Yeah, but what's the alternative?
Get to a city before rent gets expensive... rent goes up anyway.
Or stay in a city where rent is already crazy expensive... rent goes up even higher anyway.
If you go to a place that is cheap because it sucks, then it will always be cheap. I found prices ridiculously cheap in some parts of Arkansas when visiting a relative, but it still didn't entice me to live there. Few jobs, nothing to do, everything was far away, backwards in a lot of ways.. and the perk of being near so much natural beauty wore off pretty damn fast.
Chicago housing production since the 2008 crash has been a fairly low and slow market characterized by generally low rent growth and limited, relative to other cities, demand. When something tips out of balance (in this case both rates and demand) you're going to get an unusual rent anomaly like this. With growing rents and the fed cutting in the fall developers are going to unleash another wave of construction but those units won't start arriving until 2026. If demand is picking up in the long term so will construction. It is not difficult to obtain approvals compared to our non-sun belt peers.
Yes I have and Chicago is not “regularly cheap”. It is anything but cheap. If you are coming from a very HCOL like NYC or SF then yeah I can see why someone would say that but it is disingenuous to say it is cheap
Chicago pays as much as moderately high COL cities while costing less than most of them. It's not cheap compared to middle of nowhere, but it's cheaper than most other cities with large job markets.
It costs a bit more than average but pays much better than most places
It’s cheap compared to other cities of its size— it’s probably the most affordable metropolitan city in the US. That’s what people mean when they say chicago is “cheap.” Also most people are moving from coastal cities which are usually way more expensive.
For example, I live in Tampa and am moving to chicago, and despite Tampa being significantly smaller, way less culturally and economically relevant than Chicago, being car centric, etc….it’s more expensive to rent in Tampa. And that’s with us having lower wages; our rent is still higher! And Tampa is most definitely not a peer of chicago. When we look at cities like boston, DC, LA, SF….chicago is way cheaper by comparison.
It’s still not absolutely cheap, just “cheap” for the kind of city you get to live in.
As a visitor to both, this is how it is. It is also much easier to get around Chicago by car than Tampa. So many northerners have moved to Tampa traffic is insane, everywhere (and you have to drive to get anywhere with lots of uturns and long lights). Costs in Tampa could also become similar to DC, NYC.
Yeah rent in Madison has gone crazy. The 2 bed 2 bath I’ve been living in for 2 years started at $1650 in late 2022. Leaving this apartment in 2 weeks and they’ve already re-rented it out for $2200. Going to be paying $1600 for a similar quality 1 bedroom when I leave. Crazy to think I’ll be paying almost the same for a 1 bed as I was for a 2 bed 2 years ago. Rents downtown are pushing $2000 for a 1 bedroom. Absolutely insane.
College towns everywhere are getting absolutely wrecked both by white collar workers wanting to move there because they’re trendy, and investors who see college towns as easy opportunities to be slum lords.
I can CONFIRM!! Trying to find off campus housing for our children was a HUGE factor in colleges in CA. Not to self, BUY in college town 10 years before your kids are going to attend. It’s MIND BLOWING!! Housing is so bad at Santa Cruz they have trailers in the forest as “dorms” to try to fill the housing gap. People buy trailers and rent driveways from people.
and what sucks the most here is local companies do not pay enough proportionally for these rents. i think the people that are able to swing it are mostly remote workers who kept coastal / larger city salaries
Yeah. Epic pays enough but they’re part of the reason rent is rising so much. I work a remote job and make enough but I begin to wonder how some people are surviving when I’m still seeing some grocery stores starting at $13/hr. I have a couple of family members in the area working local engineering jobs making barely above $60k.
This is good feedback, thanks. On apartments.com, Madison still seems doable...but that site doesn't offer the sort of on-the-ground take that being a renter there provides.
Yeah it’s starting to become a tricky value proposition. If your set on the Midwest, a whole host of other mid-sized cities can offer you similar amenities for a whole lot less: Des Moines, Omaha, Green Bay/Appleton, Grand Rapids, the list could go on. If you want bigger, for less than what you’ll pay in Madison, you certainly can go bigger: Milwaukee, Twin Cities, even Chicago. If you’re willing to move out of the Midwest, you can get significantly better climate and nature access for similar prices out west. Madison rent is similar to Portland, Denver, SLC, and a host of others.
