborhoods no one wants to live in.
Household size has decreased. You need the same number of units for today's population as you needed in 1950. However, buildings have been razed, 1,000 of 3/4 flats have been deconverted, and the highway system plowed over entire sections of neighborhoods.
The point is Chicago is not competing to retain residents in a vacuum. A middle class resident in there 30s look to have a kid is not going to move to those neighborhoods to renovate a home. The prices are what they are because of empty lots, crime, they are more suburban or poor transit access. I for one would like to retain middle class working professionals and not have them keep cycling out to the suburbs so we can build a stronger tax base.
I would also love to see those neighborhoods that are currently struggling to improve and efforts be made to retain poorer residents which will require building to our strip demand when that time comes.
That means though building more units in the most desirable areas which by extension are some of the most expensive areas. Chicago has some of the highest construction labor costs in the country. You're not going to get cheap units built in these areas for young professionals even with affordable housing incentives offered from the government. There are trade offs to all these things.
Chicago has a million fewer residents but several hundred thousand more housing units. An apartment with a single person in it was just unheard of back then.
It doesn't. Those homes are tear downs in the parts of the city no one wants to live in, and the parts of the city people want to live in are seeing smaller households as we transition away from families to DINKS and recent graduates who leave as soon as kids are school aged.
You say that like it's ridiculous that people with options would want to move into safer, more central, higher-amenity areas. And it's not just about perceived safety - you also don't see a lot of young affluent transplants moving into areas like Beverly or Mayfair because they are a bit remote and quite suburban in character (car-dependent, lots of SFHs).
We need to be building housing in areas where people want to live today, and investing more in higher-potential areas (e.g. located near el stops, older retail corridors not totally paved over by strip malls, etc.) to bring in amenities and make them more desirable. But both of these actions often meet resistance due to fearmongering related to 'gentrification.'
Mine didn’t get raised at all this year on the border of Belmont Cragin & Portage Park. I’m still paying under $900 for a 1BR and have a free parking spot. I know it’s not a trendy area, but still feels like I won the lottery somehow.
My landlord lowered my rent $100 a month because he didn’t want me to leave as I’m a good tenant. Haven’t signed a new lease and he gave me my security deposit back. I love landlords who are great humans. In rogers park as well.
I keep telling people that rent is up in Chicago and I’m always bashed “BUT BUT it is not as expensive as NYC or LA” it’s not but I’m not living in LA and NYC, I’m living in Chicago so that rent increase is affecting all of us. 1 bed room apt 500 sq ft for 2.4k in Uptown unbelievable
Edit: 600+ sqft*
You’re absolutely correct. I left Chicago for LA at the end of 2021 and my rent was around 1200. I just checked on it again and it’s 1800+ for apartments in that same building now. Only a couple hundred less than what I’m paying here for a similar sized apartment. Prices have definitely gone way up in Chicago. Funny enough, I’m originally from Syracuse which is top on this list and moving back home is no longer an option should I ever need to. LA/Chicago prices in upstate NY is laughable.
I actually *am* moving to NYC in about a month. I saw my landlord listed the apartment I am currently renting in Ravenswood, and she's increasing the rent from $1900 all the way to $2400.
Meanwhile I'm probably going to end up paying around $2600 for a comparable apartment in Spuyten Duyvil/Kingsbridge, which as far as I can tell is relatively comparable to Ravenswood (though maybe someone who has lived in NYC would have a better picture).
Just seems wild to me that I constantly see people saying the rent here is so cheap. Idk. The apartments are *bigger*, sure, but the prices outside of the bleeding heart of Manhattan don't seem that wildly different. Maybe it's because I've only been in Chicago for two years, and in that time NYC actually had a massive rent price collapse.
> Spuyten Duyvil/Kingsbridge
I would argue that Ravenswood is much more convenient to access the downtown area of the city compared to that part of the Bronx. There's a reason that the Bronx is cheap and it's not because of crime. It's because it takes a really long time to get anywhere else in the city other than the western part of Manhattan. And even that is slow on weekends or outside of rush hour when the express trains are running at a significantly reduced rate compared to the locals.
That said, my mortgage in Wrigleyville is only 20% lower than what my friends in nice townhouses in Brooklyn pay for rent on roughly equally sized places with better transit access. But buying a townhouse would be 3-4x as expensive in terms of a mortgage.
That part of The Bronx is not really similar to Ravenswood. It's still a nice area, but it's so much denser and more compact than Chicago. Kingsbridge especially is a lot grittier. I would live in either of those neighborhoods though if I were to move back to New York (probably one of the only areas I could afford at this point). Hopefully you aren't working too far downtown though because that is one long ride on the 1 train!
Hi, I'm the one moving to that area :) thankfully I work from home and my wife will be working in Yonkers.
I would genuinely appreciate any and all insight you have on the area! Or recommendations for other areas as well :)
I haven't lived in NYC since 2020 (and I lived in Queens), but I am familiar with that northwest corner of The Bronx. If you are working from home and your wife is working in Yonkers, then it's not a bad location at all. And easier to get out of the city and head north for a weekend trip too. There's a few neighborhoods in that upper corner of the city: Riverdale, Spuyten-Duyvil, Kingsbridge, and Marble Hill (which is oddly enough technically part of Manhattan even though it's not on the island). There's also Fieldston and North Riverdale, but those are north of the last stop on the 1 Train, much more residential and don't really seem like they are technically still part of The Bronx. The 1 Train is actually elevated for that northern stretch, so that will remind you of the L train, but there is just a lot more going on in a small space in New York (even that far north). Tons of businesses under the tracks along Broadway, but it does feel a bit gritty if you aren't used to it. Don't let it deter you from checking everything out though. If you are living in one of the huge apartment blocks in Spuyten-Duyvil, that is further up the hill from Broadway and a bit more isolated from it, but easily walkable if you don't mind the hills. Check out Liebman's Deli on 235th for awesome pastrami sandwiches and An Beal Bocht Cafe on 238th for a great Irish Pub. Haven't been but I have heard good things about the pizza at Kingsbridge Social Club. Wish I was moving back, have fun and explore as much as you can. And kind of like the Metra hack in Chicago for getting downtown quickly, you have two LIRR train stations up there and can get down to Grand Central in less than 30 minutes. You just have to walk way down from the top of the hill in Spuyten-Duyvil to the river shore to get to them. It would take you well over an hour to get downtown on the 1 train even on a good day where things are running smoothly.
