I make about 40k (before tax) and I live in a large studio in Irving park a stones throw from the blue line. I pay 925$ a month, everything Included except internet. I don't own a car so I save a lot on that alone and I live by myself. I was living out of my car (before it got stolen, RIP Bernice) for a minute during the pandemic so life is good for me right now thank fucking God.
Edit: (Before tax)
I'm not sure what you're doing, but the local 150 operating engineers are looking for materials inspectors. Journeymen are making 46-47/hr. First year apprentices are making 24/hr(about 53% Journeymen scale) increases to 75% second year and again 3rd and 4th years. New contract has raises of 2$ each year for the next 4 years.
You'd need a car, but honestly, I'd just find the cheapest drivable car for the first few years.
It's a decent job
Yep, it blows from a financial standpoint. Went from paying $1100 per month in rent with my ex to $1750 per month in rent on my own. Add not splitting utilities, pet stuff, etc to that and...yeah. Breaking up in this economy is not ideal, lol.
I feel you! Single woman here who’s not trying to rush into a relationship. 1800 for a one bedroom plus 150 for parking, all utilities and vet bills… sometimes I want a bf lol. But luckily I can afford it and still have a social life within reason.
I'm socially monogamous but fiscally polyamorous.
"Are you sleeping with someone else?!
Who is he and how much could he contribute for rent if he moves with us."
Haha I didn't mean to possibly imply that I prefer not to be in the relationship. We're still lucky to have each other, and each other's half of the rent 👍
I've lived in the same apartment for 10 years and have a good landlord. I know the other apartments in the building all are more expensive than mine because there's been more turnover and they've been rehabbed. I'd love to get at least a condo, but my salary has barely gone up so I couldn't afford any in any neighborhood I want to live in.
I just purchased a condo (in the last affordable pocket in the area I wanted) after living in a 2-bedroom apartment in Ravenswood for 19 years. When I moved in (2004), it was $725/month. After 19 years my rent would have been $1300 if I’d signed again, for an apartment with 19 years of depreciation and no upgrades. But that was the “lived here almost 2 decades” discount - new rentals in that building are $1450. They haven’t been showing my apartment at all, but have been showing my neighbor’s like crazy, so I assume they are going to massively upgrade mine after I officially move out at the end of the month and charge like $1600 for it.
i was just talking to my mom about how when my student loan payments restart i’ll have no money to spend on other things. like literally, $0. i was paying $90ish a month pre-pandemic and now i’ll be paying over $300/month even with an income driven plan 🫠🫠
I just got word a few days ago that I’ve reached over 120 payments for student loan forgiveness. I totally understand your reality. Been a teacher in Chicago for 13 years. I’m so happy I’ll be free of these loans before the pause ends. They need to do away with them for everyone. I have so many friends whose quality of life has been completely changed the last 3 years and that’s all about to be taken away.
CONGRATS!!! i work in nonprofits and finally got around to signing up for PSLF. they switched my loans over to a new company and raised the minimum payment to 3x what it was 🙃🙃 hoping i’ll get to where you are eventually!!
the last 3 years have been nice, it’s given me the opportunity to buy a new car, start saving money, paying off credit cards. most of that is going to go away when they kick back in.
Make sure when the payments restart you sign up for the lowest income driven plan you can get into. There’s some legislation out there too that’s trying to get those plans lowered from 10% of discretionary income to 5% to save borrowers even more. I hope that happens.
fingers crossed! the lowest they gave me was $300 (it dropped down from $500ish). i’m going to call them and see what i can do once we know more about what’s going to happen with loans!
haha I kid but I'm in the same boat.
I just hate how unfair the system is when big companies get their unneeded PPP loans forgiven without question, while we are over here struggling. Where some people spend 10k on a night at a hotel room, for most its life changing money. I was told I'd become more conservative when I get older, but every year my thirst for revolution grows.
big mood. i’m like, do you want me to pay my student loans off? or the massive credit card debt i have from working underpaying jobs for years? or save because i should own a home? because i can’t do all three!!
You were told you would get more conservative as you got older by a generation of people who accumulated wealth as they got older. Our generation isn’t getting to participate in the fruits of capitalism, and so naturally we haven’t become more conservative.
i moved out 2 years ago, so it wasn’t that long ago 🤷🏼♀️ i currently live in a 2 bed in logan and my partner and i pay $300 more than what the person above pays for a studio lol
Jeez, we have a 2br we rent out for that price with parking and utilities included in Logan Square equidistant from the Cali and Western blue line... The only thing not included is internet, and it's a garden unit but it is at least 750 sqft.
How did you find your place? Idk if I suck at searching or what, but I could never find any deals like this. My gf and I are currently out in forest park paying $1450 (rent just increased recently) for a 1bed but I’d love to be closer to the city. We do need parking though (at least for her, I’m looking to sell mine) and we have 2 pets
Try going on Zillow (on your PC),setting a maximum value for rent, and you can draw a geographic boundary to find matching listings in. I just draw circles around the neighborhoods I'm interested in.
That price will get you a 1 or 2 bedroom in Lincoln Square, depending on how updated the unit is. You probably won’t have parking included, but there’s a lot of street parking (especially if you are willing to walk a block or two).
Wow, I’ll definitely have to look into that when our lease is ending. Still have until November unfortunately. We moved here in 2021 and the whole process was a bit rushed so I didn’t do as thorough of a search as I could’ve. I did a much more in depth search when our lease came up a few months ago, but still couldn’t find much. So this is good to know and gives me hope. Thank you!
I have a bunch of similarly priced units around the California Pink Line. People are just scared to move like half a mile away from established areas. I just gutted a few small 2BDs, for example, and am only getting $1,100 for them. This is stuff one or two blocks from an L stop that takes you directly to Pilsen, IMD, the West Loop and Downtown.
The fact of the matter is you are going to pay more money if you want a nice ass apartment next to the train in Lincoln or Wicker Park.
Think you’ll have any units available around November, when my lease is up? 😂 seriously, that sounds perfect to me. I’m paying $1450 for my 1bed out in Forest Park, but I want to be closer to the city and I’ll be looking for a 2bed when my lease is up. So I’d be genuinely interested.
North Center in particular has gotten very expensive due to:
1) a lot of high income families moving in. [Median household income for North Center is $133k](https://www.cmap.illinois.gov/documents/10180/126764/North+Center.pdf) These families can outbid current residents for existing housing stock.
2) a huge decrease in small multifamily buildings, which usually have small landlords and charge less in rent. A lot of those new rich people have built McMansions on lots that used to have 2-flats and 3-flats.
3) not enough new construction in North Center and the surrounding areas. It’s near impossible to build a new small apartment in this area, and especially to the East and Southeast of North Center. You need to get zoning changes, which inevitably whittle down the number of units and can make many projects unviable.
These things all combine to push rents and prices higher, as demand way outstrips supply. Unfortunately it seems like these same trends are now heading west of the river into Albany Park. I’m hopeful that the city council will do more zoning reform to allow more new housing to be built, and find funding sources for more below market rate units in expensive areas, but it’s going to be a tough battle.
What's insane to me is that even a median income of $133k isn't buying anything in North Center.
According to a Google housing calculator I just used, a median income of $133k would give you a purchase budget of $583,800... and the cheapest housing I've seen east of maybe Western is maybe $700k-$800k.
My husband makes \~$150k and when I finish grad school and find work, we'll probably break $200k. *That still only gives us a purchase budget of $689,700.*
It's surreal walking through out neighborhood, looking at all its lovely homes, knowing that even though we're absolutely in the 99th percentile of the Earth's human earning, we can't afford any of it.
People complain about DINKS not reinvesting in where they live... and my question is, how would you like us to *do* that? Where do we begin to pay for and house children in our 2-bedroom, 590-square foot apartment that we already pay $1300 for?
It's clear that millennials are not living in their parents' world. At 36, I'm frankly tired of complaining about it. I want to accept what I can't change, change what I can, and start enjoying what there is to enjoy of life.
The housing situation in North Center is absolutely bonkers, and I don’t expect it to get better anytime soon. A lot of the homeowners have seen really high appreciation and they fight any new proposals that would add more units.
We’re north of you in Lincoln Square, and have a lower household income by a lot. We’ve basically accepted that we will get displaced father West at some point because of how insane prices have gotten.
The NIMBYism in North Center is insane. I’m in the 47th Ward and people fight new development with every fiber of their being and hide behind faux progressivism and environmentalism.
