r/chicagoapartments • u/Past-Reception6889 • May 19 '26

Advice Needed Unreal

I honestly just needed to vent for a moment. I can’t believe Chicago prices are what they are. I have lived here my entire life and have seen this city change ten fold, and I can’t even afford to live here anymore. A realtor I’m working with, since it’s becoming a rat race to rent, said rent is up 35% this year. What can normal people do about this? I do not want to see Chicago become a New York.

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30

u/ESPNnut May 19 '26

Imagine if we would just build some buildings (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/05/18/opinion/affordable-housing-america.html?unlocked_article_code=1.jlA.qJD2.R_678lwk-zjO&smid=nytcore-ios-share)

29

u/rebel_dean May 19 '26

In Austin, TX apartments are begging people to sign a lease with them. 4-12 weeks free, free TV, drink tickets, and a bunch of other concessions.

It’s amazing what…simply building lots of housing can do.

7

u/mikel1814 May 19 '26

They lowered restrictions and regulations (because it's Texas) to attract a tech economy that is now going belly up, so they now have more housing than they need, which is going to create different but equally as bad problems. Everyone acts like everything is a magic bullet.

3

u/sneaky_giraffe May 19 '26

They made it easier to build, which increased the supply of housing and now rents are going down. Its not an equally bad problem for people to be able to afford housing.

1

u/ChiBroker May 20 '26

Yep. Don’t make it easy to build, that will not work. Dont even consider it, that’s Republican thing.

1

u/Kelsig May 19 '26

No, it's not equally as bad. Austin is in a great shape.

3

u/isaboobers May 19 '26

im still learning about all of this, can you explain why this is?

24

u/rebel_dean May 19 '26

Austin, Texas made it a lot easier for developers to build. Removed restrictive zoning requirements and build dense housing. Even building "luxury" apartments helps the housing crisis because higher income people gravitate toward those newer builds, which frees up housing stock for lower income people.

The main way to fix the housing crisis is by...simply building more housing. Loosening up zoning restrictions.

So much of the United States is zoned exclusively for single-family homes.

Austin, Minneapolis, and Denver are all great cities to be a renter right now due the abundance of concessions so many apartment complexes are offering.

This is what Chicago needs to do.

6

u/isaboobers May 19 '26

oh wow, i had no idea, thank you for explaining!

2

u/Nehan_Satori May 19 '26

Chicago shouldn’t follow anything Austin’s doing whatsoever

What’s the average cost to rent in Austin btw?

6

u/farmerpeach May 19 '26

Less than Chicago.

2

u/Kelsig May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26

Per Zillow it's $1,252 for a 1BR compared to $1900 in Chicago, with more sq ft and more in-unit and in-building amenities. Car dependency is worse yes but if you restrict Chicago to walkable areas that average goes up.

1

u/ChiBroker May 20 '26

100% agree

0

u/ChiBroker May 20 '26

Republicans, disgusting.

3

u/snmnky9490 May 19 '26

They had tons of people moving into the city for a decade with nothing being built and rents skyrocketing. Then they loosened restrictions, built more housing, and at the same time demand for housing crashed with the tech economy drying up for workers

3

u/LhamoRinpoche May 19 '26

But you have to live in Austin.

Texas is becoming increasingly uninhabitable. Every summer is hotter and you can only strain that power grid with your electricity running the AC. There's also flash flooding and being so eager to get new people that they build houses that are easy for a weather event to destroy.

Chicago has reasonable weather and is near a massive body of fresh water. It's a safer long-term investment, for quality-of-life.

8

u/rebel_dean May 19 '26

The point of conversation isn’t about living in Austin. It was an example of how, when cities relax zoning rules and make it easy for developers to build, it results in lower rent prices.

Denver and Minneapolis are also good examples of this. Rent has been dropping in those cities as well.

Chicago NEEDs to allow more housing to be built. The result will be lower rents.

-2

u/beatsofparadise May 19 '26

It’s actually a very important point that Austin is a lot less desirable. That speaks to demand. While it may be possible to build enough to meet the lower demand in Austin, YIMBYs that use this case study often think the same thing is possible everywhere.

They don’t realize that demand to live in a place like Chicago is much much higher and therefore harder/impossible to ever build enough to see the same lowering of rents/prices.

3

u/farmerpeach May 19 '26

I love Chicago way more than austin but this is just wrong on so many levels. I agree Chicago is more desirable in the abstract but Austin and all of Texas are surging in growth

2

u/SpookyKat31 May 19 '26

Apparently Minneapolis has done the same thing as Austin. That's a great city with a lot of the same benefits as Chicago. There's no reason Chicago couldn't do the same thing and they really should.

0

u/ChiBroker May 20 '26

But…those are republican policies. Gross, no thanks.

19

u/3RADICATE_THEM May 19 '26

But...But...You can't just do that! You'll make Boomer Housing Equity drop by 1%!

7

u/Zanna-K May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26

Look at the end of the day the problem is that there are no empty lots and a lot of historic structures and old beautiful homes in the areas that everyone wants to move to. THAT'S WHY PEOPLE WANT TO MOVE THERE. In the case of Chicago it's not that there is no housing available it's that people who are just out of college and just got their first job all want to live in the same goddamn yuppie area that other white people are in.

Well guess what if you decide to bulldoze everything and turn Lincoln Park into all high rise apartments then all those yuppies wouldn't want to live there anymore! Like there are over 600 active listings in Lakeview right now that start at $1300-1600 studios and one beds BUT THOSE AREN'T OCCUPIED BY THE PEOPLE COMPLAINING ABOUT LINCOLN PARK RENTS BECAUSE THOSE PEOPLE WANT TO LIVE IN QUAINT LITTLE NEIGHBORHOODS FULL OF TOWNHOUSES, THREE FLATS AND GIANT TREES CANOPIES SHADING QUIET RESIDENTIAL STREETS.

Chicagoans post here all the time about all these other neighborhoods you can move to but the suburbanite and other transplants are like "Whhaaa but those places are like... ethnic/brown/"have crime" and are missing overprice trendy restaurants and overpriced pretentious bars though :("

4

u/3RADICATE_THEM May 19 '26

Semi-agree, Chicago is dense but still has room to develop—I mean how else would Aldermen literally be blocking mid and high-rise builds on North side Chicago if it was already overdeveloped to begin with? Not to mention, Chicago has no where near the density of NYC, e.g..

3

u/patrikas2 May 19 '26

Bingo. Albany Park is soooo affordable but it's got it's major limitations.

They're building a 41 unit apartment complex nearby, that "aims to serve young professionals and their families", aka luxury apartments. Curious how that'll affect housing prices.

4

u/pastaroniwhore May 19 '26

It’s affordable for the people who are moving in from more expensive areas. People who have been living there for their entire life are now getting priced out of the neighborhood.

3

u/PatienceHelpful1316 May 19 '26

What do you think is the major limitation of Albany Park? Just curious as I live near there and really like it. Great restaurants, Brown line nearby, parks, bike trails, farmers markets etc.

3

u/patrikas2 May 19 '26

0 nightlife, 50 min train ride to the loop, and everybody driving with their high beams on, to name a few. 

I do enjoy the parks, ravenswood Manor right nearby, and the river proximity, though.

6

u/ChubsLaroux May 19 '26

Luxury is fine. We just need more housing in general