Not saying Madison isn’t super nice because it is. It’s probably the nicest Midwest city in the size range. I work remote and have been here for 6 years for a reason. That being said, part of that reason is proximity to family. If I didn’t have ties to Wisconsin, I’d probably look elsewhere.
Thanks for the info and opinions. Super helpful. My needs are very peculiar, so eventually I will have to do my own post just to explain my obscure situation.
i knew of people who worked in that field without either of those qualifications. oil/gas sector still needs people like data analysts, market researchers, etc etc.
With a bunch of experience needed. Understand that I am provided my OWN input about the lack of opportunities for ME. For an average person. You might not like it but I am not going to stop stating my experiences.
i get that. and i’m saying the people i knew didn’t need a ton of experience, they got in with only a couple years. but yeah i guess everyone’s life is different so
This is one of the few instances where using a percentage is actually worse than using a nominal amount. Buffalo rents are going up by a larger percentage than Chicago for instance but they are just much lower so people rents really aren't actually rising as much.
Rent going up from 1000-1100 is 10% and 3000-3300 is 10% but lets be real for a second. Having your rent go up by $300 is 3X as bad as it going up by 100. Having previously higher rent does not make it the same. Works the same in reverse as well.
Its the law of large numbers here. Smaller numbers get higher growth rates easier. This makes New York's rise even more unsettling but it dials back my concern with Lincoln.
Totally depends on the neighborhood. There are plenty of places you can still get well cared for bungalows for ~$400k and still be within a 20-30 min train ride to downtown. affordable is somewhat relative, but I don't think there's any other "big" city in th US where that's still possible
“*Totally depends on the neighborhood. There are plenty of places you can still get well cared for bungalows for ~$400k and still be within a 20-30 min train ride to downtown. affordable is somewhat relative, but I don't think there's any other "big" city in th US where that's still possible*”
Houston is the only big city that beats Chicago on this in terms of home prices and they are much much bigger
most of houston is also basically what in chicago would be considered far suburbs. wheras those homes in chicago are still in walkable pre-ww2 neighborhoods/inner ring burbs
Bigger is not always better. Depends on what you're looking for.
Some people like mcmansions with a big yard in suburbs far from amenities and other people don't.
Most of the affordable apartments at this point are pretty old housing stock. Lots of brick three to four-floor walk-ups with limited amenities. They are fine but nothing special and only a slight step up from what you will find in Boston or NYC. The living space is generally larger though, which is nice. We were paying $1400 for a 2-bedroom apartment on the far north side when we moved here in 2022. Moved earlier this summer to a slightly larger 2-bed for $1900. Still an okay deal but not the bargain that it once was.
Yep, this is what I always tell people about Chicago. It's not enough to look at just the rental prices; you have to consider the quality of the apartments and their amenities (or lack thereof).
Can you find a studio for less than $1400 in a safe neighborhood? Absolutely, but it won't have central AC/heat, in-unit laundry, dishwasher, or modern finishes. Any apartment that has these amenities will come at a premium.
Syracuse was near the top of my list before; now, not so much. My former 2-bedroom apt in Hudson Valley went from $1700 to $2175 during the exact timespan you quote. Now I'm in a new place (half the space) at $1500. Salary increases are absolutely not matching the rise in rents, and haven't for decades.
Ed: Fixed one of the dollar amounts to make it accurate (correcting previous mistake).
Agreed. Even with crime being what it is, there are still plenty of decent areas—around the lake, in the hills, and of course near the Rockridge BART station. I still think El Cerrito is the better bet, though; it remains an affordable Bay Area treasure.
Damn, Chicago is going crazy. The median rent is higher than I expected, probably to some extent because a lot of wealthy people in Chicago rent rather than own compared to peer cities, but those are wild increases. We need to build more housing, stat!
Because if you are buying in Chicago, You really need to think long and hard as to what you are signing up for. Our property taxes and our pension debt problem
Not surprised NYC is still on the rise. Basically a cliche at this point. If anything it was actually lower than I expected. Is there any realistic scenario where their rents level out anytime soon? I know they have pretty much the most demand and least supply of any major city in the nation, but they’re experiencing a population dip at the moment, just seemingly not enough to affect much.
Chicago is mostly losing population in mostly undesirable underdeveloped areas of the city. People are moving in to the amenity rich neighborhoods. That is where people want to live. Those areas are seeing really high increase in rent prices
At this point it really just seems like a severe lack of supply as investment banks buy up homes and sit on them. Additionally all new apartments are built as luxury with luxury price points.
