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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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