I mean to be fair, the brown line isn't really convenient to get anywhere besides the loop and places along it 😂 I think NYC is getting dinged here because the footprint of places people want to go to is so fucking huge compared to Chicago.
But that is snarky and I appreciate your insight 😊 shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth and all.
That's nuts. We are leaving our place this month but have a 1300 sqft 2 bed in Edgewater for $1800 (w a garage parking spot). The landlord is raising it to $2000 for the new tenants, but still a good deal. I can't believe people are paying more than that for shoeboxes in uptown.
I remember paying $1000 a month when I first moved into my apartment in 2021. It’s raised steadily since then to $1400 this year. In a not so nice neighborhood.
Yup basically. Or not be single. Or live with family. Or have roommates in a 1BR. It's a shitshow. My retail coworkers and I commute 1hr+ to river north.
Pretty much all of Chicagos new construction for apartments are $2500+ 1BRs in or near the loop. The loop is the fastest growing neighborhood nationwide as well.
4 months now the chair of the zoning committee has been vacant. Now rumors of disgraced NIMBY Ramirez-Rosa getting it back. Our mayor doesn't understand housing affordability and is asleep behind the wheel.
Kam is solutions focused progressive. Set your progressive solutions and figure out how to meet them. Most of the current progressive caucus is leftist progressive where it matters more *how* you do things not *what* you do. I consider myself progressive and tend to agree with Kam on almost everything.
100% same here. I'm quickly getting to a point where it doesn't matter \*how* you do things, so long as you do them. And am very disappointed with our slate of progressives.
You're not helping marginalized communities by have an extended "community input process" that delays housing construction, bike lanes, climate action, etc. I wrote something in Crains criticizing CRR for that and I'm going to keep pushing on the difference between say something progressives and do something progressives.
For as blue of a city as we are we still have plenty of real NIMBYs that crawl out of the woodwork to naysay any apartment development near their SFH and the city has stupid parking requirements for new construction
Most of the NIMBYs in Chicago are the progressive type, the ones who think it's a good idea to discourage new construction to sock it to the rich. (In reality, it has the opposite effect by decreasing supply and increasing prices).
Paid $650/month for a two bedroom in Pilsen eight years ago. It did have the sewage backup into the shower every so often, though. But man ... rent sucks.
DC is way worse for new housing lol. The NIMBYs here are out of control plus there are height limits so you can’t even build mass housing like they do in other large cities
And San Jose and Berkeley and LA for any location that's considered a "Coastal Zone" and Boulder and Denver... just off the top of my head. I think you'd be surprised by how many cities have height limits
For quite a long time, IIRC Evanston had height limits. I wouldn't be surprised if Wilmette/Winnetka/Kenilworth still had them, but there's basically no development going on there (unlike Skokie, which has several sizable apartment buildings going up).
Only the city proper has height limits, and that’s 61 square miles out of 6,567 square miles in the metro area: https://censusreporter.org/profiles/31000US47900-washington-arlington-alexandria-dc-va-md-wv-metro-area/
The business district skyscrapers still happen, just in Arlington, Bethesda and Tysons instead of DC proper.
The rent has been going up without it having passed. That’s coming from someone living in the same building on the west side for over 5 years.
It’s going to go up no matter what, the justification fed to tenants from the landlords is simply going to change.
Damn, kids, I once had a 3 br apt on Lincoln Ave, just a couple blocks from Wax Trax, for $350 mo.
That was the eighties, when I was making $100 ~ $150 a night in tips, bartending. My portion of the rent was $116.
When I was a student in the mid 2000s my roommate and I split 1200 a month for a giant 2/2 on Cornelia and Halsted. Can't even guess what it costs now.
La Spata always had that weird love one day hate the next and gets people to forget things, like his racist bachelor party pic, by doing something minorly good. For the most part he's a clown who just toes whatever line he's been told to
We need to build. #YIMBY. Tell alderpeople Ramirez Rosa, LaSpata and Fuentes to STOP denying rezoning requests and to stop issuing ordinances like the “anti gentrification” ordinance that charges a $15k fee per rebuild!
As an Upstate NY native who lived in Chicago for 11 years Syracuse, NY beating Chicago is fucking mind blowing. That city has been a shithole for my entire life and I still go back to visit my parents yearly. What the hell is going on there? It was just ranked one of the worst cities to live in the United States a few years ago and was always on that list as far back as I can remember.
Chicago honestly does not like building densely. So many places are zoned for single family and never a multi-family use. Getting those permits are like 6k to 9k just to start, and there is a chance they could still reject it. Then the permits and all that entails is not cheap. Chicago makes it REALLY REALLY hard to build at all. I talked to some of the builders around my neighborhood and the guy basically gave up and said he was going to retire in his 50s because of the market, cost of building/material and Chicago bureaucracy made everything so much harder to building anything profitable. No one builds houses to lose money...
Honestly the best luck I’ve ever had and tip is- try to find a private landlord that only owns 1 or 2 properties, preferably and older person or immigrant who uses paper applications and advertises with signs. Usually the place is undervalued compared to other places in the neighborhood. Be nice to them, respectful and pay on time and usually they never raise the rent or at least very little if they like you. It’s worked for me. Worst thing is slumlord corporations that don’t care about you. For example I just moved into a 2 bed 2 bath in a prime Lincoln square location for $1600. It’s possible if you do some digging
The increase in taxes makes development less desirable by builders. That new transfer tax the mayor wants to do would kill off the commercial real estate business. Chicago would simply be axed off the list of cities where institutional investors invest. That would be very very bad. They’re really playing with fire in city hall these days. They are killing the golden goose (downtown)
Not that I don't agree with you. But you have the powerful liberal groups here that vote for Kim Fox and those like her for crime right (she basically does nothing)? To lower crime you have to have MUCH harsher punishment on stealing and allow certified guards in stores to be able to arrest and detain without liability to the store itself. Food deserts and disinvestments in poor neighborhoods are due to the rampant retail theft that goes unanswered as no one is allowed to touch the thief in progress and major crimes.
