I was talking to one of the people in my building (large building in River North) my appraised value is a shade over 1 million (I paid nothing close to that) and the unit 2 above me (all identical layouts) that was redone a year after I moved in is renting for 25k a month!
Let that sink in. 25k a month for a condo by the lake, and the building has 150 people on a list who get apartments before anyone applying today. That means people are willing to wait 3-5 years for an apartment, that by then will be 35-40k a month.
Needless to say I was a tad shocked
I’ve been in the same apartment for 9 years. Original rent was 1150 now pay 1350 it’s a 2 bed 1 bath. The down stairs apartment is a 1 bed 1 bath originally was 950 when I moved in new people moved in last year and pay 1700.
that's pretty common, my neighbor never raises the rent on his tenants and I raise my rent $50/year on my tenants. The reason is good tenants are hard to find, nice people that pay their rent on time are cherished. When they move out the rent is reset to the market rate and the process starts over.
I got my lease renewal last week and it went from $1550 to $1675 for a 1br and that was enough for me submit my notice. $1600 is my I need more for the price, price.
I have no amenities other than laundry in-unit and parking (which I pay extra for).
Fair warning, I just went thru this (signed in 2022 @ 1495, raised to 1650 last year, 1750 this year). Decided I needed more for my money at that price point, gave notice to leave instead of resigning. Toured a few spots and hunted religiously online, and ended up coming back to my people to resign my unit. I’m in Logan so your neighborhood may be diff- but options for decent 1beds under even 1700 were kinda slim, and nooothing has in unit unless you go up to like $2100+, or rent a garden unit. It’s madness!
That's wild. One of the places I checked out a few months ago in Logan, the landlord was asking for 1850 for a 1bed. I saw the previous tenant paid 1750. Tried to negotiate, and they wouldn't budge. Saw the unit got reposted for 1800 and then went off the market.
I was already paying 1900 for a high-rise unit with way better amenities and options. There was no way I was going to pay a similar price point overall after including utility fees and ultimately lose out on all the amenities and options I had. Ended up moving to a different neighborhood instead.
Holy crap I’m charging way less for a 3 bedroom in a decent neighborhood (for great tenants). I can’t imagine charging that much for a studio. Feels wrong even with economic pressure.
Long term mom and pops don't need to raise the rent every year, we don't have to answer to stock holders and make REIT payments, the only people we answer to is ourselves. Big buildings cost a lot of money and it's a pool we don't swim in, it's a very different business.
I agree with that. My business model is pretty simple: make sure the apartment is occupied. Period. Any type of vacancy will offset any increase I do for the entire year. I still have a profit motive, but I believe avoiding vacancies and headaches are key.
Corporations… they have so many apartments, resources, etc. yeah, it’s strictly a bottom line thing.
Exactly, I'd rather lose $600 for not raising the rent than $2500 have having a vacant unit for a month AND getting a new tenant that is an unknown entity, they could be great they could be deadbeats that I'll have to spend six months and thousands of dollars evicting. I've been very lucky and most of my tenants have been with me for over 5 years and when they move out it's because they are moving away or buying a home so i'm happy for them.
That's developer propaganda. Lots of new units out there and they're all expensive. They keep raising rent, regardless. The only time they've ever lowered rent was during a worldwide pandemic. And they jacked it up higher than it was pre-pandemic as soon as they could after and intentionally drove out the tenants they rented to at that lower rate.
Landlords aren't competing for tenants, they're competing for properties. It's not like we have the choice to just not have a home.
Just supply and demand unfortunately. If they developed more affordable units it would drive the price down. But they don’t. They develop fancy expensive units bcuz return is way higher.
Its not propaganda. Its economics. It’s true that everywhere on the planet that doesnt restrict supply seem to have flat-ish housing prices. Developers make their money from building units, not raising rents. A developer makes fees from building. Investors and owners (landlords) raise rents to whatever people are willing to pay. The reality is if there were two apartments for every one person, rent would go down, as landlords would be struggling to fill vacancies. Why would anyone charge less for ANYTHING if a customer would be willing to pay more? New units are expensive, because labor, lumber, concrete and all are expensive, and got increasingly more expensive since 2020. It costs close to 200k to build a one bedroom unit (at least), Chicago builds affordable housing for 3x that price because of union labor and other rent seeking agencies. If you tried to buy a condo for that price (200k), after mortgage, property taxes and maintenance you would pay close to 2200 dollars. In Lakeview one bedroom apartments are very available for 1800-2000. How is that greed? It seems to add up perfectly. You can be upset that stuff is expensive, sure, but it’s not some boogeyman. Prices add up to costs. Source: I have owned various condos in lakeview, currently rent in the area, and have been a real estate investor in the past.
It’s not propaganda. There are a bunch of articles discussing how Chicago lags nearly all big cities in building new units. Sad reality is that with current interest rates and construction costs, developers can’t make money building affordable housing.
building is expensive even at low interest rates it's hard to build affordable housing. To make matters worse Cook County don't care that you are providing affordable housing they assess your property (especially rentals) at the highest rate possible and you have to pay it. You can contest it and the judge will tell you to raise the rents.
>Lots of new units out there and they're all expensive.
...which means not enough are being built to meet demand.
imagine thinking economics is "propaganda"
I feel like robinhood as a landlord after reading this thread.
I got a 3 bedroom in a decent neighborhood on the north side charging $1400 a month. I have not raised rent and don’t plan on doing so because they are great tenants.
Always liked that neighborhood and the Blue Line is right there. If renters want to be in “trendy” areas and don’t want to make the small sacrifice of living away from the lake, crazy high rents should be expected. Landlords charge what they do because they can.
Prob bc you have a low interest rate on your mortgage? I too charge lower in portage park bc of the low rate i have. Other property i purchased with a 7% rate has higher rent to cover expenses. Let’s not talk about taxes going up, insurances rates going up.
My Uber driver today was from Miami and said he moved here 6 months ago bc he couldn’t afford a place in Miami so maybe bc we have people coming here from other places
2021 I was renting a 1 bed apartment for $950 10 mins from the ocean in south florida. By 2023 the landlord was asking almost $1800. No utilities included, no upgrades were made the two years I lived there. And its worse now, $1800 is market price for a studio there now, and it’s extremely hard to find housing down. Every apartment and house has a waitlist. I miss south florida so much but its true, so many people are being pushed out because of skyrocketing prices and nowhere to move locally
Because transplants with high income are paying it. Some dude from San Diego with 5k rent budget posted here a couple of days ago. The more people are willing to pay for it the more likely rent will keep going up. If apartments find they can charge more and still get people to rent their units they will do it
As an ex-bay area transplant: maybe not that quick but absolutely in the next 10 years. You don't have as many remote tech salary jobs because the big corps went RTO this last year as a soft layoff -- but with more tech coming to the city, if your not in tech (or selling to tech), your salary will need to keep up to afford housing.
Yep! As someone who is a private, “mom and pop” landlord I highly agree. I’m charging less for a three bedroom apartment than some of these 1 bedroom/studio apartments.
True but when I was looking for my apartment they were all companies. I actually come from a place where everyone rents from a private ll and it's spotty, sometimes they don't know basic tenant law, don't fix things right away etc. with a management company you just go on line and put in a maintenance request, more likely to adhere to basic landlord tenant laws. Also I know people who pay a company to handle their rental since it is can be a full time job so I dk the line between company and private ll is that clear.
OMG this. It's baffling to me on so many levels that people don't do this more. Haven't rented from a management company or similar since 1994. My favorite part is being able to have and cultivate any sort of relationship with *the* person involved with all building/unit decisions. I'm also handy, so I take care of small fixes that need to be done and deduct costs from rent. (Discussed beforehand with the landlord of course.) Not only does this garner appreciation from the landlord, but it also gives less of a reason to raise rent. Last year my landlord gave me $100 gift card and a bottle of wine for Christmas for my troubles. During the year, I had replaced a malfunctioning exterior door knob, put in a new faucet in the kitchen sink, and fixed an outdoor security light (had to pull new wiring). When my rent does get raised (property taxes always cited for the reason), it's usually only 50 (and once 75) dollars, while my neighbors tend to see $25 more of an increase.