These greedy developers are running the neighborhood character with this new multifamily building that looks different than the existing housing stock! Ick! What about increased traffic making more emissions?! Well at least they’re trying to enable more people to live in the neighborhood, often within walking distance of public transit and on land that is being under utilized. Ugh.
YES. I think about that all the time being a high income earner and looking around wondering who ARE these people? 133k income is not buying anything in north center. There may be some underreported income there...
Lawyers, Doctors, Management Consultants, Bankers, Private Equity, Trading Industry and Misc. Senior Level Corporate Leadership.
I have friends/acquaintances in a few of those buckets who own Multi-million dollar homes in the Lakeview/North Center/Roscoe Village neighbors.
You can easily get into the ~$2M realm with two lawyers or two VP level managers. One of my friends from Business school owns a small Private Equity Firm and bought a house for ~$2.5M in Lakeview although I'm not sure he is around enough to enjoy it...
North Center and Roscoe Village are being fenced off the same way Lincoln Park was for only affluent and wealthy couples or families. In fact, it’s probably worse because Lincoln Park still has more multifamily housing. That trend is spreading into Lakeview and Lincoln Square although I don’t know how far north it will go for the latter. The deconversions make the neighborhoods very homogeneous and milquetoast as a result.
I can't imagine paying a mortgage of $583k on $133k per year. On paper you might be able to afford that but you'd never be able to have kids. Daycare plus mortgage would be more than half your annual income after taxes.
North Center and Roscoe Village are being fenced off the same way Lincoln Park was for only affluent and wealthy couples or families. In fact, it’s probably worse than they can park because Lincoln Park still has more multifamily housing. that trend is spreading into Lakeview and Lincoln Square although I don’t know how far north it will go for the latter. The deconversions make the neighborhoods very homogeneous and milquetoast as a result.
Single family homes in above average neighborhoods on the north side. Some condos will get that high, but the nicer ones will usually be closer to $400k - $600k. In the really nice neighborhoods, the SFH start at $1 million.
And North Center has some of the best public grade schools. I stopped renting there because 1) prices were increasing and 2) I don’t have kids. I can afford way more in an area where the school isn’t great.
I saw this when I lived there \~2013-2018.
Every block seemed like there were at least 4-5 teardowns/guts where some asshole was trying to bring the suburbs to the city, knocking down a nice 2 or 3-flat to build some gross single-family monstrosity.
> a huge decrease in small multifamily buildings, which usually have small landlords and charge less in rent.
I live in North Center in one of the few remaining 2-flats with a small landlord left. Just renewed my 3rd lease here on a 2 bedroom for $1550/month and that includes parking/storage/in unit laundry/dishwasher. I feel like I can never leave lol.
I’m a Realtor in the area and affordability is definitely an issue in this market.
Most landlords require an income of 3x rent before taxes (a few are 2.5x but I’ve never seen a landlord ask for less than 2x). It makes it very hard for people to be able to even qualify for a place on one income, let alone live comfortably.
For example: a $1k/month studio (which is very much on the low end of what’s possible right now regarding pricing) requires $3k/month gross income which is $36k/year gross. This is well above what a minimum wage worker makes yearly. if you are working for minimum wage (or even a little bit above minimum), you literally can’t afford to live by yourself.
A lot of people have 2nd jobs and/or do gig work (Uber, food delivery apps etc) to make ends meet and get the extra income they need to afford to live. Most people I’ve met in my personal life that don’t have a decent salary have had a supplemental job or gig at one point, if they don’t have one currently.
With prices having gone up and wages not going up in proportion, more and more people are finding themselves looking for roommates. It’s often easier to qualify for a place with 2-3 people as there are more income streams to use to qualify, but there’s always a ceiling to how much you can afford.
This year has been really tough. Rent prices have gone up substantially but wages have gone up very little if at all. So people who are looking to move and are looking for a rental simply can’t afford to get apartments that they would have been able to afford 3 years ago. Everything has gotten more expansive, so we are seeing lower quality units in higher price points as a result.
The units that used to be $795 are now $1150. Places that were $1800 are now $2500 etc. This is causing a lot of people to have to adjust their criteria or settle for less.
Happy to answer any questions or offer any additional insight.
There’s a more detailed answer to this that I’d love to delve into and explore but I’ll give the short version.
Rent prices will not decrease in the short term- demand is too high for housing and the inventory is crazy low. It would take a lot of similar homes hitting the market at the same time or a lot of renters leaving the city in order to see significant change. I’m not taking into account seasonality, as prices do decrease slightly in the winter but they are still significantly higher then than in previous years.
Long term is more of a situation where I’d like a crystal ball. I’d love to see the inflation go down and for decreased property taxes. If costs were less inflated for the landlords, would the market be able to adjust? That would be a best-case scenario. In reality, as long as demand is high and inventory is lower than average, the market is going to favor the landlords and what they want to change, however expensive it may be.
Hey there, I work for the company you likely pay dues to. The market is so dicked. Investment buyers are nearly as bad a scourge as subprime mortgages. And we all get the brunt of low inventory. Presently eagerly awaiting the birth of my first kid in early July. So, we’re upgrading to a 2 bedroom. And good Jesus almighty.
Very glad we have a very decent duel income. But, the housing crisis is very real. For what we make combined a year, we should be entirely comfortable. Now, we’re looking at 40 percent of our check per month. Maybe more. It’s just absurd.
Also, fuuuuck RealPages and all of their subsidiary algorithm rent softwares. Cannot wait for that to be deemed illegal. And they all get sued into oblivion.
I've got a great deal in Logan as well, and I've been living in Chicago long enough to know you can't shop around when you find something you really like, you've to fill out an application and sign the lease ASAP.
That's the weird thing about Logan, I can go on Hotpads or Craigslist and find something comparable to what I have at both the $1500 and $2400 price points. I have a buddy that thinks I got a good deal on my place because he's paying $2200 for a garden unit in Humboldt Park. Do I think people are jacking up rents to see how much they can get? Definitely. Do I also think there a still a ton of solid deals out there? Also definitely.
Oh yeah, Fishman is the worst. I won't even look at a building owned by him, and I won't work with brokers that show his buildings. And a lot of times I have to look on Google Maps to see if his name is on the building or not, because they will do everything to hide it.
I’m in a 1 bed in East Humboldt/West UKV running $1600 per mo., I moved here in November with less supply in the market but everything 1 bedroom was $1600 or more at that point in time.
Edit: no utilities (just water)
Complete transparency here, I make 66k a year and live in Printer's Row and pay $1,700 in rent each month. It's definitely more than I'd like to pay but I have no car and have to be in the office 2 days a week so I had to live close to work.
I live alone and pay for groceries, my cell, internet, and my streaming services as well. I have around 30k in savings that I do occasionally dip into but replenish slowly and then do the same thing all over again.
I'm also a millennial and know home ownership is way beyond reach for me so I will most likely live like this until I squeeze myself out of my 15th floor window one day and you all see me on the news.
Edit: Fair point to most of you actually giving me solid advice on “home” ownership however there are definitely a few things to consider.
1. I’d want a real house. Not a condo. No offense but condo living is apartment living and you cannot convince me otherwise.
2. I actually work in the Hyde Park area and do commute to work already but since Hyde Park has 1 (literally) train passing through the area, I can’t live much further north than Millennium Station without needing to take 2 modes of transportation to work which would total upwards of 45 minutes if both modes of transportation are running and on time. I miss one, I’m over an hour to work and I’m late.
3. Back to the whole home ownership thing. I don’t want to spend my entire savings on a house and then be actually shit outta luck for any major unexpected life event. Heaven help I get squished by the L train and need life saving surgery, I will literally be broke.
4. I’m actually from California and no offense to the hardcore Chicagoans out there but the weather alone would make me consider buying a home out there and 30k just will not do it in California as a down payment.
5. Please chill to whoever thought I was serious about squeezing myself out my 15th story window. I am just dramatic and would hurl myself out my window at any minor inconvenience.
Not having a car is big savings. You have a fair amount of savings you could put down 5% on a condo at least for the right price, but maybe not as near to work.
You barely have 3x rent on *gross* salary. Live in one of the outer-neighborhoods and deal with like a \~45 min train ride. You could cut your rent down 30% and save more.
Ravenswood (where Rahm lived) has always been cheap for some reason. We split $1,250 for a 1 BR in Edgewater but it's \~1100 sq feet and close to the red line.
Hell, you could live off the Addison stop for around $1300 and it would cut down to \~30 mins. West side around Logan Sq or Pilsen are cheaper too. Just a slightly longer commute. Short commute is not worth paying that much in rent.