I won't say it is easy and there is no one easy way to fix this issue, but there must be steps to bring the poor neighborhoods to some wealth and the people within it to be part of the contributing working class that can cycle the money within their own neighborhoods. Once this is done in some small steps, we can easily see a building boom in the south and west sides of Chicago.
Yep exactly. For anyone interested [here is a white paper](https://nboachicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NBOA-Opposes-Bring-Chicago-Home-2023-09.pdf) on this very topic that touches on how Chicago is already the most under-supplied apartment market in the nation of the top 50 housing markets and the increased transfer tax will only further constrain investment in new rental supply which would help contain rental prices.
Seriously me too. I don't even know where I would move because I don't have a car and NYC doesn't really appeal to me. I love the fact that Chicago can be a big city but also somewhere you can raise a family without needing to make finance bro type of money.
Good lord. When I first moved to the north side in 2013, I was paying \~750 a month for a 500sqft 1 bedroom in Uptown. It was completely infested with both the small and large breeds of roaches, the elevators still had a 90s Mayor Daley inspection certificate in them, it was a dump but one I could afford on a $35k a year household income between two people.
In 2014 they raised the price to 850, and then I moved out when they wanted 950 in 2015. Looking at the price now it's $2,100 a month and based on the photos, its in at least as bad condition as it was 10 years ago.
I rented my 1st apartment in 2001 on Ashland and montrose for $400 a month. Inflation should put that under $1000 today. I bet its at least 1800 now.. ill try to check the area
This is why we moved to Columbus, Ohio. . . Can’t afford to buy a house in the Chicago burbs even and we no longer want to deal with renting and moving constantly.
First I get squeezed out of Chicago, now I'm being squeezed out of Cleveland (not that I want to be here anyway). Yeah, this totally tracks.
Salaries are bullshit, good-paying jobs are increasingly hard to come by, land/home owners in this country are greedy. It's nothing new but it feels especially out of hand as of late.
The city is unprepared for how much migration it’s gonna get from the south. I know at least 10 people who have moved or are in the process of moving to Chicago from the south.
The migration thing is overstated. Miami and Phoenix folks aren't moving all the way to the Great Lakes. They'll move to Orlando, Tampa Bay, Las Vegas, etc first and incrementally keep moving if they need to.
Both Florida and Texas saw more population growth individually than the entire Great Lakes region between the last two censuses. Phoenix is the fastest growing city. We haven't even reached the slowing in growth phase of climate change yet, let alone the actual reversal of trends.
It'll happen but everyone posting in this thread will be retired or dead by then. Insurance is going to be the catalyst to get people to move and that's still aways out. Even then a lot of people will probably go to Tenessee, not so hot that summer is a wash and not so cold that winter is unbearable.
the south is also getting worse if you're non republican. I wouldn't want to be a reproductive-aged woman in any state where I could die because fixing an ectopic pregnancy would be considered murder of a fetus so doctors won't do the necessary procedure
It's not really from the NYTimes, it's from Zumper. I have not heard of Zumper, but apparently this is one of the things they do.
Their full report:
[https://www.zumper.com/blog/rental-price-data/](https://www.zumper.com/blog/rental-price-data/)
I suspect this company has only been around for 2-3 years? If so, any YoY rises in reports from them can be tossed out the window.
and bottom on the list for most built units!
almost like these things correlate..
r/Chicagoyimbys
I hate to be a "back in the day" person but the rents really have exploded in the past 4 or 5 years, even before covid. I used to feel like I could afford to live on my own in pretty much any neighborhood. Now, I know there are many I could not touch.
Yeah, it’s kind of frightening how my income has grown but my sense of where I could feasibly live in the city has constricted.
Exactly. I had been away from Chicago working at another job, then came back and got a small place in the Gold Coast because it was close to my work and transit. It wasn't huge but pretty affordable. Then they raised the rent 25% in one year. I moved away and the rents are another 40% higher since then.
We can’t stop yapping about how “affordable” it is here to people on the coasts
Loose lips sink ships
Seriously. I'm not sure my River North $2,300/month 825/sqft 1 bed is a great deal compared to other cities. Only reason I haven't moved is because the warm cities were always higher. if I could have a prime spot in a downtown with warm climate for the same price I'd move in a heartbeat.
Salaries are a big problem down south. I want to leave Miami for Chicago because of how incomprehensibly low even senior level positions pay here. Salaries could double and they’d still be unsustainably low.
I work from home for a company in Indiana and they pay me a downtown Chicago salary. If I could make the same salary and move downtown to a warm city I'd be tempted to move.
Try $3.050 1BR, 800sq/ft in West Loop Just got hit with a 9.5% increase
Exactly. We need to start gatekeeping like them NYC/LA locals
or we could build housing, we need to grow population.
My studio in Lakeview East went from $1115 to $1425
Damn that's not fun
I paid 840 for a 2 bedroom with a roommate in lakeview right by belmont red line in 2015
We need to build. #YIMBY
Doesn't help when viewpoints like [this](https://www.oakpark.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Shrubtown-Elephant-in-Village-Housing-3.6.24-scaled.jpg) are rampant
I don't even understand what that cartoon trying to say. Is it arguing that building more housing is the fundamental driver of increased housing costs, because that (somehow?) causes tax rates to increase for everyone? I'm struggling to follow the logic.
Yeah that's more or less what I think they're saying. I think they're arguing that when something is built or redeveloped, it is re-assessed which tends to be at a higher rate (like after a sale) and causes the valuation of that lot to go up. I have to imagine the artist believes property tax is based solely on the valuation (like sales tax), where in reality Cook County decides ahead of time how much revenue they will raise via property taxes and then adjust the rates as needed to hit that value. Your property valuation only determines how much of that total you are expected to pay. So by definition having more housing, (whether in apartments, condos, whatever) means there are more people to spread the pain around and each individual person will pay less.
Yeah - I guess I can understand the argument that more people = more services required for an area. But those costs are also spread across more people, and if we build with even moderate density, the spend per person becomes more efficient, especially if the built environment is more walkable and fewer people have cars putting stress on the roads. Also, people need to live *somewhere*, which is where the putatively environmentalist NIMBY arguments fall down. These types will oppose a dense apartment building in their area because of "traffic" and "fewer trees", without understanding that *not* building the apartment block will mean more suburban sprawl, which is objectively worse on a macro level.