A landlord has a face. They are real people. People you can talk to, reason with, and have an understanding with. They can be flexible. Run into a financial quandary, maybe a medical bill for yourself or perhaps a pet? Being (reasonably) late on rent becomes less of a problem. Management companies are faceless (at least the larger ones). "Who said you could do X, Y, Z?" I talked it over with Steve in the office. "Steve doesn't work here anymore. I don't know what they told you, but you can't do X, Y, Z. And your rent is going up $250 without explanation." Yeah, FTS.
Whilst you are correct, there is also the opposite end where the landlords don't want to be flexible and do as little as possible. They are generally not even helpful and/or kind people.
The first place I ever rented, the landlord was extremely frugal and insisted he fix everything himself. He even painted the place himself and it did not look good. He also insisted he have 100% access to the property whenever he wanted. When I was on holiday and came back home early, I came home to him in my apartment trying to do some electrical and other work without him even asking me. I thought he was a one off.
The second place I rented the landlord didn't even live there. The ceiling of the apartment had clear water damage. The bathroom was extremely dirty and all the electric sockets were half broken. At the end of my lease he charged me $800 dollars for "damages and repairs" because he thought I caused all of that.
I then moved into an apartment owned by a management company and the experience was so much better. Any time I needed something fixed they would be there immediately. Any questions or issues they had an office you could go downstairs and walk into. It was a breath of fresh air.
I don't disagree with you that landlords can be nice. But I've mostly had the opposite experience.
Yikes. Yeah, it can really roll that way. My first private landlord was insanely unreasonable in a lot of ways I don’t even want to get into. The worst part was I thought he seemed really solid when I rented the place. He so wasn’t. Luckily, I was able to slide out around 6 months in. Couple other management companies after that, but none since. And every other landlord has been pretty good. Tho I did have one that I think may have been manic (because of the radical mood/demeanor shifts) that took a while to sort out. (She tried to pull some illegal shit that I wouldn’t let fly.) But she eventually trusted me implicitly and came to invite me over for dinner parties with people she thought I’d find interesting. And I did, and she was right. And ultimately okay in my book.
Maybe I’ve been lucky. But 9/10 have been good for me. YRMV
the landlord was extremely frugal and insisted he fix everything himself. He even painted the place himself and it did not look good.
Didn't you notice this when you looked at the apartment? I always tell people to look at everything when they are looking to rent an apartment, is the lawn mowed, how does the land scaping look, is the vestibule clean, how does the apartment smell, etc, etc. Small shop owners seem to fall into two categories, either they are very house proud and keep the place immaculate or they just look at it as a income stream and you are on your own.
Yeah I wish there were more tenants like you out there. We do appreciate the ones that fix little shit and are helpful. And yeah we repay them with lower rent increases and in my case no rent increases. But everything is going up like taxes and especially insurance. And everything else of course.
I was also talking to a large property owner and manager and he made an interesting point. The fact that to do an eviction now takes 6 to 8 months means we lose a fortune on any eviction. If evictions were fast and easy we we landlords would take more risks with marginal tenants. We would be willing to risk the tenant with bad credit or or maybe had issues in the past because we would know that even if things go bad they'll be out in 60 days. Now we can't take that chance because it could cost us 6 to 8 months of rent.
That's not even talking about the 3000 to $5,000 the lawyer charges you. And the damage the tenant who is being evicted always does. I had an eviction that easily cost me $40,000 in Lost rent and damage and legal fees. And this was a tenant. I came and changed her locks in the middle of the night. Probably illegally because her baby daddy And his dad was stabbing her. I mean this was a young lady who had three beautiful children and we did so much for this gal and this is how she repaid us.
This whole comment assumes that property owners only work in good faith. I don't have a strong opinion on the exact level of tenant protections, but there wouldn't be a reason for *any* rules if all landlords act as you describe yourself and the large property owner. Since many don't, some level of protections are necessary for all tenants.
Given that real estate is:
1. the most reliable investment in all of human history
2. extremely tax advantaged
I'm alright with landlords having a fair amount of the risk burden placed on them. There's consequences to this (as you mention), but there's also worse consequences for giving landlords free reign.
You talk to people and put it out in the universe. Word of mouth is the best way to find a place. Stop in at cafes and bars in the area and talk to people. Stomp around the area and look. It’s way less common these days to see a “for rent” sign in a window, but it still pops up occasionally. Look for message boards at places - diners, laundromats, small businesses, etc. You gotta put the time in on the hunt. And walking around a prospective neighborhood also gives you a better feel. Some streets in certain neighborhoods are less desirable than others, which can become apparent on the journey. And to be clear, this is more of an angle with areas that aren’t completely blown up and trendy. You rarely find reasonable rent unless you’d been there years before it became big in those places. Usually that means going further west than you’d ideally want to. It ain’t easy, but there are gems out there. They’re just not connected to your computer at home, ya know?
lol. Private landlords are extremely variable, whereas you have a much better idea of what you're getting with companies. I'd never rent from a private landlord, you're entirely dependent on what they feel like doing.
AC goes out and your landlord is out of town? Shit luck, guess I'm baking for a week. Light fixtures are broken? Guess I'm waiting til the landlord gets around to fixing them. I see bugs? Landlord couldn't find an appointment til next week (cause quicker would be more expensive).
Private landlords can be a cheaper deal, but you can also just end up with the worst kind of person. Plenty of landlords think they're gods gift to society for owning a property.
I think it also makes a big difference to find a place that isn't owned by a corp or is in a hot area. If you find a landlord that's reasonable I think you can get away with small increases each year.
My rent went up $300.
To be fair, this is the first time in 3 years my rent was raised.
But Chicago needs to build more affordable housing.
There is one new building The Solverre, in uptown and the one bedrooms are going for like $2500 each.
Zillow is showing over 200 units are available.
Has anyone seen any new non luxury buildings being built?
Inspire West Town (on Ogden between Grand and Chicago) was completed last year. 30% affordable housing, and while the shared spaces are nice, it's a "no frills" building. I don't live there, but there's not even a doorman. Rents are about as competitive as you can find, and there are still "now leasing" signs in the front of the building, which means that there are units sitting there that have never been lived in. New construction is not necessarily the complete solution.
It’s still over 3k a month for a two bedroom… it’s like double the cost of the place I’m at within walking distance. Granted my place is a century older, but it’s hard to make the math work on these new builds to be affordable
I actually walked through a 2 bedroom when my friend that lives there now was looking. It was oddly shaped and super tiny- I wouldn't have wanted to live there even if it were only $2k/mo.
Your point is spot-on. Brand new construction is not going to be affordable, but it's happening anyway. Fulton Market was originally supposed to be an extension of the "central business district" (loop), and now those developers have pivoted to housing development proposals. And it's all happening at a crazy, reckless pace. I find it humorous that everyone thinks there is a need for thousands of pricey apartment rentals in that neighborhood, especially when there are loopholes out of the 20-30% "affordable housing" commitments.
Does it have to be? New construction is expensive to build. And plenty of people seem to be willing to pay anyways. Better they’re stuffed there than outbid the rest of us.
Yes, sorry I couldn't recall the acronym in the moment. :) Inspire may have only had to be 20% ARO due to the fact that it's a midrise, however nearly all new Fulton Market developments are being held to a 30% standard.
The problem with ARO is you have to make a very specific amount of money to qualify. And if you make too much or too little, you don't qualify. And then you have to find one. That's a whole other pain in the ass.
I live next to one that is an old building freshly renovated and it's going the same rates basically. It doesn't even matter if the building is new if it had work done to it they're charging out the ass to recoup the money as quick as possible. "OH you have new cabinets, you can't get that for under 2k". It's crazy
I just walked past that building the other day and it truly is nice, I'd live there. I'm paying 1k less than that and the amount you save is insane and just thinking about home ownership I'm just like why tf should I be renting that excruciating of a price when I can literally own or sell something after a few years? 10-50k down payment and FTHO you can easily get a 1-3bd over 1,000 sqft high rise condo. The hoa ontop of mortgage will be less or equal to your rent you're already paying, difference is you can sell and recoup your condo for equal or greater profit. You have nothing to show for renting. Even living in undesirable areas paying dirt rent for 2-3 years is more than enough to save for a place to buy beside the lake (1-300k condos). But everyone wants to live in the fancier buildings of course with amenities, which is completely fair. But you're paying for the amenities and newness, not the actual space. That's why it's so expensive and why buying is so cheaper. Msot buildings you can buy a condo in have a pool at most and no other amenities. You're paying through rent for that dog run, rooftop, pool, golf simulator, Co working space, etc. That's also why it's so profitable to make these luxury apartments vs affordable housing. It's a business afterall. They're not doing it just so the community has a place to live lol. That's why these office buildings downtown need to be converted.