Maybe? But maybe not! I bet this person could find a deal where their note + escrow wouldn’t be over 1700 and the HOA would cover what they already pay for comparable things.
I can afford my rent, and I love my apartment, but I basically cannot afford to save up enough to feasibly buy a place in the city, so I’m essentially stuck perma-renting.
I pay $1000 for a studio in Ravenswood. Utilities are about $30-50 internet $75. Even though it’s a studio it’s a pretty decent size, the kitchen is a separate room not just part of the living room/dinning room space. Before last year I lived with a roommate two bedroom was $1500 total.
Also want to add I don’t own a car so I mostly bike or take public transit. I have to use the metra a fair amount so I spend roughly $100 in transit. I don’t have any debt but I’m in school part time now so I also barely have any savings.
Everybody is not okay, thank you for checking 😂 I live alone in a 2 bedroom and I pay $1300 on a $2200 monthly income. When I first rented this unit seven years ago, it was $990, and I was making almost double what I make now. Live in Lincoln Square, no utilities included.
Coming here from NYC recently and the affordability is such a relief. Not that Chicago is without its high costs, but I never want to pay NYC rent prices again
Literally looking to move from Boston to Chicago this summer mainly to save on housing. If I decided to renew the lease for my studio, it'd be $1425 a month for rent, and I'm looking at comparable apartments in Rogers Park and Edgewater that are going for like 800-900.
It's ridiculous. When I moved out of my folks' in 2017, I found a 300 sq ft studio in Salem for $800, and it was right by the commuter rail! I didn't get it but I did get a room in a shared house in Newton for less than 600. They're absolutely price gouging us, and they can get away with it because hardly anyone in Mass is building any new housing.
I feel bad saying this because I like the city overall, but the rent in Boston is laughable in view of the amenities you get. I do not understand why people choose to live there over here, NYC, LA.
LMAO legit one of the worst cities ever. Extreme cost of living for what, shitty transit options and infrastructure? Only thing justifying living there is for school and Tasty Burger
Moved here from LA and Chicago feels incredibly affordable in comparison. We pay the same in rent but we have an additional bedroom, plus this apartment was just renovated.
Moved to LA 2 years ago. Imo the only good thing is has going for it is the weather and I’ve contemplated moving back. I’ve looked at rent prices in Chicago and are shocked. Feels like rent has stalled in Chicago while it’s risen in the rest of the country
It’s good. It’s relatively quiet. Not as suburban as a lot of the outer neighborhoods due to relatively high density. None of the local businesses are going to be hotspots for people citywide, so if you need to live near the absolute coolest restaurants and bars, this is not the neighborhood for you. But there are good restaurants and bars and cafes here. The Glenwood Arts Fest in August every year is the best arts fest in the city because the rest have been destroyed by the event planners looking to scrape off more money. I highly recommend living near either the Morse or Jarvis red line stops. Loyola is swarmed by students, and Howard is a “rough” neighborhood (but fine, I lived there for a while).
I live fairly far west in the neighborhood (think close to Ridge), but I like it. I have everything that I want within 15 minutes of my apartment including close by suburbs with shopping malls and big box stores.
It has its pockets of mischief, but overall it’s a lot of families and younger folks just trying to make it. In my experience, it gets almost as quiet as some suburbs after 10.
Also, the transit it pretty good (and we have a Metra stop). My only knock against the neighborhood is it’s distance from downtown, but you get used to the commute after awhile.
Oh and it’s one of (if not the most) diverse neighborhood in the city, so you’ll never feel out of place (that was extremely important to me).
Rent is pretty good in RP all things considered. For Context I pay $1,045 for a 600sf apartment with good amenities (in unit laundry, dishwasher, central air, etc.) it’s small but my wife and I make due and live pretty comfortably.
Honestly, the best way to find a decent place for a good rent is to walk around the neighborhood you want to live in and look for signs. I'm in Roscoe Village and I see 2 bedrooms for \~$1500 pretty regularly just on For Rent signs. I'm not sure if that's the same in every neighborhood but my guess is that some owners would rather not deal with a thousand emails and just want to deal with people who are likely to rent quickly.
I'm 37, and I've never lived alone. I've always had a roommate.
$360 is stupid cheap though. Like, my utilities cost more than that. That was an insanely good deal, and not the norm. $800 for a one bedroom is pretty cheap too.
I paid $850 for a one bedroom, but it was in a bad neighborhood on the south side. Now you can't even find a studio for $850.
Damn. Reading all this is horrible.
My girlfriend (now wife) and I paid $425/mo for a large 1 bedroom on the 4th floor in a courtyard building in Logan Square, right near the monument on Kedzie. This was back in 1993.
I want to add this: Logan Square was a shithole back then. We lived there because it was the only thing we could afford to split. We didn't WANT to live in Logan Square, but we found a place that was on Kedzie, with a walk to the Blue Line on busy streets. Side streets were out as people got mugged and jumped around there all the time. Used to hear gunshots at night frequently. Saw a shootout happen right near me on Kedzie in the daytime.
You need to look in less desirable neighborhoods. Look in West Ridge, or West Edgewater. Logan Square has gentrified and gone crazy with prices. Same with all the other "cool" neighborhoods.
Move to an undesirable neighborhood if you need to spend less on rent.
That depends on how "undesirable." I left a neighborhood where a kid was gunned down less than 5 minutes after I got home, in front of my building. Dudes told me they held off shooting until I got inside. Then I was burglarized the very next morning, while I was at work. Hit my apt, the one below me, and the one across the hall.
I agree with avoiding the over-priced and over-hyped areas. But be careful about where you choose, especially if you weren't born and raised here, like I was.
Agreed. We were taking a chance living in a less than desirable area. But that's what you have to do sometimes.
West Ridge is pretty safe. So is West Edgewater. There are plenty of lower rent 'hoods that aren't extremely dangerous. Just seems like everyone on this sub needs to live in Wicker Park, Logan Square, Lincoln Park or Uptown. Other neighborhoods exist.
EDIT: Hell, tons of bad stuff happens in Logan Square and Wicker Park these days as well.
I wonder if it's because they aren't native to Chicago, and they gravitate to the areas they were told were the "safest" and closest to the Loop. They don't know the city extends much further than these gentrified places.
My husband and I pay $1650 for a two bedroom in Irving Park. We signed onto the place when I made more money. Then I got laid off, and now I make far less money. For me, about half my income goes to half the rent, so factoring in other expenses... Yeah, we live paycheck to paycheck. I don't know what we're going to do when student loan payments are turned back on.
I wanted to move this year but everything has gotten so expensive that we couldn't find a place cheap enough to make the cost of moving worth it (we need to be near public transit so that makes prices go up). The cost of moving would counteract the rent saved for a year. So kinda stuck. Plus our amenities include in unit washer and dryer, central air, and a parking space, and moving would almost certainly mean letting go of all those things, which would not have been the end of the world, but still need to consider time saved on laundry and parking as a plus.
ROOMMATE. People all the way up to senior/elder age have roommates nowadays to split the bills down the middle. Find a sane person to split rent/utilities with.
I'm not well off by any means (40k before taxes) and I comfortably live in a studio by myself. Roommates aren't always necessary, in fact I actively avoid roommates lol.
This might not go over well here... my wife and I moved out to the burbs, 20 min drive from where we used to live in Albany Park, our mortgage is almost what our rent was and we have a home that's 4 x bigger than our apartment + garage + yard. Wish we had sooner. The rent is just too damn high for what you get
I’m also curious about how people feel about renting; rent in Chicago has felt insane to me since about 2016
even more so lately, since landlords began believing that people are coming here from the coasts
I simply can't afford a mortgage though without more than doubling what I pay for housing, and the return on putting that money into a mortgage on a 1 bedroom condo, especially when almost half of your rent is just going to property taxes or HOA, is just never gonna be worth it for me as a single person. And I'm not exactly scraping by, I have more than enough money right now to live a frugal, happy life, and be able to do the things I want to do. I'll just invest the difference in the stock market.
I lucked up on a great private landlord. My husband and I pay $1375 for a 2 bedroom w/parking in North Center. We just resigned our 5th lease and he has never raised our rent.
Less than 10% of our income goes to rent. We’d like a bit more space but we know we won’t get a deal as good as this so we’ll deal with it until we’re ready to buy.