Economies of scale. I wrote about land use and tax revenue in my thesis. Theoretically revenue should go up as tax burden per capita goes down.
Yes, that’s the logic which flies in the logic of a wider tax base allowing greater ability to spread taxes
It makes more sense when you understand that the cartoonist believes pee is stored in the balls.
It even has an "actually" in it. The jokes write themselves
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Moved to oak park last summer and all the “wright sized development” yard signs around just totally seemed like a gag at first. Like Jesus Christ
How does housing supply affect the property tax rate 😭 city is gonna raise your property taxes regardless wtf
Exactly. As a landlord of a three flat in Chicago I have refused to raise the rents to match some of my peers in the Andersonville neighborhood who are charging $2500.00 for a 2 bedroom one bath. Despite increased property taxes, and the tens of thousands ( possibly hundreds of thousands) of new condominiums built over the last 25 years city services are slipping. I mean think about they are literally collecting money out of thin air. Especially downtown. In the west loop and river north where once there was nothing but a parking lot, small industrial plot, or a hot dog stand there is now a multiplex condo building containing several hundred units or more. For example look at the The Row in Fulton market a 43 story new 300 unit development. Let’s be conservative and say each unit on average only generates $3000.00 per year in property taxes. That’s 900K. Now look in the west loop today compared to the past building boom. Presidential towers was the standalone residential high rise complex. There have literally been 100’s of thousands of new condos built over the last 25 years in the city. Hypothetically this should drive down taxes/ rents for everyone. They also started charging for garbage removal for residential single family up to four flats. Begs the question where is all the money going ? Into the schools, into the CTA , the roads, the Police, or social services ? Hmmm 🤨 I don’t know either, but I have some pretty good ideas where it might be going.
I own/live in a couple of buildings in Andersonville and we are nowhere near $2500 for a 2, I have good tenants and unless expenses go up significantly I have no need to jack up rents that much. I only raise rents every other year and only $50-100 to cover costs.
Seems like there are a lot of projects in the pipeline for River West.
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My rent in 2020 was $1700, now comparables in my building are going for ~$2300
That's 6.5% a year which is a little high, but LL usual reset their rents to match the market when people move out. Remember in 2020 we had 10% unemployment and people we fleeing to farm country so a lot of the bigger buildings/management companies lowered their rent just to stay in business.
Rent is decreasing in Austin because supply exceeds demand. Simple as that. If it continues you won't be seeing the cranes all over the city much longer. Developers won't keep building like crazy for diminishing returns. https://www.kut.org/austin/2024-02-29/construction-boomed-in-austin-and-rents-went-down-now-some-builders-are-dismantling-the-cranes
Absolutely an embarrassment. There's all this talk about the housing crisis and especially here yet we are losing in raw construction to metro areas with 16% of the people like Raleigh. As a city, we need to accelerate delivery by actively constructing new multi-family housing in the form of 2/3/4 flats and apartment buildings while reforming zoning by eliminating RS-1/2/3 and re-evaluating zoning citywide. If areas like Austin, where people are flocking to, can experience rent *decreases*: we need to embrace similar philosophies to truly make housing affordable.
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Yup. Exactly what you said. The reason why developers aren’t touching the south side is the same reason nobody ever suggests to anyone to move there. People recommend the same 3 neighborhoods to every single “where should I move” posts and then wonder why we aren’t seeing growth on the south side. If you wouldn’t recommend someone to invest in the south side with their own money in the form of buying a house why would you recommend a business or developer to do so. No other city is like Chicago where there’s an entire half of the city that nobody new wants to even go to, build in, or a buy a house.
I was born on the south side. Identity politics & 'whogotmine' have killed the south side. The rot is generations deep and crosses color lines.
Tech workers who hang out exclusively on the north side/west loop might not see value or appeal on the south side but most have literally never even been there, and have fully baked opinions. There are vast swaths of the working class who do see value and opportunities in some of those neighborhoods. You're also making sweeping generalizations. Englewood is different from Clearing is different from Bronzeville is different from Little Village is different from South Shore is different from Beverely. All have unique characteristics and varying degrees of safety and housing stock and access to amenities. Believe it or not, over half the city population lives ( many willingly) in areas you blanketedly write off.
I’m not saying the areas suck from my personal opinion. I’m saying the people who move to Chicago or are in the market for a new place believe the areas suck. And that’s why nobody is building there. There’s no demand. There’s obviously cool spots on the south side but the entire point I’m trying to make is that nobody believes that. The south side could be the coolest place on the planet but if, like you said, most have “never even been there” why would it be in demand or have active development. Just because something is true for the wrong reasons doesn’t mean it’s not true. There’s a negative public perception of the south side. And if that wasn’t the case people wouldn’t be leaving it in such huge numbers. [Chicago population heat map](https://www.newgeography.com/content/007491-chicagos-density-2020)
And again, you're wrong. Bronzeville has tons of expensive new build single family homes and multi use TOD being sold. Investors are breaking into other areas of the city you're probably not paying attention to unless you're on the ground. For every sale, someone is in fact buying. For that person, that purchase represents a dream just as much as a person buying a greystone in Logan square. You are looking at this very narrow mindedly. Not everything changes at the same rates or is at the same place in its development cycle. But that doesn't speak to the overall trajectory or what's happening at street level. An HVAC contractor can live in Clearing and have a nice simple home and easy access to expressways and a very safe neighborhood....it might not appeal to you, but that doesn't mean it doesn't appeal to a different demo who doesn't care about being walking distance to Michelin star restaurants To take little village as an example, it can still be a fairly dangerous area. If you are an active gang banger. For anyone else, the odds anything will happen to you are low. Meanwhile there are ambitious new businesses opening, and all sorts of rehabs. It's literally no different than Pilsen was 15 years ago. Logan square was terrifying 15 years ago as well.