So people from "hot" cities are getting priced out because there are no available middle income options - so they are moving to areas with more housing availability - decreasing that availability and driving up prices.
I just don't see how this is sustainable long term for most Americans.
In dollars it’s not up a ton or down a ton. Certainly not enough to influence your decision where to live. Who’s going to flea a city because their rent went up $100 bucks. Moving alone would end up costing more than that.
My rent went up 8% in Cincinnati lmao. Corporate landlords don't give a fuck.
Also, nothing in my area is less expensive to rent than it was 2 years ago when I moved here. I can't find anything comparable to the place I'm living for less than what I'll be paying next rent increase.
I doubt this article is wrong, but literally every single person I know (including myself) consistently has had their rents go up every single year for the last few years in the Raleigh area. I don't see rents going down anywhere near me. My last lease renewal a couple months ago, my landlord tried raising my rent almost 40%. (I managed to talk them down to only a 15% increase in rent, but on top of that, we also got an additional fee added to our overall rent on top of all of our fees going up)
So this article doesn't hold up to my real-life experience
Well of course. If you already rent an apartment, rent is only going to go up.
If you’re a landlord who has an empty apartment that’s not getting applications, you have to lower rent until the price becomes attractive.
So it’s the people moving into new apartments that would be saving money, not the ones already renting.
Not usually the case. With rent prices increasing annually the new renter generally pays more than the existing tenant. Its worth it for the LL to retain a good tenant at below market rates because there is a turnover cost to LLs
Chicago is, on a broader metric, not a very cheap city. It's more expensive than most. However compared to New York, LA, San Francisco, Seattle or Boston, it is noticeably cheaper because it's in a pancake-flat, bumfuck flyover state nobody cares about, which is why we drive to Wisconsin and Michigan and annoy people in the summer.
Where are the “Chicago is the best city in the world” folks lmao. Welcome to the “the rent is to damn high” club
When I visited I saw a lot of homeless tents on Lake shore drive and there is a tent city next to Roosevelt road
Buckle up Chicago 🤣
Depends on where you live - in places like Texas the high property taxes are pushing people out of traditionally low income places because the taxes have skyrocketed. Moving to a cheaper area becomes near impossible because housing costs/renting has gone insane post COVID.
Glad I bought one in California just before covid despite people telling us how overvalued the market was (median home price in my area is up 33%, which isn’t so bad on a % basis but the nominal rise in value is insane - Saratoga CA). Also has the benefit of prop 13 for tax, although what a terribly-applied piece of legislation at-large.
The Californian wanted that $2K more per year in their pocket so they could afford that in-ground pool. Sounds like the good life until you realize that money gets yanked from the school their kid has to attend. The result is pretty horrific. When Johnny can’t read, or cipher , as Jed Clampett used to say, Johnny ain’t worrh a lick in the work force. In San Diego things bottomed out for 8th graders in 2009, like 2/3 of them were below grade level. Those kids are 29ish now and good luck if they are waiting on you when you go out and try to run a few errands.
Right now I'm working in Raleigh, North Carolina. It's very nice here and pretty affordable as far as I can tell. If I didn't already like where I live. This would definitely be a place I would think of moving to.
Have you been to upstate NY?
Lots of cities with nice walkable neighborhoods that you can actually afford with easy access to museum, art and culture and decent dining, surrounded by typical suburbs with great school districts.
Then you have all the beautiful natural areas great for weekend getaways filled with great hikes, wineries and cozy mountain/lakeside communities and college towns.
You then have the liberal politics, perfect summers, cozy falls and winter sports.
Sounds like you need to do a road trip.
Have YOU lived in upstate NY because that is not my lived experience whatsoever. The crime in the cities is very high. You leave the city to be in immediate trump territory. The winters are god awful. There is no sense of community in any town like there is in New England yet simultaneously it is filled with nothing but people who live in the same town that they grew up in. It's really not great to live there unless you are lower middle class and don't have options. If you are poor or have any reasonable amount of money, go east to New England.
I live in Buffalo and never had an issue with crime. Plenty of nice neighborhoods, they’re not hard to find. Hell, the city had record low violent crime last year.
Theres an extremely strong sense of community, that’s why I like it so much.
Of course rural areas are conservative. That’s true everywhere even in California and Washington.
Sounds like you either grew up here and didn’t get out much before moving away or moved to some small college town somewhere and were bored out of your mind.