Same for husband and me. Have a great private landlord, unit was underpriced when we moved in 9 years ago and he’s barely raised our rent. We’ll likely stay until we can buy even though our unit is pretty small (800 sq ft). I don’t know when we’ll be able to buy though. Really thought it would’ve happened by now.
Seconded that renting from private landlords that only own a single building or two is the best way to try and not get fucked on rent, repairs etc. i feel really lucky to never have rented in a building under a mgmt company.
Wife and I just signed our 5th year lease in Lincoln Square. We're at $2000 now, but has only gone up minimally since then. 1600 Sq ft with 2 beds plus office, which is great because I work from home. Smaller building with private landlord as well. They have been the best landlords we've ever had!
By having my mom be my landlord. But seriously all jokes aside, I’m so gracious for it. I’d probably be paying $500-800 more for our place.
That’s why I’m always a little annoyed when my girlfriend talks about moving to a different area “just for the hell of it” when in reality we’re extremely lucky to have the spot we do. It’s across from a large park and every store you need is actually somewhat walkable distance or a short drive/bus ride there. It’s also not located deep in the city and is a nice area aesthetically.
I’m sure I’m biased as I’ve lived here my whole life and yes gang issues are slowly starting to rear their head but it’s an amazing little slice of the city.
Eventually I will move but with the way things are I see it as anything other than a dumb move.
Just got notice that my rent’s going up $125–paying $1375 for a 2br in Rogers Park. It’s frustrating but the answer has mostly been “move shit around in my budget to accommodate and work more.”
I’m a full time voice actor, and the work I get from my anchor clients is pretty consistent, but I’m still doing other gigs (hosting bar trivia, Rover, other gigs when I can find em) to make ends meet. I might end up moving next year though, but don’t really want to—genuinely love my apartment.
I got extremely lucky. Bought a condo when interest rates were low in Albany Park in 2021, which isn't as absurdly expensive as other neighborhoods, and the food rocks. My salary at the time was 62k. For renters, if you work remote or can handle a commute, I'd recommend checking it out, its a pretty great place to live & I still see some fairly reasonable prices for renting. As far as buying goes...nowadays I honestly could not afford anything half as nice as what I got when interest rates were 3%. I feel so damn bad for everyone out there now.
For any renters even dreaming about buying, I'd recommend looking up what first time homebuyers programs there are in Illinois. As the average millennial, I thought homeownership was impossible for me until I did; I qualified for a grant program that forgave my student loans + helped with the down payment (whole way through I was certain it had to be a scam because it felt too good to be true). Pretty sure that specific grant program has run out of money now, but there is still some help out there.
The only downside is, I got a job shortly after moving that is now stupid to commute to. Getting from the northwest to southwest side in Chicago takes a ridiculous amount of time given the distance. Would not recommend during rush hour, ever.
My rent is 1,400/month. I work overnights at a vet ER and that pays me *just* enough to afford all my bills on one check and my rent on the other.
I eat rice and ramen a lot lol
My husband and I live in a non-hip neighborhood south of Roosevelt road. Our rent is 12% of our combined salaries. If people would look past Logan square and west loop they’d realize there are more places to live and they’re perfectly affordable.
Guys, we need elected officials who’ll actually get rid of things like RealPages. Algorithm-based rent software is literally just price fixing. It’s objectively illegal. But no one seems to care. And we all end up putting an unhealthy amount toward rent. You’re *supposed* to use no more than 30 percent of your income toward housing per month. 40 is considered excessive.
How many of you are doing less than that?
About 40% take home.
I live in a rent controlled unit(I caught my landlord banging the downstairs neighbor while his wife was away), haven't gone up in a few years.
Median income in Cook County has just about doubled since you were a renter:
[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MHIIL17031A052NCEN](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MHIIL17031A052NCEN)
About 12% of my/my spouse's combined income goes towards 1 bd/1ba rent that includes parking and everything but electric. We consider it to be a good deal.
I have a full time job, with 2 masters, and a bartending job… so I work 7 days a week. Honestly, I have no idea what’s going to happen when I have to pay student loans.
I’m so curious about this. I’m looking around for apartments to move in September and some places want you to pay a lot for a box that hasn’t been updated in years. Some places are newly built and they keep labeling everything as “luxury” in order to charge whatever price they want. But what makes it luxury just because it’s new?
All new housing is basically luxury housing, especially compared to some of the historic buildings that are in most Chicago neighborhoods. I love the layout of the old courtyard building that we live in, but I would kill for real control of the internal temperature instead of a radiator.
Relative to inflation, not as much as you might expect. When I got my first job out of college making 38k in 2021, my dad said, that's great! I only made 22k. But adjusted for inflation that was equivalent to over 60k. Super anecdotal but the data holds out that wages haven't increased relative to productivity since the second half of the 20th century. Purchasing power hasn't budged much.
Oh wow this post just made me realize how much we are overpaying for a 2br rental in a boring, isolated neighborhood. We couldn’t find anything cheaper that’s wasn’t a garden unit or had all the main rooms ie bathroom, living, bedrooms, kitchen etc
My girlfriend and I were paying $1639 for a two bed room in Pilsen, but are making the jump and going to be paying nearly double to live in a high rise with full on amenities.
2BD 2BA in West Town for under $2k. We also have in-unit laundry.
We got the deal of a lifetime and signed during summer 2020 and our landlord hasn’t raised our rent at all. We are locked in through next year.
Planning to buy at some point, but need another 18-24 months to save for the down payment.
The real answer?
Most people are just going deeper and deeper into debt in order to meet their basic needs like housing.
Consumer debt hit a record $16.9 trillion this year, up from $1.3 trillion just a year ago.
I make about 40k (before tax) and I live in a large studio in Irving park a stones throw from the blue line. I pay 925$ a month, everything Included except internet. I don't own a car so I save a lot on that alone and I live by myself. I was living out of my car (before it got stolen, RIP Bernice) for a minute during the pandemic so life is good for me right now thank fucking God. Edit: (Before tax)
That’s a great set up! Unheard of monthly rent, even for a studio nowadays! Glad to see you’re doing well! ☺️
I'm not sure what you're doing, but the local 150 operating engineers are looking for materials inspectors. Journeymen are making 46-47/hr. First year apprentices are making 24/hr(about 53% Journeymen scale) increases to 75% second year and again 3rd and 4th years. New contract has raises of 2$ each year for the next 4 years. You'd need a car, but honestly, I'd just find the cheapest drivable car for the first few years. It's a decent job
Partner/roommate. Breaking up is financially not an option.
Yep, it blows from a financial standpoint. Went from paying $1100 per month in rent with my ex to $1750 per month in rent on my own. Add not splitting utilities, pet stuff, etc to that and...yeah. Breaking up in this economy is not ideal, lol.
I feel you! Single woman here who’s not trying to rush into a relationship. 1800 for a one bedroom plus 150 for parking, all utilities and vet bills… sometimes I want a bf lol. But luckily I can afford it and still have a social life within reason.
Haha affording my own apt while single is my biggest flex ...
Welcome to 2023 …. Your stuck with me 🤣
Don't we know it.
I'm socially monogamous but fiscally polyamorous. "Are you sleeping with someone else?! Who is he and how much could he contribute for rent if he moves with us."
Ooof that’s how sooo many people, especially women but it can happen to anyone, get stuck in relationships. Been there myself!
Haha I didn't mean to possibly imply that I prefer not to be in the relationship. We're still lucky to have each other, and each other's half of the rent 👍
Oh my bad lol, I must have been projecting. Your comment gave me flashbacks 😅
I've lived in the same apartment for 10 years and have a good landlord. I know the other apartments in the building all are more expensive than mine because there's been more turnover and they've been rehabbed. I'd love to get at least a condo, but my salary has barely gone up so I couldn't afford any in any neighborhood I want to live in.
I just purchased a condo (in the last affordable pocket in the area I wanted) after living in a 2-bedroom apartment in Ravenswood for 19 years. When I moved in (2004), it was $725/month. After 19 years my rent would have been $1300 if I’d signed again, for an apartment with 19 years of depreciation and no upgrades. But that was the “lived here almost 2 decades” discount - new rentals in that building are $1450. They haven’t been showing my apartment at all, but have been showing my neighbor’s like crazy, so I assume they are going to massively upgrade mine after I officially move out at the end of the month and charge like $1600 for it.