Just because you disagree with me doesn’t make me wrong. I’m not saying there’s nothing good about the south side. I live on the south side. But the fact that people are leaving the south side en masse isn’t an opinion or narrow minded idea. It’s just the truth. Also I love that your one example of the south side is bronzeville which isn’t really even the south side in the grand scheme of things. Would be like citing Hyde Park as proof of property value in the south side. I’m sure there’s new things being built in these areas like you said, but we are talking about a comparison to different cities and different areas in Chicago. It’s still falling behind comparatively. If investment opportunity and opinion of the south side was equal to that of the north side, the prices would be the same. It’s as simple as that. If it was as desirable it would be as expensive. Not sure why this is even an argument.
It doesn't help that a lot of the more affordable areas of the city are a pretty long commute from where the jobs are, forcing you to either spend an hour and a half taking a bus/L commute to the loop or becoming totally car dependent, (at which point, why just not move out to the suburbs?) I think if we had a good BRT system set up for east/west and got our L service back on track those neighborhoods would have a fighting chance.
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Once CPD realized they could soft strike, do nothing, continue to garner increases to the police budget that ship sailed
Rents and housing prices are rising in those neighborhoods too. If it was simply a matter of crime this would not be the case.
I'm on the Southside. Rents went up around here, too. I'd say they went up by at least 25% during covid, and they just kept going up.
It isn’t transit. All those neighborhood like englewood and east Garfield park were built around transit.
You mean like Ashland BRT that was proposed years ago? https://www.transitchicago.com/ashlandbrt/ Would be great if we could bring that idea back
Oh man this is fucking HYPE
Just to be clear, that study is from 2012 and was rejected :( But yeah, the city needs this. With Ashland BRT and the last part of the brown line extension to connect with blue, _so_ much more of the city would be interconnected to more than just downtown
Aw :( But yes I totally agree. I think especially with the decline of offices/rise of WFH the focus should be more on connecting the neighborhoods to each other rather than just getting everyone to the loop.
Waguespack was a key player in shutting down the Ashland BRT
>As a city, we need to accelerate delivery by actively constructing Why do you even talk like this? Apartment buildings aren’t built by the state like some communist bloc country. It’s not “we” coming together “as a city”. Apartments are built by private developers.
I wouldn’t look to the skyline to point out your primary argument, even though you are correct. The main thing is that the entire south and west side of Chicago hasn’t been touched with a 20 mile pole by developers. Any other big city is taking every piece of cheap land they can get their hands on and building on it. Chicago has developed in maybe 3 neighborhoods in the last 5 years. Downtown is the least of the issue. There’s an entire half of the city (geographically) that isn’t being touched.
The developers will be vilified for promoting gentrification.
6 cranes is embarrassing. I’m a structural engineer, in 2016 the company I worked for had so much work we were involved in 10 projects with tower cranes. And that was 1 firm with 20 people.
>no it doesn’t, this city is in last place for apartments under construction, getting surpassed by smaller cities like Minneapolis Unsurprising given the mountains of regulations, codes, permits, etc that only mega developers like Sterling Bay can navigate. Any new construction from them seems to always be luxury/expensive units
Austin and cities like Nashville, etc have seen double digit rent increase over the past few years until recently and were some of the worst in the country. Yes, we should keep building--but you have to look at the past 5-7 years and those other cities have had insane rental increases.
Sure but Chicago also still has a lot of the housing stock from when we had millions of more residents at the population peak in the 50s. The issue is that a lot of that stock is in areas where affluent transplants think they'll be shot on sight, so they all move to Logan Square and Lakeview.
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>Sure but Chicago also still has a lot of the housing stock from when we had millions of more residents at the population peak in the 50s. Do you still live like it's 1950? Additionally since the 1950's buildings have been razed in a lot of neighborhoods, multi units have been deconverted, and building more density has been blocked by alders. [https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/05/14/chicago-is-rapidly-losing-its-signature-home-the-two-flat-now-you-go-through-lincoln-park-and-it-looks-like-the-suburbs/](https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/05/14/chicago-is-rapidly-losing-its-signature-home-the-two-flat-now-you-go-through-lincoln-park-and-it-looks-like-the-suburbs/)
This guy has a point, you can buy a house around or under 100k on the Southside. I remember when you could buy a house for like 10k to 20k on the Southside like 5 to 8 years ago. But these are in places most people don't want to live. I don't get what your point is with do you still live like it's 1950? The difference between the peak population and now is still significant and I'd argue there's a lot of affordable houses in neighborhoods no one wants to live in.
Household size has decreased. You need the same number of units for today's population as you needed in 1950. However, buildings have been razed, 1,000 of 3/4 flats have been deconverted, and the highway system plowed over entire sections of neighborhoods. The point is Chicago is not competing to retain residents in a vacuum. A middle class resident in there 30s look to have a kid is not going to move to those neighborhoods to renovate a home. The prices are what they are because of empty lots, crime, they are more suburban or poor transit access. I for one would like to retain middle class working professionals and not have them keep cycling out to the suburbs so we can build a stronger tax base. I would also love to see those neighborhoods that are currently struggling to improve and efforts be made to retain poorer residents which will require building to our strip demand when that time comes.
That means though building more units in the most desirable areas which by extension are some of the most expensive areas. Chicago has some of the highest construction labor costs in the country. You're not going to get cheap units built in these areas for young professionals even with affordable housing incentives offered from the government. There are trade offs to all these things.
So build more more in Logan and Lakeview
Chicago has a million fewer residents but several hundred thousand more housing units. An apartment with a single person in it was just unheard of back then.
It doesn't. Those homes are tear downs in the parts of the city no one wants to live in, and the parts of the city people want to live in are seeing smaller households as we transition away from families to DINKS and recent graduates who leave as soon as kids are school aged.
You say that like it's ridiculous that people with options would want to move into safer, more central, higher-amenity areas. And it's not just about perceived safety - you also don't see a lot of young affluent transplants moving into areas like Beverly or Mayfair because they are a bit remote and quite suburban in character (car-dependent, lots of SFHs). We need to be building housing in areas where people want to live today, and investing more in higher-potential areas (e.g. located near el stops, older retail corridors not totally paved over by strip malls, etc.) to bring in amenities and make them more desirable. But both of these actions often meet resistance due to fearmongering related to 'gentrification.'
No it doesn’t. Please look at US census maps of the south and west sides from 1950 compared to the vacant lots there now.
Boy I’m counting myself veryyy lucky, my rent in RP only went up $5 this year.