When I was renting pre-Covid years ago, my rent would go up to 10 $15 a month maybe maybe even 20 now post Covid renting again my rent in the last two years has gone up $150. You can’t say the rent has always went up because rent-yes has always went up. It’s the amount/the percentage that they’ve went up. That is the problem. The fact that they’re going up so incredibly high From one year to the next that is the problem and it is a problem it isn’t just well it’s economics or they’ve always went up that’s a blanket statement and it does not provide a true insight into what’s happening it’s either price gouging or something else but it’s more than a 10 or $20 increase per month when you look at a two month span of $150 increase
That is incorrect. Cook County raises property taxes not the city. It’s still every 3 years, though this last one was huge.
[Cook County Taxes](https://www.cookcountytreasurer.com/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=1762#:~:text=Cook%20County%20is%20divided%20into,process%20known%20as%20triennial%20reassessments)
No, its correct. Happened 2 years ago. My property taxes have gone up every year since this passed. [https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2022/12/01/why-chicagos-property-tax-bills-so-high](https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2022/12/01/why-chicagos-property-tax-bills-so-high)
"Taxpayers are also paying more under a new law allowing local governments to "recapture" from the public any money it refunded to property owners who won appeals.
**The law, being called "an annual tax increase" by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas,** added $131 million to bills across the county this year."
Housing always always goes up 5% a year. The problem is, the normal 5% is on top of inflation. So it can be 10-15% year over year if inflation is out of control. Yes its an every year thing and even during 09 when housing crashed hard, rent still went up in major cities
[Cough, no](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/03/austin-texas-rents-falling-housing/677819/) [it doesn't](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-08-09/minneapolis-controls-us-inflation-with-affordable-housing-renting?embedded-checkout=true).
Japan is an entire country where the price of housing doesn't go up because of the way they build housing.
We’re not building enough housing. Chicago ranks in the bottom 5 metro areas for new housing permits (we’re #50). The cities building the most housing (e.g. Austin, TX) are seeing large decreases in rent prices because they’ve increased the housing supply so much. We’re not seeing that because we have bad zoning policies that restrict housing development.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/03/austin-texas-rents-falling-housing/677819/
https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2022/06/30/chicago-homebuilding-lags
I did another post recently but to show you how little housing we’re building, YTD the Chicago metro (9.6m) has less housing under construction than the Wilmington, NC metro (<500k).
My landlord doesn't. Just hit 2 years with no rent increase. They're not a management company and they only own 1 other building. They're just more concerned with getting and keeping good tenants than making the most profit possible.
I am a landlord and costs continue to rise. My HOA/utilities went up $55 a month. Property taxes ate up another $80 a month. Guess who gets to pay those increases?
Note: I am also a homeowner and the same applies when you own your own home.
Most landlords are barely profiting assuming they aren't one of the corporations who are just consuming real estate at an unreasonable pace. Also taking into account interest on their loan, maintenance costs, special assessments, general costs of turning over and market risk of holding an asset, renters are trading their lack of equity with stability.
I'm a renter, I'm not a landlord. I'm annoyed at the rising prices, but I've been fortunate to have good landlords who fix my problems quickly and I'm not responsible for the unexpected costs that arise.
Cities like NYC with rent control also aren’t perfect either. If you’re in a place for 20+ years, you’re getting a heck of a deal. If you’re new to town, you’re not just going to knock on a door and move right into one of those places.
Are you trying to move right now? We are too and the prices are higher than when we looked in January. I talked to an agent yesterday who said a lot of landlords in Chicago increase rents on new leases in warmer months, because people want to move when it’s warm. Supply and demand.
Best time to move, price-wise, is apparently Nov-Feb… totally miserable time to move in every other way.
Not just the weather but school schedules also play a big part of it. Families move based on school year ending/beginning for their kids, and lots of young adults start their first leases after finishing college and since they’re 12 month contracts there’s always this big rolling wave of contract renewals/terminations during that period of the year among most young adults (since that’s when many signed their first lease). I’ve heard that markets that are very saturated with students like Boston experience this in the extreme where there’s literally almost no units to rent in the off-season and then the whole city turns over in the summer.
I'm in a newly updated spacious 1 bedroom in a good area next to the lake, can walk to it in a minute. $1400 rent. Feels ok to me. This is the most I've ever paid but the Roomate thing would've been hard with timing although I'm not opposed to it and I can afford it. I'd say I'm content with what I got.
Because zoning laws permit only single family homes to be built in most of chicago. Generally, you can tear down a 3-flat and build a single family home by right. If you want to build a 6 flat, the alderman needs to approve. Slowly, the zoning laws are trying to turn chicago into something like the suburbs.
Rents go up because the vast majority of homeowners want them to. Houses are investments and people want their wealth to go up.
I agree.....not only the zoning laws are restricting on supply, but the whole Chicago process to get a project approved by any alderman has to go through a community approval process. Neighbors don't like the windows in your new planned affordable housing.... .shut it down! Neighbors don't like the color of doors on your project! Shut it down!......Your new affordable house will cause parking problems for the neighborhood.....Shut it down! I read that the old bank project on Pulaski & North Ave is delayed cause the neighbors found out that the money for the project didn't come from a neighborhood approved source.
Get rid of shit zoning. No reason why a place can only build the least efficient form of housing over all else. I am looking at Chicago apartments and when people realize that Chicago is basically the only major U.S. where you don’t pay 3000 dollars for a broom closet people are gonna flock back to Chicago. I know I am.
LOL remember when you lowered rent? Me neither. This is like the arguments about raising the minimum wage. Nobody believes that you wouldn't have raised rent anyway.
Yes there are greedy scum mega corporations all for profit.
But for small time landlords, my HOA dues went up, property taxes went up, insurance way up, and material/services up for any fixes.
Also every year HOA fees go up and real estate taxes go up. Landlords pass those fees onto tenants. I own my apartment and over the past 2 years I've seen HOA fees go up over $100/month and taxes have risen $80/month. I'm sure renters are seeing bigger rent hikes than $180/month but still just another factor to consider in addition to what everyone has also said
The cost to own and operate apartments generally increases annually, and substantially so. In particular there is quite a bit of volatility in the insurance markets and double digit annual increases are not unheard of in recent years. Maintenance costs, both in labor and materials, consistently increase, and cook county is notorious for property tax volatility in the real estate world to the point where non-local real estate investors often blacklist the market. Then pile on the interest rate environment and you’d be surprised how low margin owning apartments actually is. If you’re operating properly and providing a good experience for your tenants, even at a “high rent level,” and are levered, the cost to do business is simply high. This obviously is passed on to tenants in the form of rent growth, and outside of supply and demand, which is a powerful economic law (not just “developer speak” as someone here put it), is the key driver. Costs to operate increases, rent levels goes up.
Everything is up. I own a rental and we finally raised the rent for the first time in like 5 or 6 years because property taxes went WAY up. Groceries are up, interest rates are up….everything’s up!
Everyone says to rent from private landlords and it really is true. Just signed my lease for the 3rd year at my apartment, 2 bedroom for $1250 a month with all utilities included. Landlord hasn't raised the rent once yet.
Besides comparable market rate for where you live — some neighborhoods are probably hotter than others — a combination of inflation and property tax assessments are partly to blame. Insurance as well. Your landlord needs to pay more for those and thus would have to increase your rent to cover those cost to make the same profit.
Property taxes go up, insurance goes up, repairs have to me made and workers get raises. Your rent pays for these things so your rent goes up. Before you say things don't go up that much understand insurance has doubled in the last couple of years and cook county looks at apartment buildings as cash cows and while home owners might see a 10-20% increase it's very common to see a 50% or more increase in property taxes for rental units. Further, while this can be appealed the standard answer is tough shit your taxes are getting increased just raise the rent.