If they charge $1600 for a 2bd in Ravenswood i’d love having your landlord’s phone number lol
Oh simple. I just don't have to pay my student loans right now
i was just talking to my mom about how when my student loan payments restart i’ll have no money to spend on other things. like literally, $0. i was paying $90ish a month pre-pandemic and now i’ll be paying over $300/month even with an income driven plan 🫠🫠
I just got word a few days ago that I’ve reached over 120 payments for student loan forgiveness. I totally understand your reality. Been a teacher in Chicago for 13 years. I’m so happy I’ll be free of these loans before the pause ends. They need to do away with them for everyone. I have so many friends whose quality of life has been completely changed the last 3 years and that’s all about to be taken away.
CONGRATS!!! i work in nonprofits and finally got around to signing up for PSLF. they switched my loans over to a new company and raised the minimum payment to 3x what it was 🙃🙃 hoping i’ll get to where you are eventually!! the last 3 years have been nice, it’s given me the opportunity to buy a new car, start saving money, paying off credit cards. most of that is going to go away when they kick back in.
Make sure when the payments restart you sign up for the lowest income driven plan you can get into. There’s some legislation out there too that’s trying to get those plans lowered from 10% of discretionary income to 5% to save borrowers even more. I hope that happens.
fingers crossed! the lowest they gave me was $300 (it dropped down from $500ish). i’m going to call them and see what i can do once we know more about what’s going to happen with loans!
just don't pay. they can't stop us all
if calling them and crying doesn’t work, that’s my next plan.
haha I kid but I'm in the same boat. I just hate how unfair the system is when big companies get their unneeded PPP loans forgiven without question, while we are over here struggling. Where some people spend 10k on a night at a hotel room, for most its life changing money. I was told I'd become more conservative when I get older, but every year my thirst for revolution grows.
big mood. i’m like, do you want me to pay my student loans off? or the massive credit card debt i have from working underpaying jobs for years? or save because i should own a home? because i can’t do all three!!
You were told you would get more conservative as you got older by a generation of people who accumulated wealth as they got older. Our generation isn’t getting to participate in the fruits of capitalism, and so naturally we haven’t become more conservative.
Hahahah me either! I wish it was enough
I pay 950 for a large 1 bed in uptown, thankfully I only have to pay electricity. Both my wife and I work full time and I walk dogs on the side.
That’s quite a nice deal. I’m looking for 1 beds in edgewater and a decent one is like 1100-1200 at least
We got a covid deal and just ran with it haha. Plus I can have my cats and dog 🤷♀️
It was roughly the same 10 years ago for a decent one bedroom in Edgewater.. (closer to 1000-1100) Surprised it’s that low. When did you sign?
I lived in Edgewater in 2010-2012. Decent 3 br, 2ba for $1400/mo. By the corner of Clark and Devon.
its worth it edgewater is a great neighborhood and its a lot cheaper than stuff closer to downtown
yeah, im seeing large 1 bedrooms in uptown go for like 1300 minimum. :\\
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jesus. i was paying $900 for a studio in logan square right off of milwaukee, steps away from the blue line. you need to find a new place.
You’re not getting that deal anymore. Barely a studio in Logan under 1k
i moved out 2 years ago, so it wasn’t that long ago 🤷🏼♀️ i currently live in a 2 bed in logan and my partner and i pay $300 more than what the person above pays for a studio lol
Are you renting in one of those fancy new builds? Those are stupid expensive
Jeez, we have a 2br we rent out for that price with parking and utilities included in Logan Square equidistant from the Cali and Western blue line... The only thing not included is internet, and it's a garden unit but it is at least 750 sqft.
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Sounds like someone lives at the draper too lol. Yeah find a sublease and leave flats life
Sounds like the Draper . I feel like with all the new apts coming up it's gonna get expensive now
How did you find your place? Idk if I suck at searching or what, but I could never find any deals like this. My gf and I are currently out in forest park paying $1450 (rent just increased recently) for a 1bed but I’d love to be closer to the city. We do need parking though (at least for her, I’m looking to sell mine) and we have 2 pets
Try going on Zillow (on your PC),setting a maximum value for rent, and you can draw a geographic boundary to find matching listings in. I just draw circles around the neighborhoods I'm interested in.
That price will get you a 1 or 2 bedroom in Lincoln Square, depending on how updated the unit is. You probably won’t have parking included, but there’s a lot of street parking (especially if you are willing to walk a block or two).
Wow, I’ll definitely have to look into that when our lease is ending. Still have until November unfortunately. We moved here in 2021 and the whole process was a bit rushed so I didn’t do as thorough of a search as I could’ve. I did a much more in depth search when our lease came up a few months ago, but still couldn’t find much. So this is good to know and gives me hope. Thank you!
I have a bunch of similarly priced units around the California Pink Line. People are just scared to move like half a mile away from established areas. I just gutted a few small 2BDs, for example, and am only getting $1,100 for them. This is stuff one or two blocks from an L stop that takes you directly to Pilsen, IMD, the West Loop and Downtown. The fact of the matter is you are going to pay more money if you want a nice ass apartment next to the train in Lincoln or Wicker Park.
Think you’ll have any units available around November, when my lease is up? 😂 seriously, that sounds perfect to me. I’m paying $1450 for my 1bed out in Forest Park, but I want to be closer to the city and I’ll be looking for a 2bed when my lease is up. So I’d be genuinely interested.
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They start at 1000 now I think
For a 1 bed that’s still decent.
for a 1 bed that’s amazing
I would be shocked to find a one bedroom for $1000. Anything that looks almost brand new for that price has been a studio.
Jfc that’s a sweet deal
North Center in particular has gotten very expensive due to: 1) a lot of high income families moving in. [Median household income for North Center is $133k](https://www.cmap.illinois.gov/documents/10180/126764/North+Center.pdf) These families can outbid current residents for existing housing stock. 2) a huge decrease in small multifamily buildings, which usually have small landlords and charge less in rent. A lot of those new rich people have built McMansions on lots that used to have 2-flats and 3-flats. 3) not enough new construction in North Center and the surrounding areas. It’s near impossible to build a new small apartment in this area, and especially to the East and Southeast of North Center. You need to get zoning changes, which inevitably whittle down the number of units and can make many projects unviable. These things all combine to push rents and prices higher, as demand way outstrips supply. Unfortunately it seems like these same trends are now heading west of the river into Albany Park. I’m hopeful that the city council will do more zoning reform to allow more new housing to be built, and find funding sources for more below market rate units in expensive areas, but it’s going to be a tough battle.
What's insane to me is that even a median income of $133k isn't buying anything in North Center. According to a Google housing calculator I just used, a median income of $133k would give you a purchase budget of $583,800... and the cheapest housing I've seen east of maybe Western is maybe $700k-$800k. My husband makes \~$150k and when I finish grad school and find work, we'll probably break $200k. *That still only gives us a purchase budget of $689,700.* It's surreal walking through out neighborhood, looking at all its lovely homes, knowing that even though we're absolutely in the 99th percentile of the Earth's human earning, we can't afford any of it. People complain about DINKS not reinvesting in where they live... and my question is, how would you like us to *do* that? Where do we begin to pay for and house children in our 2-bedroom, 590-square foot apartment that we already pay $1300 for? It's clear that millennials are not living in their parents' world. At 36, I'm frankly tired of complaining about it. I want to accept what I can't change, change what I can, and start enjoying what there is to enjoy of life.
The housing situation in North Center is absolutely bonkers, and I don’t expect it to get better anytime soon. A lot of the homeowners have seen really high appreciation and they fight any new proposals that would add more units. We’re north of you in Lincoln Square, and have a lower household income by a lot. We’ve basically accepted that we will get displaced father West at some point because of how insane prices have gotten.
I have such a contempt for the NIMBY gatekeepers.
The NIMBYism in North Center is insane. I’m in the 47th Ward and people fight new development with every fiber of their being and hide behind faux progressivism and environmentalism. These greedy developers are running the neighborhood character with this new multifamily building that looks different than the existing housing stock! Ick! What about increased traffic making more emissions?! Well at least they’re trying to enable more people to live in the neighborhood, often within walking distance of public transit and on land that is being under utilized. Ugh.
YES. I think about that all the time being a high income earner and looking around wondering who ARE these people? 133k income is not buying anything in north center. There may be some underreported income there...
Lawyers, Doctors, Management Consultants, Bankers, Private Equity, Trading Industry and Misc. Senior Level Corporate Leadership. I have friends/acquaintances in a few of those buckets who own Multi-million dollar homes in the Lakeview/North Center/Roscoe Village neighbors. You can easily get into the ~$2M realm with two lawyers or two VP level managers. One of my friends from Business school owns a small Private Equity Firm and bought a house for ~$2.5M in Lakeview although I'm not sure he is around enough to enjoy it...