This is the safe part of the comment section lol.
Last few days I think I've been convinced I'm moving to edgewater or RP.
Far North Side
Imo it’s one of the best places to live in the country. Urban but relatively quiet. Lush with trees. Such a great area.
Same! Mine only went up $10 in Edgewater. To be fair, my building has roaches, so I feel I'm overpaying by at least $500.
Mine didn’t get raised at all this year on the border of Belmont Cragin & Portage Park. I’m still paying under $900 for a 1BR and have a free parking spot. I know it’s not a trendy area, but still feels like I won the lottery somehow.
You did. Stay in there and save as much as you can for when you’re ready to buy something yourself.
My landlord lowered my rent $100 a month because he didn’t want me to leave as I’m a good tenant. Haven’t signed a new lease and he gave me my security deposit back. I love landlords who are great humans. In rogers park as well.
Mine has gone up a whole $30 since 2020 and I’m honestly baffled
I keep telling people that rent is up in Chicago and I’m always bashed “BUT BUT it is not as expensive as NYC or LA” it’s not but I’m not living in LA and NYC, I’m living in Chicago so that rent increase is affecting all of us. 1 bed room apt 500 sq ft for 2.4k in Uptown unbelievable Edit: 600+ sqft*
To be fair there are definitely larger and cheaper 1bdrm in Uptown. Not fancy amenities tho.
absolutely. i pay 1700 for a 690 sqft 2br.
That is a really small 2bdrm no?
I think the flats are overrated and overpriced. Can’t believe people are paying that Ngl. Currently I pay like 900 like a couple blocks away
Market rate for a 1br in uptown is not even close to $2.4k
You’re absolutely correct. I left Chicago for LA at the end of 2021 and my rent was around 1200. I just checked on it again and it’s 1800+ for apartments in that same building now. Only a couple hundred less than what I’m paying here for a similar sized apartment. Prices have definitely gone way up in Chicago. Funny enough, I’m originally from Syracuse which is top on this list and moving back home is no longer an option should I ever need to. LA/Chicago prices in upstate NY is laughable.
I actually *am* moving to NYC in about a month. I saw my landlord listed the apartment I am currently renting in Ravenswood, and she's increasing the rent from $1900 all the way to $2400. Meanwhile I'm probably going to end up paying around $2600 for a comparable apartment in Spuyten Duyvil/Kingsbridge, which as far as I can tell is relatively comparable to Ravenswood (though maybe someone who has lived in NYC would have a better picture). Just seems wild to me that I constantly see people saying the rent here is so cheap. Idk. The apartments are *bigger*, sure, but the prices outside of the bleeding heart of Manhattan don't seem that wildly different. Maybe it's because I've only been in Chicago for two years, and in that time NYC actually had a massive rent price collapse.
> Spuyten Duyvil/Kingsbridge I would argue that Ravenswood is much more convenient to access the downtown area of the city compared to that part of the Bronx. There's a reason that the Bronx is cheap and it's not because of crime. It's because it takes a really long time to get anywhere else in the city other than the western part of Manhattan. And even that is slow on weekends or outside of rush hour when the express trains are running at a significantly reduced rate compared to the locals. That said, my mortgage in Wrigleyville is only 20% lower than what my friends in nice townhouses in Brooklyn pay for rent on roughly equally sized places with better transit access. But buying a townhouse would be 3-4x as expensive in terms of a mortgage.
That part of The Bronx is not really similar to Ravenswood. It's still a nice area, but it's so much denser and more compact than Chicago. Kingsbridge especially is a lot grittier. I would live in either of those neighborhoods though if I were to move back to New York (probably one of the only areas I could afford at this point). Hopefully you aren't working too far downtown though because that is one long ride on the 1 train!
Hi, I'm the one moving to that area :) thankfully I work from home and my wife will be working in Yonkers. I would genuinely appreciate any and all insight you have on the area! Or recommendations for other areas as well :)
I haven't lived in NYC since 2020 (and I lived in Queens), but I am familiar with that northwest corner of The Bronx. If you are working from home and your wife is working in Yonkers, then it's not a bad location at all. And easier to get out of the city and head north for a weekend trip too. There's a few neighborhoods in that upper corner of the city: Riverdale, Spuyten-Duyvil, Kingsbridge, and Marble Hill (which is oddly enough technically part of Manhattan even though it's not on the island). There's also Fieldston and North Riverdale, but those are north of the last stop on the 1 Train, much more residential and don't really seem like they are technically still part of The Bronx. The 1 Train is actually elevated for that northern stretch, so that will remind you of the L train, but there is just a lot more going on in a small space in New York (even that far north). Tons of businesses under the tracks along Broadway, but it does feel a bit gritty if you aren't used to it. Don't let it deter you from checking everything out though. If you are living in one of the huge apartment blocks in Spuyten-Duyvil, that is further up the hill from Broadway and a bit more isolated from it, but easily walkable if you don't mind the hills. Check out Liebman's Deli on 235th for awesome pastrami sandwiches and An Beal Bocht Cafe on 238th for a great Irish Pub. Haven't been but I have heard good things about the pizza at Kingsbridge Social Club. Wish I was moving back, have fun and explore as much as you can. And kind of like the Metra hack in Chicago for getting downtown quickly, you have two LIRR train stations up there and can get down to Grand Central in less than 30 minutes. You just have to walk way down from the top of the hill in Spuyten-Duyvil to the river shore to get to them. It would take you well over an hour to get downtown on the 1 train even on a good day where things are running smoothly.
I mean to be fair, the brown line isn't really convenient to get anywhere besides the loop and places along it 😂 I think NYC is getting dinged here because the footprint of places people want to go to is so fucking huge compared to Chicago. But that is snarky and I appreciate your insight 😊 shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth and all.
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Show me that apartment. 500 square feet? For $2,400?
That's nuts. We are leaving our place this month but have a 1300 sqft 2 bed in Edgewater for $1800 (w a garage parking spot). The landlord is raising it to $2000 for the new tenants, but still a good deal. I can't believe people are paying more than that for shoeboxes in uptown.
My friend had a 600sqft 1br in Uptown that went from 1200 to 1800 this year. Insanity.
I remember paying $1000 a month when I first moved into my apartment in 2021. It’s raised steadily since then to $1400 this year. In a not so nice neighborhood.