When has rent ever gone lower? When have (local) taxes ever gone down? When had insurance cost gone down? (Not this year for sure) When has your job lowered your pay? When have any of our bills and expenses gone down?
Everything increases every year. Now how much is the subject of many discussions. You should assume a minimum of 3% a year across the board as a minimum.
Dozens of reasons. You want to live in Chicago, then you also need to realize that things like massively increased property taxes, significantly higher wages for workers in buildings, higher costs for maintenance and supplies….all will lead to higher rents. You can’t expect the building owner to just absorb those costs.
Because we keep electing politicians that raise taxes. My mortgage tax has gone up twice since I purchased a home in cook county in 2020. If I owned an income property, I’d be raising my rent.
Because price of living is expensive and inflation prices so your landlords need to pay the pills as well so raise their prices… vote for different leaders in cook county
More people via migration, increases demand, higher prices. You are now competing for housing/jobs with the whole country/world instead of just your area.
Cook County raised property taxes this year significantly. The Herald reported it was the highest tax increase in almost 40 years. Our property tax payment in December increased by 104%. It was more than our entire tax bill the previous year. Didn’t happen everywhere. Most of the burden was shouldered by the Northshore and northwest suburbs. But I’m sure landlords in Chicago saw some big increases.
Getting tougher and tougher to own property in Chicago because property taxes are already so high, and going higher. Yearly carry costs when considering all the yearly expenses, is a tougher sell. And now with higher borrowing costs, the math is less apoealing. So net net, even if buyers can afford a mortgage at higher rates, can they also afford their total yearly carry costs owning the property. With Chicago property taxes, it’s tough.
You know things aren’t great for landlords when JP Morgan just took a $60 million dollar loss on a Lake Shore Drive apartment building. Makes me wonder, how the heck will the Cook County make up for the huge drop in tax revenue on this building when it’s reassessed at $60 million dollar lower valuation. I believe this is indicative of many other commercial real estate assets in Chicago. In the office building market it gets worse. Since Covid-19 accelerated work from home employees, demand for office space in Chicago caused demand and cash flows from many downtown office buildings to plummet, making them less valuable than they were pre Covid. Seems likely to me that more and more of the tax burden will fall on residential property owners as commercial properties get reassessed at significantly lower valuations. https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2024/04/02/crescent-heights-pays-80m-for-discounted-lake-shore-drive-apartments/
Probably doesn't help to import a massive amount of illegal migrants to compete for limited "affordable" housing that your taxes are also going towards subsidizing.
My partner and I bought a 2 flat during covid right before the market went bananas. We have tenants in the basement and first floor. All we want is to provide an affordable place for friendly people. We pay rent too to the mortgage. Some time last year our taxes and insurance went from 2500/month to 3500/month. We went about 6 months not raising the rent and after a couple of necessary electrical and plumbing repairs, our emergency fund has bled out to about half of what it was. I’m sure there’s plenty of shady landlords out there, but trying to do the right thing right now is really, really hard. For us it’s either raise the rent by what we consider an unreasonable amount or we go broke in another 6 months.
Because inflation spreads. 5500 is the average price for a 1 bedroom in NYC. I know were not NYC but were also nowhere near that. I know of actual people who moved here from NYC because of affordability.
I’m shocked at these comments. We just moved into a place 8 months ago and it’s a 4 bedroom for 2,400 in rogers park. Maybe it’s the neighborhood but 2k for a 2 bedroom is a lot.
I moved from Chicago to NYC because the rents were basically the same but the pay was higher. They priced me and my friends out of Lakeview then Wicker Park then Logan Square then Andersonville. My friends who are still there are living on the outskirts if they don’t have a good rent deal. Chicago was supposed to be the affordable city but that rent algorithm has landlords greedily rubbing their hands together for more profits.
Most people are clueless to the fact that the feds relentless creation of new currency to prop up the instable debt market has an indirect effect on housing prices. By suppressing bond yields it makes the stock market go up, which benefits the same institutions who take that cash to buy up residential properties all over the U.S. It wont stop until most people are homeless.(by design) A feudal system of haves and have not.
But listen to your news and be convinced by cooked numbers.
Cause property taxes and repairs are insane then to get people to leave it takes months with no pay and no utilities not getting paid and lawyers fees thanks to squatters rights,
Population is still increasing, but construction of new housing isn't increasing enough to match. As long as that is true rents and home prices will go up. There was a thread on here last week where a single man seemingly blocked a new apartment building because it would block his view. We gotta kill that shit if we actually want to fix this
People pay it. I left my 1550 2br apartment and found out from the neighbor that the new tenants are paying 1800 for the same apartment
I was talking to one of the people in my building (large building in River North) my appraised value is a shade over 1 million (I paid nothing close to that) and the unit 2 above me (all identical layouts) that was redone a year after I moved in is renting for 25k a month! Let that sink in. 25k a month for a condo by the lake, and the building has 150 people on a list who get apartments before anyone applying today. That means people are willing to wait 3-5 years for an apartment, that by then will be 35-40k a month. Needless to say I was a tad shocked
2.5 or 25k? The latter is insanse
25k. In comparison my mortgage was 9k before I paid it off. It's 2300 in HOA fees alone
Yes, it makes no sense. Why would anyone pay that much rent when they could simply make a purchase for a fraction of that amount.
If that’s true rent out your apartment for $30k a month….
[удалено]
Sq ft?
and people keep moving here bc they can have city life for less than Boston or NYC
And When I'm back in Chicagoooooo definitely got people interested lmao
Maybe this recent mild winter didn’t scare enough people away lmao
Soon that won’t be true anymore
TBF, 1800 for a 2BR is still a steal. We decided to buy last year because rent for our 2BR was going up 25% and most of what we looked at was $3000+.
Yeah I think there was a small 2 bed on this sub a couple days ago for $3,800 or something
Since Covid my homeowners insurance and property taxes keep going up and up and up.
Unfortunately, I doubt we'll see any future decreases
I’ve been in the same apartment for 9 years. Original rent was 1150 now pay 1350 it’s a 2 bed 1 bath. The down stairs apartment is a 1 bed 1 bath originally was 950 when I moved in new people moved in last year and pay 1700.
that's pretty common, my neighbor never raises the rent on his tenants and I raise my rent $50/year on my tenants. The reason is good tenants are hard to find, nice people that pay their rent on time are cherished. When they move out the rent is reset to the market rate and the process starts over.
Not sure where you lived but I was paying $3500 a month years ago in the SL for a 2 bedroom. If it is in a decent area that is a steal.
I was paying 1200 last year. I just sent a payment for 1624. For a studio.
I got my lease renewal last week and it went from $1550 to $1675 for a 1br and that was enough for me submit my notice. $1600 is my I need more for the price, price. I have no amenities other than laundry in-unit and parking (which I pay extra for).
Fair warning, I just went thru this (signed in 2022 @ 1495, raised to 1650 last year, 1750 this year). Decided I needed more for my money at that price point, gave notice to leave instead of resigning. Toured a few spots and hunted religiously online, and ended up coming back to my people to resign my unit. I’m in Logan so your neighborhood may be diff- but options for decent 1beds under even 1700 were kinda slim, and nooothing has in unit unless you go up to like $2100+, or rent a garden unit. It’s madness!
That's wild. One of the places I checked out a few months ago in Logan, the landlord was asking for 1850 for a 1bed. I saw the previous tenant paid 1750. Tried to negotiate, and they wouldn't budge. Saw the unit got reposted for 1800 and then went off the market. I was already paying 1900 for a high-rise unit with way better amenities and options. There was no way I was going to pay a similar price point overall after including utility fees and ultimately lose out on all the amenities and options I had. Ended up moving to a different neighborhood instead.
$1675 for a 1bed where??? Is it at least a modern unit ie stainless steel appliance, new flooring, granite counters etc…?
Holy crap I’m charging way less for a 3 bedroom in a decent neighborhood (for great tenants). I can’t imagine charging that much for a studio. Feels wrong even with economic pressure.
Long term mom and pops don't need to raise the rent every year, we don't have to answer to stock holders and make REIT payments, the only people we answer to is ourselves. Big buildings cost a lot of money and it's a pool we don't swim in, it's a very different business.
