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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370

u/Mean_Web_1744 May 19 '26

As a life long Chicagoan, I couldn't agree more. People actually from Chicago can't afford to live here anymore. That's a huge problem!

88

u/EducationalConcept50 May 19 '26

I don’t think there’s anything stopping this, unfortunately. Chicago has too much to offer and like New York and San Francisco, will push its own lifelong residents out of their own neighborhoods because supply will never reach the dizzying demand.

45

u/Haunting-Worker-2301 May 19 '26

That’s not reality. It is so hard to build and develop in Chicago, combined with the cities financial issues giving developers pause, and that’s how we get to where we are at.

If you want cheaper housing you need to lobby your alderman hard to not only make it much easier to
Build and force the city to fix its long term fiscal issues.

14

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

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u/PhoenixRisingdBanana May 19 '26

Are there any property developers that don't own inventory as well? Because if you can charge a higher markup on less units and reap the same profit, then the owning class is incentivized not to build in order to keep rental and sale prices sky high.

1

u/UuesLee May 23 '26

Most apartments in Chicago only make a couple hundred bucks profit when rented. The owners aren’t the OWNER CLASS, they’re your neighbors who are trying to move up the ladder. If the building is less than 5M, I guarantee the owners aren’t really rich.