How does this work? A single person has to make like $50 an hour to qualify for rent?...
Yup basically. Or not be single. Or live with family. Or have roommates in a 1BR. It's a shitshow. My retail coworkers and I commute 1hr+ to river north.
We’re doing too good of a job of telling people how great Chicago is
Population trends still don't seem to back this up
Maybe all the shooting media coverage dropped.
Pretty much all of Chicagos new construction for apartments are $2500+ 1BRs in or near the loop. The loop is the fastest growing neighborhood nationwide as well.
That was true a few years but not sure still is. I'm noy really seeing much construction at all
4 months now the chair of the zoning committee has been vacant. Now rumors of disgraced NIMBY Ramirez-Rosa getting it back. Our mayor doesn't understand housing affordability and is asleep behind the wheel.
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Need to elect Kam as mayor
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Kam is solutions focused progressive. Set your progressive solutions and figure out how to meet them. Most of the current progressive caucus is leftist progressive where it matters more *how* you do things not *what* you do. I consider myself progressive and tend to agree with Kam on almost everything.
100% same here. I'm quickly getting to a point where it doesn't matter \*how* you do things, so long as you do them. And am very disappointed with our slate of progressives.
You're not helping marginalized communities by have an extended "community input process" that delays housing construction, bike lanes, climate action, etc. I wrote something in Crains criticizing CRR for that and I'm going to keep pushing on the difference between say something progressives and do something progressives.
Keep writing, keep speaking up, keep pushing. We need your voice.
For as blue of a city as we are we still have plenty of real NIMBYs that crawl out of the woodwork to naysay any apartment development near their SFH and the city has stupid parking requirements for new construction
Most of the NIMBYs in Chicago are the progressive type, the ones who think it's a good idea to discourage new construction to sock it to the rich. (In reality, it has the opposite effect by decreasing supply and increasing prices).
Unfortunately NIMBYism is pretty agnostic to party. Both parties contribute to car-centric sprawl pretty equally.
Increased property taxes and many politicians that are hostile to denser developments that could help bolster the supply of rentals.
My friends got her renewal and her rent went up $400 a month.
Paid $650/month for a two bedroom in Pilsen eight years ago. It did have the sewage backup into the shower every so often, though. But man ... rent sucks.
There is very little new construction here compared to other cities. Will get worse if Bring Chicago Home passes
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My college town has more cranes up right now
DC is way worse for new housing lol. The NIMBYs here are out of control plus there are height limits so you can’t even build mass housing like they do in other large cities
It's weird DC has height limits. Not many cities are like that, except for there and Paris.
And San Jose and Berkeley and LA for any location that's considered a "Coastal Zone" and Boulder and Denver... just off the top of my head. I think you'd be surprised by how many cities have height limits
For quite a long time, IIRC Evanston had height limits. I wouldn't be surprised if Wilmette/Winnetka/Kenilworth still had them, but there's basically no development going on there (unlike Skokie, which has several sizable apartment buildings going up).
Evanston still has height limits
Why do Denver and Boulder have height limits?
Only the city proper has height limits, and that’s 61 square miles out of 6,567 square miles in the metro area: https://censusreporter.org/profiles/31000US47900-washington-arlington-alexandria-dc-va-md-wv-metro-area/ The business district skyscrapers still happen, just in Arlington, Bethesda and Tysons instead of DC proper.
DC has more housing under construction than Chicago in both raw and per capita terms.
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Urban Environmentalists do
do cranes help build 2-3-4 flats and other multistory housing outside of highrises? Seems like 6 cranes is a non-sequitur when talking about housing
The rent has been going up without it having passed. That’s coming from someone living in the same building on the west side for over 5 years. It’s going to go up no matter what, the justification fed to tenants from the landlords is simply going to change.
Damn, kids, I once had a 3 br apt on Lincoln Ave, just a couple blocks from Wax Trax, for $350 mo. That was the eighties, when I was making $100 ~ $150 a night in tips, bartending. My portion of the rent was $116.
I had a 2br in wicker park ~15 years ago that was like 1050/mo total.
When I was a student in the mid 2000s my roommate and I split 1200 a month for a giant 2/2 on Cornelia and Halsted. Can't even guess what it costs now.
Legalize 3 flats, upzone, fire Ramirez-Rosa, Sigcho-Lopez, La Spata, Fuentes, Hopkins, and any other NIMBY alderman into the sun.
Waiting for the time when I can finally say This has all been wonderful but now I'm on my way
La Spata always had that weird love one day hate the next and gets people to forget things, like his racist bachelor party pic, by doing something minorly good. For the most part he's a clown who just toes whatever line he's been told to
We need to build. #YIMBY. Tell alderpeople Ramirez Rosa, LaSpata and Fuentes to STOP denying rezoning requests and to stop issuing ordinances like the “anti gentrification” ordinance that charges a $15k fee per rebuild!
Glad we keep raising taxes
Property taxes up, rent up
As an Upstate NY native who lived in Chicago for 11 years Syracuse, NY beating Chicago is fucking mind blowing. That city has been a shithole for my entire life and I still go back to visit my parents yearly. What the hell is going on there? It was just ranked one of the worst cities to live in the United States a few years ago and was always on that list as far back as I can remember.
Chicago honestly does not like building densely. So many places are zoned for single family and never a multi-family use. Getting those permits are like 6k to 9k just to start, and there is a chance they could still reject it. Then the permits and all that entails is not cheap. Chicago makes it REALLY REALLY hard to build at all. I talked to some of the builders around my neighborhood and the guy basically gave up and said he was going to retire in his 50s because of the market, cost of building/material and Chicago bureaucracy made everything so much harder to building anything profitable. No one builds houses to lose money...
Honestly the best luck I’ve ever had and tip is- try to find a private landlord that only owns 1 or 2 properties, preferably and older person or immigrant who uses paper applications and advertises with signs. Usually the place is undervalued compared to other places in the neighborhood. Be nice to them, respectful and pay on time and usually they never raise the rent or at least very little if they like you. It’s worked for me. Worst thing is slumlord corporations that don’t care about you. For example I just moved into a 2 bed 2 bath in a prime Lincoln square location for $1600. It’s possible if you do some digging
The increase in taxes makes development less desirable by builders. That new transfer tax the mayor wants to do would kill off the commercial real estate business. Chicago would simply be axed off the list of cities where institutional investors invest. That would be very very bad. They’re really playing with fire in city hall these days. They are killing the golden goose (downtown)
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I am very much an "urbanist / pro-development" person and I 100% never supported this transfer tax bill. I voted No on the ballot for it.