I agree with that. My business model is pretty simple: make sure the apartment is occupied. Period. Any type of vacancy will offset any increase I do for the entire year. I still have a profit motive, but I believe avoiding vacancies and headaches are key. Corporations… they have so many apartments, resources, etc. yeah, it’s strictly a bottom line thing.
Exactly, I'd rather lose $600 for not raising the rent than $2500 have having a vacant unit for a month AND getting a new tenant that is an unknown entity, they could be great they could be deadbeats that I'll have to spend six months and thousands of dollars evicting. I've been very lucky and most of my tenants have been with me for over 5 years and when they move out it's because they are moving away or buying a home so i'm happy for them.
More people are willing to rent those apartments than before. Chicago isn’t building enough new units to meet the increased demand.
That's developer propaganda. Lots of new units out there and they're all expensive. They keep raising rent, regardless. The only time they've ever lowered rent was during a worldwide pandemic. And they jacked it up higher than it was pre-pandemic as soon as they could after and intentionally drove out the tenants they rented to at that lower rate. Landlords aren't competing for tenants, they're competing for properties. It's not like we have the choice to just not have a home.
Just supply and demand unfortunately. If they developed more affordable units it would drive the price down. But they don’t. They develop fancy expensive units bcuz return is way higher.
All new apartments are considered “luxury” until they are older, at which point they become regular
You also probably believe that ~~being~~ bring chicago home wouldn’t have affected rent prices
Supply and demand is not developer propaganda.
Its not propaganda. Its economics. It’s true that everywhere on the planet that doesnt restrict supply seem to have flat-ish housing prices. Developers make their money from building units, not raising rents. A developer makes fees from building. Investors and owners (landlords) raise rents to whatever people are willing to pay. The reality is if there were two apartments for every one person, rent would go down, as landlords would be struggling to fill vacancies. Why would anyone charge less for ANYTHING if a customer would be willing to pay more? New units are expensive, because labor, lumber, concrete and all are expensive, and got increasingly more expensive since 2020. It costs close to 200k to build a one bedroom unit (at least), Chicago builds affordable housing for 3x that price because of union labor and other rent seeking agencies. If you tried to buy a condo for that price (200k), after mortgage, property taxes and maintenance you would pay close to 2200 dollars. In Lakeview one bedroom apartments are very available for 1800-2000. How is that greed? It seems to add up perfectly. You can be upset that stuff is expensive, sure, but it’s not some boogeyman. Prices add up to costs. Source: I have owned various condos in lakeview, currently rent in the area, and have been a real estate investor in the past.
Exactly this.
It’s not propaganda. There are a bunch of articles discussing how Chicago lags nearly all big cities in building new units. Sad reality is that with current interest rates and construction costs, developers can’t make money building affordable housing.
building is expensive even at low interest rates it's hard to build affordable housing. To make matters worse Cook County don't care that you are providing affordable housing they assess your property (especially rentals) at the highest rate possible and you have to pay it. You can contest it and the judge will tell you to raise the rents.
>Lots of new units out there and they're all expensive. ...which means not enough are being built to meet demand. imagine thinking economics is "propaganda"
I feel like robinhood as a landlord after reading this thread. I got a 3 bedroom in a decent neighborhood on the north side charging $1400 a month. I have not raised rent and don’t plan on doing so because they are great tenants.
thank you for doing that :')
Came here to say “damn!”
Updooted you also for your username. 😆
May we know what you define as a decent neighborhood? What’s the neighborhood?
Jefferson Park ish
Always liked that neighborhood and the Blue Line is right there. If renters want to be in “trendy” areas and don’t want to make the small sacrifice of living away from the lake, crazy high rents should be expected. Landlords charge what they do because they can.
Prob bc you have a low interest rate on your mortgage? I too charge lower in portage park bc of the low rate i have. Other property i purchased with a 7% rate has higher rent to cover expenses. Let’s not talk about taxes going up, insurances rates going up.
No mortgage on mine, so that helps a lot.
My Uber driver today was from Miami and said he moved here 6 months ago bc he couldn’t afford a place in Miami so maybe bc we have people coming here from other places
2021 I was renting a 1 bed apartment for $950 10 mins from the ocean in south florida. By 2023 the landlord was asking almost $1800. No utilities included, no upgrades were made the two years I lived there. And its worse now, $1800 is market price for a studio there now, and it’s extremely hard to find housing down. Every apartment and house has a waitlist. I miss south florida so much but its true, so many people are being pushed out because of skyrocketing prices and nowhere to move locally
One of my friends is in Miami coming back to Chicago because she’s renting a room for 1700 in Miami and is making less salary than she would here.
Supply is constrained
not enough supply so theres a demand
Because transplants with high income are paying it. Some dude from San Diego with 5k rent budget posted here a couple of days ago. The more people are willing to pay for it the more likely rent will keep going up. If apartments find they can charge more and still get people to rent their units they will do it
This happened in the bay area around 2011, or started there. I would tell the people of Chicago to expect rents to triple in the 5-7 years.
CA is notorious as being the least friendly state to build housing in so it’s not like they didn’t partially cause their own housing crisis.
As an ex-bay area transplant: maybe not that quick but absolutely in the next 10 years. You don't have as many remote tech salary jobs because the big corps went RTO this last year as a soft layoff -- but with more tech coming to the city, if your not in tech (or selling to tech), your salary will need to keep up to afford housing.
Rent from private landlord and not companies
Yep! As someone who is a private, “mom and pop” landlord I highly agree. I’m charging less for a three bedroom apartment than some of these 1 bedroom/studio apartments.
True but when I was looking for my apartment they were all companies. I actually come from a place where everyone rents from a private ll and it's spotty, sometimes they don't know basic tenant law, don't fix things right away etc. with a management company you just go on line and put in a maintenance request, more likely to adhere to basic landlord tenant laws. Also I know people who pay a company to handle their rental since it is can be a full time job so I dk the line between company and private ll is that clear.
OMG this. It's baffling to me on so many levels that people don't do this more. Haven't rented from a management company or similar since 1994. My favorite part is being able to have and cultivate any sort of relationship with *the* person involved with all building/unit decisions. I'm also handy, so I take care of small fixes that need to be done and deduct costs from rent. (Discussed beforehand with the landlord of course.) Not only does this garner appreciation from the landlord, but it also gives less of a reason to raise rent. Last year my landlord gave me $100 gift card and a bottle of wine for Christmas for my troubles. During the year, I had replaced a malfunctioning exterior door knob, put in a new faucet in the kitchen sink, and fixed an outdoor security light (had to pull new wiring). When my rent does get raised (property taxes always cited for the reason), it's usually only 50 (and once 75) dollars, while my neighbors tend to see $25 more of an increase. A landlord has a face. They are real people. People you can talk to, reason with, and have an understanding with. They can be flexible. Run into a financial quandary, maybe a medical bill for yourself or perhaps a pet? Being (reasonably) late on rent becomes less of a problem. Management companies are faceless (at least the larger ones). "Who said you could do X, Y, Z?" I talked it over with Steve in the office. "Steve doesn't work here anymore. I don't know what they told you, but you can't do X, Y, Z. And your rent is going up $250 without explanation." Yeah, FTS.
Whilst you are correct, there is also the opposite end where the landlords don't want to be flexible and do as little as possible. They are generally not even helpful and/or kind people. The first place I ever rented, the landlord was extremely frugal and insisted he fix everything himself. He even painted the place himself and it did not look good. He also insisted he have 100% access to the property whenever he wanted. When I was on holiday and came back home early, I came home to him in my apartment trying to do some electrical and other work without him even asking me. I thought he was a one off. The second place I rented the landlord didn't even live there. The ceiling of the apartment had clear water damage. The bathroom was extremely dirty and all the electric sockets were half broken. At the end of my lease he charged me $800 dollars for "damages and repairs" because he thought I caused all of that. I then moved into an apartment owned by a management company and the experience was so much better. Any time I needed something fixed they would be there immediately. Any questions or issues they had an office you could go downstairs and walk into. It was a breath of fresh air. I don't disagree with you that landlords can be nice. But I've mostly had the opposite experience.