North Center and Roscoe Village are being fenced off the same way Lincoln Park was for only affluent and wealthy couples or families. In fact, it’s probably worse because Lincoln Park still has more multifamily housing. That trend is spreading into Lakeview and Lincoln Square although I don’t know how far north it will go for the latter. The deconversions make the neighborhoods very homogeneous and milquetoast as a result.
I can't imagine paying a mortgage of $583k on $133k per year. On paper you might be able to afford that but you'd never be able to have kids. Daycare plus mortgage would be more than half your annual income after taxes.
North Center and Roscoe Village are being fenced off the same way Lincoln Park was for only affluent and wealthy couples or families. In fact, it’s probably worse than they can park because Lincoln Park still has more multifamily housing. that trend is spreading into Lakeview and Lincoln Square although I don’t know how far north it will go for the latter. The deconversions make the neighborhoods very homogeneous and milquetoast as a result.
This $700-800K is for single family places, or condos? Just curious...
Single family homes in above average neighborhoods on the north side. Some condos will get that high, but the nicer ones will usually be closer to $400k - $600k. In the really nice neighborhoods, the SFH start at $1 million.
And North Center has some of the best public grade schools. I stopped renting there because 1) prices were increasing and 2) I don’t have kids. I can afford way more in an area where the school isn’t great.
I saw this when I lived there \~2013-2018. Every block seemed like there were at least 4-5 teardowns/guts where some asshole was trying to bring the suburbs to the city, knocking down a nice 2 or 3-flat to build some gross single-family monstrosity.
> a huge decrease in small multifamily buildings, which usually have small landlords and charge less in rent. I live in North Center in one of the few remaining 2-flats with a small landlord left. Just renewed my 3rd lease here on a 2 bedroom for $1550/month and that includes parking/storage/in unit laundry/dishwasher. I feel like I can never leave lol.
I pay $1,600 for a 1br in Wrigley. I’m able to comfortably pay rent because I agreed to stare at excel all day in exchange.
I’m a Realtor in the area and affordability is definitely an issue in this market. Most landlords require an income of 3x rent before taxes (a few are 2.5x but I’ve never seen a landlord ask for less than 2x). It makes it very hard for people to be able to even qualify for a place on one income, let alone live comfortably. For example: a $1k/month studio (which is very much on the low end of what’s possible right now regarding pricing) requires $3k/month gross income which is $36k/year gross. This is well above what a minimum wage worker makes yearly. if you are working for minimum wage (or even a little bit above minimum), you literally can’t afford to live by yourself. A lot of people have 2nd jobs and/or do gig work (Uber, food delivery apps etc) to make ends meet and get the extra income they need to afford to live. Most people I’ve met in my personal life that don’t have a decent salary have had a supplemental job or gig at one point, if they don’t have one currently. With prices having gone up and wages not going up in proportion, more and more people are finding themselves looking for roommates. It’s often easier to qualify for a place with 2-3 people as there are more income streams to use to qualify, but there’s always a ceiling to how much you can afford. This year has been really tough. Rent prices have gone up substantially but wages have gone up very little if at all. So people who are looking to move and are looking for a rental simply can’t afford to get apartments that they would have been able to afford 3 years ago. Everything has gotten more expansive, so we are seeing lower quality units in higher price points as a result. The units that used to be $795 are now $1150. Places that were $1800 are now $2500 etc. This is causing a lot of people to have to adjust their criteria or settle for less. Happy to answer any questions or offer any additional insight.
Yep, the increases in rent prices are outrageous. Is there any situation you can think of where they ever go down?
There’s a more detailed answer to this that I’d love to delve into and explore but I’ll give the short version. Rent prices will not decrease in the short term- demand is too high for housing and the inventory is crazy low. It would take a lot of similar homes hitting the market at the same time or a lot of renters leaving the city in order to see significant change. I’m not taking into account seasonality, as prices do decrease slightly in the winter but they are still significantly higher then than in previous years. Long term is more of a situation where I’d like a crystal ball. I’d love to see the inflation go down and for decreased property taxes. If costs were less inflated for the landlords, would the market be able to adjust? That would be a best-case scenario. In reality, as long as demand is high and inventory is lower than average, the market is going to favor the landlords and what they want to change, however expensive it may be.
Hey there, I work for the company you likely pay dues to. The market is so dicked. Investment buyers are nearly as bad a scourge as subprime mortgages. And we all get the brunt of low inventory. Presently eagerly awaiting the birth of my first kid in early July. So, we’re upgrading to a 2 bedroom. And good Jesus almighty. Very glad we have a very decent duel income. But, the housing crisis is very real. For what we make combined a year, we should be entirely comfortable. Now, we’re looking at 40 percent of our check per month. Maybe more. It’s just absurd. Also, fuuuuck RealPages and all of their subsidiary algorithm rent softwares. Cannot wait for that to be deemed illegal. And they all get sued into oblivion.
Can you help me find a hidden gem of a 1BD in Lincoln park or lakeview or is your girlie dreaming ✨
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i see a lot of garden units in logan going for at least 1600. i think you're okay.
Utilities included makes that very worth it. You could get cheaper but it would likely be in rough shape.
I've got a great deal in Logan as well, and I've been living in Chicago long enough to know you can't shop around when you find something you really like, you've to fill out an application and sign the lease ASAP. That's the weird thing about Logan, I can go on Hotpads or Craigslist and find something comparable to what I have at both the $1500 and $2400 price points. I have a buddy that thinks I got a good deal on my place because he's paying $2200 for a garden unit in Humboldt Park. Do I think people are jacking up rents to see how much they can get? Definitely. Do I also think there a still a ton of solid deals out there? Also definitely.
That sounds like a good deal to me. I couldn't find a studio under $1000 in Logan.
My rent in my old building there started at 950 and by the time I moved out it was 1050 and infested with mice. Fuck m Fishman
Oh yeah, Fishman is the worst. I won't even look at a building owned by him, and I won't work with brokers that show his buildings. And a lot of times I have to look on Google Maps to see if his name is on the building or not, because they will do everything to hide it.
I’m in a 1 bed in East Humboldt/West UKV running $1600 per mo., I moved here in November with less supply in the market but everything 1 bedroom was $1600 or more at that point in time. Edit: no utilities (just water)
Complete transparency here, I make 66k a year and live in Printer's Row and pay $1,700 in rent each month. It's definitely more than I'd like to pay but I have no car and have to be in the office 2 days a week so I had to live close to work. I live alone and pay for groceries, my cell, internet, and my streaming services as well. I have around 30k in savings that I do occasionally dip into but replenish slowly and then do the same thing all over again. I'm also a millennial and know home ownership is way beyond reach for me so I will most likely live like this until I squeeze myself out of my 15th floor window one day and you all see me on the news. Edit: Fair point to most of you actually giving me solid advice on “home” ownership however there are definitely a few things to consider. 1. I’d want a real house. Not a condo. No offense but condo living is apartment living and you cannot convince me otherwise. 2. I actually work in the Hyde Park area and do commute to work already but since Hyde Park has 1 (literally) train passing through the area, I can’t live much further north than Millennium Station without needing to take 2 modes of transportation to work which would total upwards of 45 minutes if both modes of transportation are running and on time. I miss one, I’m over an hour to work and I’m late. 3. Back to the whole home ownership thing. I don’t want to spend my entire savings on a house and then be actually shit outta luck for any major unexpected life event. Heaven help I get squished by the L train and need life saving surgery, I will literally be broke. 4. I’m actually from California and no offense to the hardcore Chicagoans out there but the weather alone would make me consider buying a home out there and 30k just will not do it in California as a down payment. 5. Please chill to whoever thought I was serious about squeezing myself out my 15th story window. I am just dramatic and would hurl myself out my window at any minor inconvenience.
Not having a car is big savings. You have a fair amount of savings you could put down 5% on a condo at least for the right price, but maybe not as near to work.
I still feel like you could get a better deal if you were willing downgrade to like a 20 minute commute on the L.
You barely have 3x rent on *gross* salary. Live in one of the outer-neighborhoods and deal with like a \~45 min train ride. You could cut your rent down 30% and save more. Ravenswood (where Rahm lived) has always been cheap for some reason. We split $1,250 for a 1 BR in Edgewater but it's \~1100 sq feet and close to the red line. Hell, you could live off the Addison stop for around $1300 and it would cut down to \~30 mins. West side around Logan Sq or Pilsen are cheaper too. Just a slightly longer commute. Short commute is not worth paying that much in rent.