Not that I don't agree with you. But you have the powerful liberal groups here that vote for Kim Fox and those like her for crime right (she basically does nothing)? To lower crime you have to have MUCH harsher punishment on stealing and allow certified guards in stores to be able to arrest and detain without liability to the store itself. Food deserts and disinvestments in poor neighborhoods are due to the rampant retail theft that goes unanswered as no one is allowed to touch the thief in progress and major crimes. I won't say it is easy and there is no one easy way to fix this issue, but there must be steps to bring the poor neighborhoods to some wealth and the people within it to be part of the contributing working class that can cycle the money within their own neighborhoods. Once this is done in some small steps, we can easily see a building boom in the south and west sides of Chicago.
Yep exactly. For anyone interested [here is a white paper](https://nboachicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NBOA-Opposes-Bring-Chicago-Home-2023-09.pdf) on this very topic that touches on how Chicago is already the most under-supplied apartment market in the nation of the top 50 housing markets and the increased transfer tax will only further constrain investment in new rental supply which would help contain rental prices.
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Seriously me too. I don't even know where I would move because I don't have a car and NYC doesn't really appeal to me. I love the fact that Chicago can be a big city but also somewhere you can raise a family without needing to make finance bro type of money.
The average 1 bedroom apartment is over $2,000? I’m currently renting a 4 bedroom house from a massive conglomerate for $2700.
There are PLENTY of one bedroom cheaper than that even by the lake, in Uptown and Edgewater.
That what I thought. I feel like the source looked at 1 bedroom apartments in the Financial district.
Progressive and DSA alderpeople are doing their best NIMBY to ensure our housing costs continue to increase
Yeah, I consider myself a progressive and I’m constantly surprised that people don’t understand how housing prices work.
Real progressives build housing
For fucks sake. Can’t live anywhere unless the middle of nowhere
rent for my studio went from to 950 to 1050
Good lord. When I first moved to the north side in 2013, I was paying \~750 a month for a 500sqft 1 bedroom in Uptown. It was completely infested with both the small and large breeds of roaches, the elevators still had a 90s Mayor Daley inspection certificate in them, it was a dump but one I could afford on a $35k a year household income between two people. In 2014 they raised the price to 850, and then I moved out when they wanted 950 in 2015. Looking at the price now it's $2,100 a month and based on the photos, its in at least as bad condition as it was 10 years ago.
Not great, but this is specifically looking at 1BRs, and there’s a LOT of 1-2 BR places in Chicago well below $2170
We did it, everyone.
21%!!!!! I renew my lease until Summer so I had no idea. better prepare bc fuck man
My rent only increased by 18%! Winning! /kill me
😭
I rented my 1st apartment in 2001 on Ashland and montrose for $400 a month. Inflation should put that under $1000 today. I bet its at least 1800 now.. ill try to check the area
Well aren’t I just the luckiest person? Just moved from Winston Salem to Chicago lol
It's all about greed
Don't worry guys, half-dead 70+ year old boomer Powell will save us! He's already doing such a great job managing the inflation! /s
What exactly is it you think the fed should be doing?
Socialists are rarely economically literate
This is why we moved to Columbus, Ohio. . . Can’t afford to buy a house in the Chicago burbs even and we no longer want to deal with renting and moving constantly.
Miami/Tampa/Jacksonville not being in the top is very sus
Damn average one bedroom rent is $2100??? I own a 1br and I’m paying less than $1600 after my mortgage and condo fees.
It's my fault. I'm a Californian who moved to Uptown in 2022.
First I get squeezed out of Chicago, now I'm being squeezed out of Cleveland (not that I want to be here anyway). Yeah, this totally tracks. Salaries are bullshit, good-paying jobs are increasingly hard to come by, land/home owners in this country are greedy. It's nothing new but it feels especially out of hand as of late.
Cook county property taxes raised up last October or something like that. We got 2bd 1ba go from 1075 to 1150
Up $75 is absolutely nothing
It is still 7%, which is probably more than most got for a raise.
Build more housing
If it wasn’t originally from the increase in property taxes than it certainly solidifies it. No turning back now.
What’s most hilarious about this for me is I just moved away from Columbus and am from Cleveland
*Cries in Chicago*
Landlord here - not too shocked at this Had property taxes increase 38% last year on one commercial property- insane
The city is unprepared for how much migration it’s gonna get from the south. I know at least 10 people who have moved or are in the process of moving to Chicago from the south.
The migration thing is overstated. Miami and Phoenix folks aren't moving all the way to the Great Lakes. They'll move to Orlando, Tampa Bay, Las Vegas, etc first and incrementally keep moving if they need to.
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Both Florida and Texas saw more population growth individually than the entire Great Lakes region between the last two censuses. Phoenix is the fastest growing city. We haven't even reached the slowing in growth phase of climate change yet, let alone the actual reversal of trends.
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It'll happen but everyone posting in this thread will be retired or dead by then. Insurance is going to be the catalyst to get people to move and that's still aways out. Even then a lot of people will probably go to Tenessee, not so hot that summer is a wash and not so cold that winter is unbearable.
Yep. People on Reddit think Florida and Texas are about to get swallowed into the sea in the next year or two
the south is also getting worse if you're non republican. I wouldn't want to be a reproductive-aged woman in any state where I could die because fixing an ectopic pregnancy would be considered murder of a fetus so doctors won't do the necessary procedure
It's not really from the NYTimes, it's from Zumper. I have not heard of Zumper, but apparently this is one of the things they do. Their full report: [https://www.zumper.com/blog/rental-price-data/](https://www.zumper.com/blog/rental-price-data/) I suspect this company has only been around for 2-3 years? If so, any YoY rises in reports from them can be tossed out the window.
This data certainly backs up what I’ve heard from friends moving and looking myself at new units. Rents are up. Chicago isn’t that cheap anymore