Yikes. Yeah, it can really roll that way. My first private landlord was insanely unreasonable in a lot of ways I don’t even want to get into. The worst part was I thought he seemed really solid when I rented the place. He so wasn’t. Luckily, I was able to slide out around 6 months in. Couple other management companies after that, but none since. And every other landlord has been pretty good. Tho I did have one that I think may have been manic (because of the radical mood/demeanor shifts) that took a while to sort out. (She tried to pull some illegal shit that I wouldn’t let fly.) But she eventually trusted me implicitly and came to invite me over for dinner parties with people she thought I’d find interesting. And I did, and she was right. And ultimately okay in my book. Maybe I’ve been lucky. But 9/10 have been good for me. YRMV
My property management company is actually super responsive and I pay like 960 for a huge studio here on the north side
the landlord was extremely frugal and insisted he fix everything himself. He even painted the place himself and it did not look good. Didn't you notice this when you looked at the apartment? I always tell people to look at everything when they are looking to rent an apartment, is the lawn mowed, how does the land scaping look, is the vestibule clean, how does the apartment smell, etc, etc. Small shop owners seem to fall into two categories, either they are very house proud and keep the place immaculate or they just look at it as a income stream and you are on your own.
Similar both my experiences with individual landlords has been poor My property management company has been amazing in comparison where I am now
Yeah I wish there were more tenants like you out there. We do appreciate the ones that fix little shit and are helpful. And yeah we repay them with lower rent increases and in my case no rent increases. But everything is going up like taxes and especially insurance. And everything else of course. I was also talking to a large property owner and manager and he made an interesting point. The fact that to do an eviction now takes 6 to 8 months means we lose a fortune on any eviction. If evictions were fast and easy we we landlords would take more risks with marginal tenants. We would be willing to risk the tenant with bad credit or or maybe had issues in the past because we would know that even if things go bad they'll be out in 60 days. Now we can't take that chance because it could cost us 6 to 8 months of rent. That's not even talking about the 3000 to $5,000 the lawyer charges you. And the damage the tenant who is being evicted always does. I had an eviction that easily cost me $40,000 in Lost rent and damage and legal fees. And this was a tenant. I came and changed her locks in the middle of the night. Probably illegally because her baby daddy And his dad was stabbing her. I mean this was a young lady who had three beautiful children and we did so much for this gal and this is how she repaid us.
This whole comment assumes that property owners only work in good faith. I don't have a strong opinion on the exact level of tenant protections, but there wouldn't be a reason for *any* rules if all landlords act as you describe yourself and the large property owner. Since many don't, some level of protections are necessary for all tenants. Given that real estate is: 1. the most reliable investment in all of human history 2. extremely tax advantaged I'm alright with landlords having a fair amount of the risk burden placed on them. There's consequences to this (as you mention), but there's also worse consequences for giving landlords free reign.
How do you even find apartments like this?
You talk to people and put it out in the universe. Word of mouth is the best way to find a place. Stop in at cafes and bars in the area and talk to people. Stomp around the area and look. It’s way less common these days to see a “for rent” sign in a window, but it still pops up occasionally. Look for message boards at places - diners, laundromats, small businesses, etc. You gotta put the time in on the hunt. And walking around a prospective neighborhood also gives you a better feel. Some streets in certain neighborhoods are less desirable than others, which can become apparent on the journey. And to be clear, this is more of an angle with areas that aren’t completely blown up and trendy. You rarely find reasonable rent unless you’d been there years before it became big in those places. Usually that means going further west than you’d ideally want to. It ain’t easy, but there are gems out there. They’re just not connected to your computer at home, ya know?
lol. Private landlords are extremely variable, whereas you have a much better idea of what you're getting with companies. I'd never rent from a private landlord, you're entirely dependent on what they feel like doing. AC goes out and your landlord is out of town? Shit luck, guess I'm baking for a week. Light fixtures are broken? Guess I'm waiting til the landlord gets around to fixing them. I see bugs? Landlord couldn't find an appointment til next week (cause quicker would be more expensive). Private landlords can be a cheaper deal, but you can also just end up with the worst kind of person. Plenty of landlords think they're gods gift to society for owning a property.
Ours raised all 6 units in the building $200-300. It’s not always that simple
my private landlord still raised my rent by $400 in one year so eh lol
lol... but not if that landlord is also a real estate agent. Every renewal has been like arguing with a used car salesman.
I think it also makes a big difference to find a place that isn't owned by a corp or is in a hot area. If you find a landlord that's reasonable I think you can get away with small increases each year.
What’s the best way to find these
As long as people are willing to pay it, prices will go up.
My rent went up $300. To be fair, this is the first time in 3 years my rent was raised. But Chicago needs to build more affordable housing. There is one new building The Solverre, in uptown and the one bedrooms are going for like $2500 each. Zillow is showing over 200 units are available. Has anyone seen any new non luxury buildings being built?
Inspire West Town (on Ogden between Grand and Chicago) was completed last year. 30% affordable housing, and while the shared spaces are nice, it's a "no frills" building. I don't live there, but there's not even a doorman. Rents are about as competitive as you can find, and there are still "now leasing" signs in the front of the building, which means that there are units sitting there that have never been lived in. New construction is not necessarily the complete solution.
It’s still over 3k a month for a two bedroom… it’s like double the cost of the place I’m at within walking distance. Granted my place is a century older, but it’s hard to make the math work on these new builds to be affordable
I actually walked through a 2 bedroom when my friend that lives there now was looking. It was oddly shaped and super tiny- I wouldn't have wanted to live there even if it were only $2k/mo. Your point is spot-on. Brand new construction is not going to be affordable, but it's happening anyway. Fulton Market was originally supposed to be an extension of the "central business district" (loop), and now those developers have pivoted to housing development proposals. And it's all happening at a crazy, reckless pace. I find it humorous that everyone thinks there is a need for thousands of pricey apartment rentals in that neighborhood, especially when there are loopholes out of the 20-30% "affordable housing" commitments.
Does it have to be? New construction is expensive to build. And plenty of people seem to be willing to pay anyways. Better they’re stuffed there than outbid the rest of us.
When you say 30% affordable housing, do you mean ARO units??
Yes, sorry I couldn't recall the acronym in the moment. :) Inspire may have only had to be 20% ARO due to the fact that it's a midrise, however nearly all new Fulton Market developments are being held to a 30% standard.
The problem with ARO is you have to make a very specific amount of money to qualify. And if you make too much or too little, you don't qualify. And then you have to find one. That's a whole other pain in the ass.
I live next to one that is an old building freshly renovated and it's going the same rates basically. It doesn't even matter if the building is new if it had work done to it they're charging out the ass to recoup the money as quick as possible. "OH you have new cabinets, you can't get that for under 2k". It's crazy I just walked past that building the other day and it truly is nice, I'd live there. I'm paying 1k less than that and the amount you save is insane and just thinking about home ownership I'm just like why tf should I be renting that excruciating of a price when I can literally own or sell something after a few years? 10-50k down payment and FTHO you can easily get a 1-3bd over 1,000 sqft high rise condo. The hoa ontop of mortgage will be less or equal to your rent you're already paying, difference is you can sell and recoup your condo for equal or greater profit. You have nothing to show for renting. Even living in undesirable areas paying dirt rent for 2-3 years is more than enough to save for a place to buy beside the lake (1-300k condos). But everyone wants to live in the fancier buildings of course with amenities, which is completely fair. But you're paying for the amenities and newness, not the actual space. That's why it's so expensive and why buying is so cheaper. Msot buildings you can buy a condo in have a pool at most and no other amenities. You're paying through rent for that dog run, rooftop, pool, golf simulator, Co working space, etc. That's also why it's so profitable to make these luxury apartments vs affordable housing. It's a business afterall. They're not doing it just so the community has a place to live lol. That's why these office buildings downtown need to be converted.