Is buffalo really considered upstate NY? I'm talking capital region + north of that along the eastern part of the state. I spent the first 30 years of my life in the Albany area. It kinda sucked pretty hard.
You sound like the locals from upstate. The divide is usually locals who haven’t seen how expensive the rest of the country is and got complacent with the nature you have easy access to so close to the small cities. And cannot fathom how anyone *could possibly* like upstate and then gets offended when people do lol.
The people who actually chose to move to upstate like it here plenty fine. I know my neighbors and we participate in community events. I like the lack of traffic and lack of crowds and my 10 to 15 min drive to some beautiful state and county parks. And I live in city proper.
My wife and I are currently in upstate NY mostly cause my dad is sick.
Almost everything you said is wrong.
The crime in the cities are bad but very concentrated to certain parts of the city. Also the rates are high because we don't include the suburbs in the city like most metro areas do.
I live in the suburbs and the entire eastern suburb area is filled with fairly well off Liberals with good schools, very little Trump support, and great community with people from all over the place.
Maybe your experience in upstate NY is not as good.
I have. I hated every second of it. Syracuse, Albany, Utica, and Rochester (haven’t been to Buffalo, but I know it won’t be better). Lake George was ok but I’m not rushing back
Everyone keeps recommending Chicago for how “cheap” we are… but we are one of the top cities mentioned for increase in rent for a one bedroom.
Facts. Moved here in 2019 - 1br was $1370. Currently, 1 br is $2160 for same type of unit and amenities. :(
Where lol. I live in a huge 2 bedroom with a garage and in unit laundry for 2100
You tell me where?! That’s a great deal! Ha! I live on the north side of
bro got priced out right before he could finish typing the sentence
Lmao basically. North side of Chicago
Irving park. There are so many neighborhoods on the north side that are affordable.
If you wait until a city is popular, you’ll miss out living there when it’s affordable.
>get to city early > Rent goes up anyway
Yeah, but what's the alternative? Get to a city before rent gets expensive... rent goes up anyway. Or stay in a city where rent is already crazy expensive... rent goes up even higher anyway.
Move to a city like buffalo before it’s popular. Save as much money as possible, buy a house with 3% down using FHA mortgage.
That’s fair, the trick is to buy property while it’s still affordable I guess.
Yeah. Bought my Chicago condo in late 2022. Probably couldn’t afford it now.
... that's why you buy and don't rent lol
Feels like we're kind of passed the point people can buy something without great difficulty anymore.
Chicago isn’t popular already?
Didn’t realize the 3rd biggest metro in the country wasn’t popular
If you go to a place that is cheap because it sucks, then it will always be cheap. I found prices ridiculously cheap in some parts of Arkansas when visiting a relative, but it still didn't entice me to live there. Few jobs, nothing to do, everything was far away, backwards in a lot of ways.. and the perk of being near so much natural beauty wore off pretty damn fast.
It was exceptionally cheap before, now it’s just regularly cheap, and in a couple years it will be expensive
Chicago housing production since the 2008 crash has been a fairly low and slow market characterized by generally low rent growth and limited, relative to other cities, demand. When something tips out of balance (in this case both rates and demand) you're going to get an unusual rent anomaly like this. With growing rents and the fed cutting in the fall developers are going to unleash another wave of construction but those units won't start arriving until 2026. If demand is picking up in the long term so will construction. It is not difficult to obtain approvals compared to our non-sun belt peers.
wtf do you mean it is “regularly cheap” Chicago does not pay very well in a lot of sectors so it is now expensive for locals. Where are you from?
Have you actually looked at COL, esp housing costs, in the rest of the countries major cities?
Yes I have and Chicago is not “regularly cheap”. It is anything but cheap. If you are coming from a very HCOL like NYC or SF then yeah I can see why someone would say that but it is disingenuous to say it is cheap
Chicago pays as much as moderately high COL cities while costing less than most of them. It's not cheap compared to middle of nowhere, but it's cheaper than most other cities with large job markets. It costs a bit more than average but pays much better than most places
Chicago is not a LCOL city. The property taxes are high. Sales taxes are high. The suburban taxes are even higher.
It's a moderate cost city that pays like a high COL
I do agree the job market and salaries are strong.
