Whether relocating to Chicago or just getting back out into the rental game after a few years off the market, it can be difficult to know how much you can expect to pay for an apartment. Don't fret. We (and the good folks over at Domu) are here to save the day!
The folks over at the apartment rental site Domu have put together some pretty handy bar graphs that lay out the median rents in their 15 most popular neighborhoods. Now, it's been awhile since I was a renter but I'm actually a little surprised by the numbers. The rents on studio and one bedroom apartments seem to have risen considerably. I seem to remember a time in the no-so-distant past when a quality studio could be found for under $600. According to Domu's finding, you'd be lucky to find a studio under $700 and that's in the outlying neighborhoods. To live close to the Loop, you're looking at rents closer to $1000 per month.
One bedroom apartment rents seem to have shot up, too. In most of the outlying neighborhoods, the median rent hovers around the $900 mark and closer to the Loop you're looking at much more, between $1200 and $2000!
Check out the full post, including graphs representing two and three bedroom apartments, over on Domu: Top Secret Apartment Data.
And all you Chicago renters out there, tell us what you think? Are these numbers representative of rents in reality?
Via: Gapers Block
Images: Domu
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The neighborhood I spent the vast majority of my 15 years in Chicago is missing in this list -- Rogers Park. It's the only place I could afford to live by the lake.
I don't live there anymore, but I think these estimates are high, based on what I know friends are paying. Seems a little unrealistically steep.
What about Pilsen? Or University Village? Or Bridgeport? "Chicago" is not just the north side!
Would love to see a graph for Vancouver BC.
I was paying $600 for a studio in Rogers Park 10 years ago. Chicago rents are ridiculously high.
This sounds about right. We're paying almost $3K to live in a one bedroom in River North (it's a very large, overly luxurious one bedroom, yes). We're moving to a $2K 2 bedroom in West Loop.
But to get a place equally nice in Bucktown would cost much more than $2K. The places are mostly just crappier so the overall average gets watered down.
Sounds right -- we're in Streeterville (just south of Gold Coast, along lakeshore). We paid $1300 for a studio, $2200 for a 1-bed, and now found an absolute bargain on a for-rent-by-condo-owner 1-bed at $1550.
Renting $1025 for a studio in South Loop (southern end of Grant Park).
I too was surprised not to see Rogers Park on the list. It's right by the lake and an easy commute to both the city and the northern suburbs.
Maybe the next post on this topic can show the best-value neighborhoods in Chicago...not just the most popular ones.
Some years ago, my friend lived in Wicker Park, living in and supervising a 3-flat for her friend.
One day, the This Old House and Bob Villa showed up 2 doors down and her friend took it as an opportunity to sell his originally $65k building for $250K to a yuppie.
From there, she moved to a loft in a Near South Loop factory area...until renovating lofts became the fashion and her rent doubled, even though it wasn't rehabbed yet.
If you want to find the next up-and-coming neighborhood, she seems to have the knack for it. It's a curse.
The West Loop and River North seem accurate, but Lakeview is still a bargain and the price sited seems high.
We just moved into the West Loop and I'm a little surprised that rents would be so high here. It's a great neighborhood with some of best restaurants in the city, but I don't ever see too many people out and about. Parking is never an issue...
Yep, that sounds about right. My husband and I decided to move to Chi with very little time to apartment hunt (we had planned on moving to DC, but plans did not work out) and wound up paying $925 for a small 2BR in Logan Square.
There ARE deals to be found, but you have to have more than a single weekend to find them, unfortunately.
Also, I think some neighborhoods may have been excluded simply because Domu doesn't service nearly as many listings in those areas; they only included 'hoods that they have a significant number of apartment listings for.
Also also, what they DIDN'T do was add in square footage - while our 2BR is significantly cheaper than the 2BR average for Logan Square, I feel as though our place is quite small for a 2BR. Price per square foot might be an interesting comparison.
Those seem pretty accurate to me... Over the last few years up until very recently we did our fair share of apartment hunting in Chicago (with Chicago Apartment Finders, they are awesome!) and the averages Domu came up are about right.
We lived very affordably in Lakeview a half block from the lake, but looked at plenty of places that I can imagine skew the average toward the high side (like all the luxury places on Lakeshore Drive, or the luxury rehabs that seem to be getting popular).
We also lived in the Albany Park and Old Irving, not listed but really affordable for the amount of space you can get!
My word of advice for anyone new to looking for apartments in any Chicago neighborhood: beware, beware of half-assed gut rehabs that look all shiny on the outside. Or just make sure you're not the first tenant so the kinks (e.g. every single thing installed incorrectly) are already worked out! I swear, if we move back I will get an actual home inspector for our next apartment.
This all looks higher than what I've seen in my experience.
I'm right on the border of Lakeview and Lincoln Park (Surf and Sheridan to be exact) and my rent is $1225 for a small one bed. I thought I was getting a great deal until I've found out that this place is infested with roaches and now I'm stuck with the 1 year least. I should have stayed in my tiny studio in Gold Coast for $975, it was gut rehab and oh so very cute :-(
Seems accurate. I did a lot of homework for my apartment search in February before moving here in April and the neighborhoods and prices are just what I found. In the end I got a studio in Gold Coast for $1245.
Someone else mentioned it's also got to do with square footage and luxury of the building, and I agree.
I could have gotten a walk-up for $600 a few blocks northwest but I preferred the luxury high rise close to the beach with a pool, gym and doorman.
To me it looks low, but I guess I'm kind of a yuppie: I only look at buildings that are dog-friendly, have w/d in-unit, and have parking available (around $200 extra per month).
Until recently I was in a Loop 1-bed apartment for $1500/month (without parking). Now I'm in a Sloop 2 bed/bath apartment for $2200 including parking.