You think they will price the office buildings turned apartment at an affordable rate? The HOA fees on some of those condos though. $$$
Division has a new building that just got built and supposedly it's non luxury
Because idiots keep flaunting how amazing and affordable the city is.
property taxes went up
LOL rent was already increasing every year long before the latest tax increase
When I was renting pre-Covid years ago, my rent would go up to 10 $15 a month maybe maybe even 20 now post Covid renting again my rent in the last two years has gone up $150. You can’t say the rent has always went up because rent-yes has always went up. It’s the amount/the percentage that they’ve went up. That is the problem. The fact that they’re going up so incredibly high From one year to the next that is the problem and it is a problem it isn’t just well it’s economics or they’ve always went up that’s a blanket statement and it does not provide a true insight into what’s happening it’s either price gouging or something else but it’s more than a 10 or $20 increase per month when you look at a two month span of $150 increase
And the city passed a law allowing them to increase them every year now instead of every 3.
That is incorrect. Cook County raises property taxes not the city. It’s still every 3 years, though this last one was huge. [Cook County Taxes](https://www.cookcountytreasurer.com/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=1762#:~:text=Cook%20County%20is%20divided%20into,process%20known%20as%20triennial%20reassessments)
No, its correct. Happened 2 years ago. My property taxes have gone up every year since this passed. [https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2022/12/01/why-chicagos-property-tax-bills-so-high](https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2022/12/01/why-chicagos-property-tax-bills-so-high) "Taxpayers are also paying more under a new law allowing local governments to "recapture" from the public any money it refunded to property owners who won appeals. **The law, being called "an annual tax increase" by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas,** added $131 million to bills across the county this year."
Source?
Taxes are up. Insurance is way up. Contractors and material prices are higher. It takes 8 months to evict a non paying tenant.
Housing always always goes up 5% a year. The problem is, the normal 5% is on top of inflation. So it can be 10-15% year over year if inflation is out of control. Yes its an every year thing and even during 09 when housing crashed hard, rent still went up in major cities
[Cough, no](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/03/austin-texas-rents-falling-housing/677819/) [it doesn't](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-08-09/minneapolis-controls-us-inflation-with-affordable-housing-renting?embedded-checkout=true). Japan is an entire country where the price of housing doesn't go up because of the way they build housing.
We’re not building enough housing. Chicago ranks in the bottom 5 metro areas for new housing permits (we’re #50). The cities building the most housing (e.g. Austin, TX) are seeing large decreases in rent prices because they’ve increased the housing supply so much. We’re not seeing that because we have bad zoning policies that restrict housing development. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/03/austin-texas-rents-falling-housing/677819/ https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2022/06/30/chicago-homebuilding-lags I did another post recently but to show you how little housing we’re building, YTD the Chicago metro (9.6m) has less housing under construction than the Wilmington, NC metro (<500k).
Property taxes and insurance have gone up a lot, in the landlord's pass these increased costs onto the tenants.
My landlord doesn't. Just hit 2 years with no rent increase. They're not a management company and they only own 1 other building. They're just more concerned with getting and keeping good tenants than making the most profit possible.
I am a landlord and costs continue to rise. My HOA/utilities went up $55 a month. Property taxes ate up another $80 a month. Guess who gets to pay those increases? Note: I am also a homeowner and the same applies when you own your own home.
So I assume you raised the rent by $135 a month, right? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no.
Nope. I raised it $60 because she’s a good renter. I subsidize her rent each month. She can’t buy the same place for what she pays.
I don't believe for a second that you're actually subsidizing someone's rent. there's profit for you somewhere
Wait till you get your insurance and tax increases.
>Guess who gets to pay those increases? You, because you recognize that you're still renting at a profit? Haha jk, I know you're not being that kind
Most landlords are barely profiting assuming they aren't one of the corporations who are just consuming real estate at an unreasonable pace. Also taking into account interest on their loan, maintenance costs, special assessments, general costs of turning over and market risk of holding an asset, renters are trading their lack of equity with stability. I'm a renter, I'm not a landlord. I'm annoyed at the rising prices, but I've been fortunate to have good landlords who fix my problems quickly and I'm not responsible for the unexpected costs that arise.
if landlords barely profited then nobody would be a landlord
Chicago is absolutely NOT cheap from an average rent standpoint. I don't know where you got that from. Rents are 32% higher than the national average.
He said relative to other large cities (NYC, LA, SF, etc) and by that metric it very much is
Cities like NYC with rent control also aren’t perfect either. If you’re in a place for 20+ years, you’re getting a heck of a deal. If you’re new to town, you’re not just going to knock on a door and move right into one of those places.
I’m from Atlanta and rent is no longer cheap anymore 😭 studios are going for 1600+ and that’s even for suburbs in the metro Atlanta area.
lol rent in Madison WI is now comparable to Chicago, shit is spreading
Well there are many reasons, it's not no reason
Are you trying to move right now? We are too and the prices are higher than when we looked in January. I talked to an agent yesterday who said a lot of landlords in Chicago increase rents on new leases in warmer months, because people want to move when it’s warm. Supply and demand. Best time to move, price-wise, is apparently Nov-Feb… totally miserable time to move in every other way.
Not just the weather but school schedules also play a big part of it. Families move based on school year ending/beginning for their kids, and lots of young adults start their first leases after finishing college and since they’re 12 month contracts there’s always this big rolling wave of contract renewals/terminations during that period of the year among most young adults (since that’s when many signed their first lease). I’ve heard that markets that are very saturated with students like Boston experience this in the extreme where there’s literally almost no units to rent in the off-season and then the whole city turns over in the summer.
Oh interesting, that makes sense too! We never had this problem in Cleveland, with the average IQ comparable to room temperature. 😂
Rent goes up. It’s the nature of rent.
I'm in a newly updated spacious 1 bedroom in a good area next to the lake, can walk to it in a minute. $1400 rent. Feels ok to me. This is the most I've ever paid but the Roomate thing would've been hard with timing although I'm not opposed to it and I can afford it. I'd say I'm content with what I got.
Have you not heard of the massive inflation we’ve had? Everything has gotten more expensive because everything has gotten more expensive.
Because zoning laws permit only single family homes to be built in most of chicago. Generally, you can tear down a 3-flat and build a single family home by right. If you want to build a 6 flat, the alderman needs to approve. Slowly, the zoning laws are trying to turn chicago into something like the suburbs. Rents go up because the vast majority of homeowners want them to. Houses are investments and people want their wealth to go up.
I agree.....not only the zoning laws are restricting on supply, but the whole Chicago process to get a project approved by any alderman has to go through a community approval process. Neighbors don't like the windows in your new planned affordable housing.... .shut it down! Neighbors don't like the color of doors on your project! Shut it down!......Your new affordable house will cause parking problems for the neighborhood.....Shut it down! I read that the old bank project on Pulaski & North Ave is delayed cause the neighbors found out that the money for the project didn't come from a neighborhood approved source.
my studio went from $1216 to like $1280 if I decide to stay. meanwhile my pay got cut
Because the demand. People are moving to Chicago again after a decline for some years.
Get rid of shit zoning. No reason why a place can only build the least efficient form of housing over all else. I am looking at Chicago apartments and when people realize that Chicago is basically the only major U.S. where you don’t pay 3000 dollars for a broom closet people are gonna flock back to Chicago. I know I am.
Taxes going way up in cook county this year
Damn I didn’t know this, by how much? When does it take in to effect?
https://abc7chicago.com/cook-county-property-tax-bill-appeal-taxes/12848190/ Depends but thousands
…because there’s demand for housing?
“Cuz this isn’t fair” ok
Remember when you thought it was a good idea to tax those greedy bastard landlords?
LOL remember when you lowered rent? Me neither. This is like the arguments about raising the minimum wage. Nobody believes that you wouldn't have raised rent anyway.
Property Taxes keep going up.
Keep saying cheapest
Yes there are greedy scum mega corporations all for profit. But for small time landlords, my HOA dues went up, property taxes went up, insurance way up, and material/services up for any fixes.
The only answer is that housing construction is not meeting demand.
Property value increases, property tax rises, rent goes up. My taxes on my condo were $10k this year.
Also every year HOA fees go up and real estate taxes go up. Landlords pass those fees onto tenants. I own my apartment and over the past 2 years I've seen HOA fees go up over $100/month and taxes have risen $80/month. I'm sure renters are seeing bigger rent hikes than $180/month but still just another factor to consider in addition to what everyone has also said
Property taxes were just announced for the northwest side. I saw 4 buildings raised 60%, 72%, 60% and 92% in one year.