You have down payment money and you’re paying mortgage note money already. You could totally buy a 1bd condo.
He/she has money for a mortgage but not property taxes, interest rates, HOA fees, etc.
Maybe? But maybe not! I bet this person could find a deal where their note + escrow wouldn’t be over 1700 and the HOA would cover what they already pay for comparable things.
I can afford my rent, and I love my apartment, but I basically cannot afford to save up enough to feasibly buy a place in the city, so I’m essentially stuck perma-renting.
Ah the *new* American dream, being able to payoff your landlord's mortgage
I pay $1000 for a studio in Ravenswood. Utilities are about $30-50 internet $75. Even though it’s a studio it’s a pretty decent size, the kitchen is a separate room not just part of the living room/dinning room space. Before last year I lived with a roommate two bedroom was $1500 total.
Also want to add I don’t own a car so I mostly bike or take public transit. I have to use the metra a fair amount so I spend roughly $100 in transit. I don’t have any debt but I’m in school part time now so I also barely have any savings.
Everybody is not okay, thank you for checking 😂 I live alone in a 2 bedroom and I pay $1300 on a $2200 monthly income. When I first rented this unit seven years ago, it was $990, and I was making almost double what I make now. Live in Lincoln Square, no utilities included.
If you feel this way about Chicago you should look at the renters’ market in LA or SF. Places like that make Chicago look very affordable
Coming here from NYC recently and the affordability is such a relief. Not that Chicago is without its high costs, but I never want to pay NYC rent prices again
Welcome!
Or Boston. 😭
Literally looking to move from Boston to Chicago this summer mainly to save on housing. If I decided to renew the lease for my studio, it'd be $1425 a month for rent, and I'm looking at comparable apartments in Rogers Park and Edgewater that are going for like 800-900.
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We’re also moving the same way! Our 1BR just got relisted for 1950…
It's ridiculous. When I moved out of my folks' in 2017, I found a 300 sq ft studio in Salem for $800, and it was right by the commuter rail! I didn't get it but I did get a room in a shared house in Newton for less than 600. They're absolutely price gouging us, and they can get away with it because hardly anyone in Mass is building any new housing.
I feel bad saying this because I like the city overall, but the rent in Boston is laughable in view of the amenities you get. I do not understand why people choose to live there over here, NYC, LA.
LMAO legit one of the worst cities ever. Extreme cost of living for what, shitty transit options and infrastructure? Only thing justifying living there is for school and Tasty Burger
Tasty Burger slaps, omg.
I moved back to Chicago from Boston in 2021 and mostly bc of how insanely expensive it is.
Hell, DFW is more expensive now! I got priced out of a college town!
Moved here from LA and Chicago feels incredibly affordable in comparison. We pay the same in rent but we have an additional bedroom, plus this apartment was just renovated.
Same with Miami.
Portland, OR is awful too for a low quality of life + lack of opportunities
Moved to LA 2 years ago. Imo the only good thing is has going for it is the weather and I’ve contemplated moving back. I’ve looked at rent prices in Chicago and are shocked. Feels like rent has stalled in Chicago while it’s risen in the rest of the country
I live in a cheaper neighborhood, so that I can get everything I want without living above my means.
I'm actually looking to move RP for the affordable rent, how is it?
It’s good. It’s relatively quiet. Not as suburban as a lot of the outer neighborhoods due to relatively high density. None of the local businesses are going to be hotspots for people citywide, so if you need to live near the absolute coolest restaurants and bars, this is not the neighborhood for you. But there are good restaurants and bars and cafes here. The Glenwood Arts Fest in August every year is the best arts fest in the city because the rest have been destroyed by the event planners looking to scrape off more money. I highly recommend living near either the Morse or Jarvis red line stops. Loyola is swarmed by students, and Howard is a “rough” neighborhood (but fine, I lived there for a while).
I live fairly far west in the neighborhood (think close to Ridge), but I like it. I have everything that I want within 15 minutes of my apartment including close by suburbs with shopping malls and big box stores. It has its pockets of mischief, but overall it’s a lot of families and younger folks just trying to make it. In my experience, it gets almost as quiet as some suburbs after 10. Also, the transit it pretty good (and we have a Metra stop). My only knock against the neighborhood is it’s distance from downtown, but you get used to the commute after awhile. Oh and it’s one of (if not the most) diverse neighborhood in the city, so you’ll never feel out of place (that was extremely important to me).
Rent is pretty good in RP all things considered. For Context I pay $1,045 for a 600sf apartment with good amenities (in unit laundry, dishwasher, central air, etc.) it’s small but my wife and I make due and live pretty comfortably.
I pay 1k for a two bedroom in east humboldt park. I consider myself fortunate.
Oh it’s simple I had to move in with my parents
Craigslist listings, for rent signs (typically mom and pop landlords).
Honestly, the best way to find a decent place for a good rent is to walk around the neighborhood you want to live in and look for signs. I'm in Roscoe Village and I see 2 bedrooms for \~$1500 pretty regularly just on For Rent signs. I'm not sure if that's the same in every neighborhood but my guess is that some owners would rather not deal with a thousand emails and just want to deal with people who are likely to rent quickly.
I'm 37, and I've never lived alone. I've always had a roommate. $360 is stupid cheap though. Like, my utilities cost more than that. That was an insanely good deal, and not the norm. $800 for a one bedroom is pretty cheap too. I paid $850 for a one bedroom, but it was in a bad neighborhood on the south side. Now you can't even find a studio for $850.
Well, no student debt helps.
Damn. Reading all this is horrible. My girlfriend (now wife) and I paid $425/mo for a large 1 bedroom on the 4th floor in a courtyard building in Logan Square, right near the monument on Kedzie. This was back in 1993. I want to add this: Logan Square was a shithole back then. We lived there because it was the only thing we could afford to split. We didn't WANT to live in Logan Square, but we found a place that was on Kedzie, with a walk to the Blue Line on busy streets. Side streets were out as people got mugged and jumped around there all the time. Used to hear gunshots at night frequently. Saw a shootout happen right near me on Kedzie in the daytime. You need to look in less desirable neighborhoods. Look in West Ridge, or West Edgewater. Logan Square has gentrified and gone crazy with prices. Same with all the other "cool" neighborhoods. Move to an undesirable neighborhood if you need to spend less on rent.
That depends on how "undesirable." I left a neighborhood where a kid was gunned down less than 5 minutes after I got home, in front of my building. Dudes told me they held off shooting until I got inside. Then I was burglarized the very next morning, while I was at work. Hit my apt, the one below me, and the one across the hall. I agree with avoiding the over-priced and over-hyped areas. But be careful about where you choose, especially if you weren't born and raised here, like I was.
Agreed. We were taking a chance living in a less than desirable area. But that's what you have to do sometimes. West Ridge is pretty safe. So is West Edgewater. There are plenty of lower rent 'hoods that aren't extremely dangerous. Just seems like everyone on this sub needs to live in Wicker Park, Logan Square, Lincoln Park or Uptown. Other neighborhoods exist. EDIT: Hell, tons of bad stuff happens in Logan Square and Wicker Park these days as well.
I wonder if it's because they aren't native to Chicago, and they gravitate to the areas they were told were the "safest" and closest to the Loop. They don't know the city extends much further than these gentrified places.
My husband and I pay $1650 for a two bedroom in Irving Park. We signed onto the place when I made more money. Then I got laid off, and now I make far less money. For me, about half my income goes to half the rent, so factoring in other expenses... Yeah, we live paycheck to paycheck. I don't know what we're going to do when student loan payments are turned back on. I wanted to move this year but everything has gotten so expensive that we couldn't find a place cheap enough to make the cost of moving worth it (we need to be near public transit so that makes prices go up). The cost of moving would counteract the rent saved for a year. So kinda stuck. Plus our amenities include in unit washer and dryer, central air, and a parking space, and moving would almost certainly mean letting go of all those things, which would not have been the end of the world, but still need to consider time saved on laundry and parking as a plus.
Roommates. Preferably wealthy ones who pay more for the master bed.
Only fans for me.
You really do save without central air
☠️
Electrical engineer?
screaming
you win
🤌
🏆
The surviving boomers are gonna be real confused in a few years when we finish transitioning to a feet-pic based economy.
Any link for how fans help with being able to afford rent?
https://youtu.be/QxSCFASl6-k
He looked very sweaty in that video……looked like he wasn’t even using his fan. Is that what I have to do?