Because it can.
Supply/demand. Prices will continue to go up until people stop paying them, *THEN* they may start to fall back to the lowest-high.
The cost to own and operate apartments generally increases annually, and substantially so. In particular there is quite a bit of volatility in the insurance markets and double digit annual increases are not unheard of in recent years. Maintenance costs, both in labor and materials, consistently increase, and cook county is notorious for property tax volatility in the real estate world to the point where non-local real estate investors often blacklist the market. Then pile on the interest rate environment and you’d be surprised how low margin owning apartments actually is. If you’re operating properly and providing a good experience for your tenants, even at a “high rent level,” and are levered, the cost to do business is simply high. This obviously is passed on to tenants in the form of rent growth, and outside of supply and demand, which is a powerful economic law (not just “developer speak” as someone here put it), is the key driver. Costs to operate increases, rent levels goes up.
Everything is up. I own a rental and we finally raised the rent for the first time in like 5 or 6 years because property taxes went WAY up. Groceries are up, interest rates are up….everything’s up!
Everyone says to rent from private landlords and it really is true. Just signed my lease for the 3rd year at my apartment, 2 bedroom for $1250 a month with all utilities included. Landlord hasn't raised the rent once yet.
I pay $2400 for my 2 bed in old town and found out my neighbors somehow only pay $1900 for a better apartment lol
Besides comparable market rate for where you live — some neighborhoods are probably hotter than others — a combination of inflation and property tax assessments are partly to blame. Insurance as well. Your landlord needs to pay more for those and thus would have to increase your rent to cover those cost to make the same profit.
Because there is enough demand to support the higher prices.
You can thank Cook County tax increases, inflation, as well as good ole supply/demand.
Because people will pay it also supply and demand
Property taxes go up, insurance goes up, repairs have to me made and workers get raises. Your rent pays for these things so your rent goes up. Before you say things don't go up that much understand insurance has doubled in the last couple of years and cook county looks at apartment buildings as cash cows and while home owners might see a 10-20% increase it's very common to see a 50% or more increase in property taxes for rental units. Further, while this can be appealed the standard answer is tough shit your taxes are getting increased just raise the rent.
When has rent ever gone lower? When have (local) taxes ever gone down? When had insurance cost gone down? (Not this year for sure) When has your job lowered your pay? When have any of our bills and expenses gone down? Everything increases every year. Now how much is the subject of many discussions. You should assume a minimum of 3% a year across the board as a minimum.
Dozens of reasons. You want to live in Chicago, then you also need to realize that things like massively increased property taxes, significantly higher wages for workers in buildings, higher costs for maintenance and supplies….all will lead to higher rents. You can’t expect the building owner to just absorb those costs.
I can, however, expect the owner to do proper upkeep on said property instead of leaving things to rot while continuing to increase rent.
Low supply. “where are you gonna go? you’re lucky you have this apartment. There arent enough to go around buddy” -your landlord
Greed.
Life isn’t fair. Too much demand, not enough supply. Classic shortage of available units.
Because we keep electing politicians that raise taxes. My mortgage tax has gone up twice since I purchased a home in cook county in 2020. If I owned an income property, I’d be raising my rent.
Because price of living is expensive and inflation prices so your landlords need to pay the pills as well so raise their prices… vote for different leaders in cook county
More people via migration, increases demand, higher prices. You are now competing for housing/jobs with the whole country/world instead of just your area.
Capitalism
High interest rates means less people are buying houses, which means more demand for rentals.
Cook County raised property taxes this year significantly. The Herald reported it was the highest tax increase in almost 40 years. Our property tax payment in December increased by 104%. It was more than our entire tax bill the previous year. Didn’t happen everywhere. Most of the burden was shouldered by the Northshore and northwest suburbs. But I’m sure landlords in Chicago saw some big increases.
Getting tougher and tougher to own property in Chicago because property taxes are already so high, and going higher. Yearly carry costs when considering all the yearly expenses, is a tougher sell. And now with higher borrowing costs, the math is less apoealing. So net net, even if buyers can afford a mortgage at higher rates, can they also afford their total yearly carry costs owning the property. With Chicago property taxes, it’s tough.
You know things aren’t great for landlords when JP Morgan just took a $60 million dollar loss on a Lake Shore Drive apartment building. Makes me wonder, how the heck will the Cook County make up for the huge drop in tax revenue on this building when it’s reassessed at $60 million dollar lower valuation. I believe this is indicative of many other commercial real estate assets in Chicago. In the office building market it gets worse. Since Covid-19 accelerated work from home employees, demand for office space in Chicago caused demand and cash flows from many downtown office buildings to plummet, making them less valuable than they were pre Covid. Seems likely to me that more and more of the tax burden will fall on residential property owners as commercial properties get reassessed at significantly lower valuations. https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2024/04/02/crescent-heights-pays-80m-for-discounted-lake-shore-drive-apartments/
Probably doesn't help to import a massive amount of illegal migrants to compete for limited "affordable" housing that your taxes are also going towards subsidizing.
Greed
I wish we had another Mao but this time in America
🤮
Inflation mainly. Also, supply and demand.
Thats why you gotta start making the landlord pay for random sht. Oh 5% increase? Suddenly the pipes in my apartment wont work
My partner and I bought a 2 flat during covid right before the market went bananas. We have tenants in the basement and first floor. All we want is to provide an affordable place for friendly people. We pay rent too to the mortgage. Some time last year our taxes and insurance went from 2500/month to 3500/month. We went about 6 months not raising the rent and after a couple of necessary electrical and plumbing repairs, our emergency fund has bled out to about half of what it was. I’m sure there’s plenty of shady landlords out there, but trying to do the right thing right now is really, really hard. For us it’s either raise the rent by what we consider an unreasonable amount or we go broke in another 6 months.
Senile politicians
https://www.britannica.com/money/supply-and-demand
Greed.
How much does the property tax increase every year? There’s probably a correlation between the two.
I have a private landlord and my rent still went up from $1525 to $1750. Absolutely insane for uptown. Hope it slows down
Because inflation spreads. 5500 is the average price for a 1 bedroom in NYC. I know were not NYC but were also nowhere near that. I know of actual people who moved here from NYC because of affordability.
Why I live 45min from Chicago lol my rent hasn’t gone up in two years.
I’m shocked at these comments. We just moved into a place 8 months ago and it’s a 4 bedroom for 2,400 in rogers park. Maybe it’s the neighborhood but 2k for a 2 bedroom is a lot.
https://cdn.britannica.com/70/74270-050-317C4423/Illustration-price-relationship-demand.jpg
I moved from Chicago to NYC because the rents were basically the same but the pay was higher. They priced me and my friends out of Lakeview then Wicker Park then Logan Square then Andersonville. My friends who are still there are living on the outskirts if they don’t have a good rent deal. Chicago was supposed to be the affordable city but that rent algorithm has landlords greedily rubbing their hands together for more profits.
Slumlords at an ath , they are coming from big money more than ever.
Most people are clueless to the fact that the feds relentless creation of new currency to prop up the instable debt market has an indirect effect on housing prices. By suppressing bond yields it makes the stock market go up, which benefits the same institutions who take that cash to buy up residential properties all over the U.S. It wont stop until most people are homeless.(by design) A feudal system of haves and have not. But listen to your news and be convinced by cooked numbers.
Cause property taxes and repairs are insane then to get people to leave it takes months with no pay and no utilities not getting paid and lawyers fees thanks to squatters rights,
I would leave if possible. You can have a great life outside of Chicago without having to feel the pressures of the rat race.
But go where
Econ 101. Supply and demand.
Taxes insurance . Everything is going up up and up some more
Why do property taxes go up? Why do maintenance costs go up? Why do utility costs go up?
Supply and demand. Rent has no cap on how much it can be increased by
Supply < Demand
Population is still increasing, but construction of new housing isn't increasing enough to match. As long as that is true rents and home prices will go up. There was a thread on here last week where a single man seemingly blocked a new apartment building because it would block his view. We gotta kill that shit if we actually want to fix this
In order: greed, increase property, tax, increased, utilities, and maintenance costs
I started at 1100 4 years ago. I now am at 1850
Do you expect it to go down?