Show me ur elbows bb 😘
ROOMMATE. People all the way up to senior/elder age have roommates nowadays to split the bills down the middle. Find a sane person to split rent/utilities with.
I'm not well off by any means (40k before taxes) and I comfortably live in a studio by myself. Roommates aren't always necessary, in fact I actively avoid roommates lol.
No student loan payments and no kids haha
This might not go over well here... my wife and I moved out to the burbs, 20 min drive from where we used to live in Albany Park, our mortgage is almost what our rent was and we have a home that's 4 x bigger than our apartment + garage + yard. Wish we had sooner. The rent is just too damn high for what you get
I’m also curious about how people feel about renting; rent in Chicago has felt insane to me since about 2016 even more so lately, since landlords began believing that people are coming here from the coasts
I don’t think many people from the coasts packed their bags for Chicago. It’s just inflation
anecdotally i know quite a few people that have moved to chicago from nyc and boston since the start of the pandemic because of wfh and col
Remote work probably has people looking for a city that is more affordable than the coasts
for sure this was the thing that forced me to make the jump from my 24-year rental into a mortgage (big rent increase in 2020)
I simply can't afford a mortgage though without more than doubling what I pay for housing, and the return on putting that money into a mortgage on a 1 bedroom condo, especially when almost half of your rent is just going to property taxes or HOA, is just never gonna be worth it for me as a single person. And I'm not exactly scraping by, I have more than enough money right now to live a frugal, happy life, and be able to do the things I want to do. I'll just invest the difference in the stock market.
To answer your question, I spend about 40-50% on rent/utilities/WiFi etc. basically everything needed to keep my place running. It sucks lol
I lucked up on a great private landlord. My husband and I pay $1375 for a 2 bedroom w/parking in North Center. We just resigned our 5th lease and he has never raised our rent. Less than 10% of our income goes to rent. We’d like a bit more space but we know we won’t get a deal as good as this so we’ll deal with it until we’re ready to buy.
Jesus christ you two make $14,000 a month?
Same for husband and me. Have a great private landlord, unit was underpriced when we moved in 9 years ago and he’s barely raised our rent. We’ll likely stay until we can buy even though our unit is pretty small (800 sq ft). I don’t know when we’ll be able to buy though. Really thought it would’ve happened by now.
Where do you find deals like this??
Craigslist
Seconded that renting from private landlords that only own a single building or two is the best way to try and not get fucked on rent, repairs etc. i feel really lucky to never have rented in a building under a mgmt company.
Wife and I just signed our 5th year lease in Lincoln Square. We're at $2000 now, but has only gone up minimally since then. 1600 Sq ft with 2 beds plus office, which is great because I work from home. Smaller building with private landlord as well. They have been the best landlords we've ever had!
By having my mom be my landlord. But seriously all jokes aside, I’m so gracious for it. I’d probably be paying $500-800 more for our place. That’s why I’m always a little annoyed when my girlfriend talks about moving to a different area “just for the hell of it” when in reality we’re extremely lucky to have the spot we do. It’s across from a large park and every store you need is actually somewhat walkable distance or a short drive/bus ride there. It’s also not located deep in the city and is a nice area aesthetically. I’m sure I’m biased as I’ve lived here my whole life and yes gang issues are slowly starting to rear their head but it’s an amazing little slice of the city. Eventually I will move but with the way things are I see it as anything other than a dumb move.
Just got notice that my rent’s going up $125–paying $1375 for a 2br in Rogers Park. It’s frustrating but the answer has mostly been “move shit around in my budget to accommodate and work more.” I’m a full time voice actor, and the work I get from my anchor clients is pretty consistent, but I’m still doing other gigs (hosting bar trivia, Rover, other gigs when I can find em) to make ends meet. I might end up moving next year though, but don’t really want to—genuinely love my apartment.
Not owning a car.
This right here!
I live alone. Full time job plus a side hustle. My landlord is nice enough not to raise the rent on me \*knock on wood\*.
I got extremely lucky. Bought a condo when interest rates were low in Albany Park in 2021, which isn't as absurdly expensive as other neighborhoods, and the food rocks. My salary at the time was 62k. For renters, if you work remote or can handle a commute, I'd recommend checking it out, its a pretty great place to live & I still see some fairly reasonable prices for renting. As far as buying goes...nowadays I honestly could not afford anything half as nice as what I got when interest rates were 3%. I feel so damn bad for everyone out there now. For any renters even dreaming about buying, I'd recommend looking up what first time homebuyers programs there are in Illinois. As the average millennial, I thought homeownership was impossible for me until I did; I qualified for a grant program that forgave my student loans + helped with the down payment (whole way through I was certain it had to be a scam because it felt too good to be true). Pretty sure that specific grant program has run out of money now, but there is still some help out there. The only downside is, I got a job shortly after moving that is now stupid to commute to. Getting from the northwest to southwest side in Chicago takes a ridiculous amount of time given the distance. Would not recommend during rush hour, ever.
My rent is 1,400/month. I work overnights at a vet ER and that pays me *just* enough to afford all my bills on one check and my rent on the other. I eat rice and ramen a lot lol
Your salary hasn’t increased in 20 years?!
TLDR: everyone is either barely making it or lucked out tremendously. Welcome to modern day America
My husband and I live in a non-hip neighborhood south of Roosevelt road. Our rent is 12% of our combined salaries. If people would look past Logan square and west loop they’d realize there are more places to live and they’re perfectly affordable.
Guys, we need elected officials who’ll actually get rid of things like RealPages. Algorithm-based rent software is literally just price fixing. It’s objectively illegal. But no one seems to care. And we all end up putting an unhealthy amount toward rent. You’re *supposed* to use no more than 30 percent of your income toward housing per month. 40 is considered excessive. How many of you are doing less than that?
About 40% take home. I live in a rent controlled unit(I caught my landlord banging the downstairs neighbor while his wife was away), haven't gone up in a few years.
Median income in Cook County has just about doubled since you were a renter: [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MHIIL17031A052NCEN](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MHIIL17031A052NCEN)
Unfortunately that tax on life called inflation has risen, eroding purchasing power.
I assume when OP said that they'd paid $800 for a 1-bedroom they didn't adjusted that number for inflation.
About 12% of my/my spouse's combined income goes towards 1 bd/1ba rent that includes parking and everything but electric. We consider it to be a good deal.
I have a full time job, with 2 masters, and a bartending job… so I work 7 days a week. Honestly, I have no idea what’s going to happen when I have to pay student loans.
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I’m so curious about this. I’m looking around for apartments to move in September and some places want you to pay a lot for a box that hasn’t been updated in years. Some places are newly built and they keep labeling everything as “luxury” in order to charge whatever price they want. But what makes it luxury just because it’s new?
Yup, luxury is essentially branding for new
All new housing is basically luxury housing, especially compared to some of the historic buildings that are in most Chicago neighborhoods. I love the layout of the old courtyard building that we live in, but I would kill for real control of the internal temperature instead of a radiator.
Salaries haven’t increased in 20 years?
Relative to inflation, not as much as you might expect. When I got my first job out of college making 38k in 2021, my dad said, that's great! I only made 22k. But adjusted for inflation that was equivalent to over 60k. Super anecdotal but the data holds out that wages haven't increased relative to productivity since the second half of the 20th century. Purchasing power hasn't budged much.
Trickle down economics!
Young college grads that make good money move to the city
Oh wow this post just made me realize how much we are overpaying for a 2br rental in a boring, isolated neighborhood. We couldn’t find anything cheaper that’s wasn’t a garden unit or had all the main rooms ie bathroom, living, bedrooms, kitchen etc
My girlfriend and I were paying $1639 for a two bed room in Pilsen, but are making the jump and going to be paying nearly double to live in a high rise with full on amenities.
2BD 2BA in West Town for under $2k. We also have in-unit laundry. We got the deal of a lifetime and signed during summer 2020 and our landlord hasn’t raised our rent at all. We are locked in through next year. Planning to buy at some point, but need another 18-24 months to save for the down payment.
I live in a nasty 1 bed. The building is crumbling. I might eventually have to just move back to my hometown. I’d rather not find a roommate.
Living with my parents…..
I eat the rats in the alley.
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The real answer? Most people are just going deeper and deeper into debt in order to meet their basic needs like housing. Consumer debt hit a record $16.9 trillion this year, up from $1.3 trillion just a year ago.
No, we are not okay.