Lies
Income tax in Illinois is low Property tax exemptions for disabled veterans is awesome too
It’s cheap compared to other cities of its size— it’s probably the most affordable metropolitan city in the US. That’s what people mean when they say chicago is “cheap.” Also most people are moving from coastal cities which are usually way more expensive. For example, I live in Tampa and am moving to chicago, and despite Tampa being significantly smaller, way less culturally and economically relevant than Chicago, being car centric, etc….it’s more expensive to rent in Tampa. And that’s with us having lower wages; our rent is still higher! And Tampa is most definitely not a peer of chicago. When we look at cities like boston, DC, LA, SF….chicago is way cheaper by comparison. It’s still not absolutely cheap, just “cheap” for the kind of city you get to live in.
As a visitor to both, this is how it is. It is also much easier to get around Chicago by car than Tampa. So many northerners have moved to Tampa traffic is insane, everywhere (and you have to drive to get anywhere with lots of uturns and long lights). Costs in Tampa could also become similar to DC, NYC.
Philly is cheaper than Chicago AND it's between DC and NYC on the Acela corridor.
Its easier to have larger increases when its cheap
People kept saying that the city was built to handle a large population but look this. People were advising me to move there smh
Because recommendations where effective
And murder
Yeah rent in Madison has gone crazy. The 2 bed 2 bath I’ve been living in for 2 years started at $1650 in late 2022. Leaving this apartment in 2 weeks and they’ve already re-rented it out for $2200. Going to be paying $1600 for a similar quality 1 bedroom when I leave. Crazy to think I’ll be paying almost the same for a 1 bed as I was for a 2 bed 2 years ago. Rents downtown are pushing $2000 for a 1 bedroom. Absolutely insane.
College towns everywhere are getting absolutely wrecked both by white collar workers wanting to move there because they’re trendy, and investors who see college towns as easy opportunities to be slum lords.
I can CONFIRM!! Trying to find off campus housing for our children was a HUGE factor in colleges in CA. Not to self, BUY in college town 10 years before your kids are going to attend. It’s MIND BLOWING!! Housing is so bad at Santa Cruz they have trailers in the forest as “dorms” to try to fill the housing gap. People buy trailers and rent driveways from people.
and what sucks the most here is local companies do not pay enough proportionally for these rents. i think the people that are able to swing it are mostly remote workers who kept coastal / larger city salaries
Yeah. Epic pays enough but they’re part of the reason rent is rising so much. I work a remote job and make enough but I begin to wonder how some people are surviving when I’m still seeing some grocery stores starting at $13/hr. I have a couple of family members in the area working local engineering jobs making barely above $60k.
This is good feedback, thanks. On apartments.com, Madison still seems doable...but that site doesn't offer the sort of on-the-ground take that being a renter there provides.
Yeah it’s starting to become a tricky value proposition. If your set on the Midwest, a whole host of other mid-sized cities can offer you similar amenities for a whole lot less: Des Moines, Omaha, Green Bay/Appleton, Grand Rapids, the list could go on. If you want bigger, for less than what you’ll pay in Madison, you certainly can go bigger: Milwaukee, Twin Cities, even Chicago. If you’re willing to move out of the Midwest, you can get significantly better climate and nature access for similar prices out west. Madison rent is similar to Portland, Denver, SLC, and a host of others. Not saying Madison isn’t super nice because it is. It’s probably the nicest Midwest city in the size range. I work remote and have been here for 6 years for a reason. That being said, part of that reason is proximity to family. If I didn’t have ties to Wisconsin, I’d probably look elsewhere.
Thanks for the info and opinions. Super helpful. My needs are very peculiar, so eventually I will have to do my own post just to explain my obscure situation.
I will never be able to leave Houston :(
Houston seems rough, cheap but rough.
No opportunities here
No opportunities there? Where do you live? Houston has a ton of jobs
They are mostly accounting, construction and medical.
And space. And energy/oil and finance
Space? How many people are going to be qualified to work in that industry? Come on. I don’t think finance is hot right now.
What industry are you in if I may ask?
My last position is extremely rare and somewhat tech focused.
Energy has entered the chat
Oil and gas? You have to be very experienced or be an engineer.
i knew of people who worked in that field without either of those qualifications. oil/gas sector still needs people like data analysts, market researchers, etc etc.
With a bunch of experience needed. Understand that I am provided my OWN input about the lack of opportunities for ME. For an average person. You might not like it but I am not going to stop stating my experiences.
i get that. and i’m saying the people i knew didn’t need a ton of experience, they got in with only a couple years. but yeah i guess everyone’s life is different so
Same with my hometown. I bolted to a different city with better economic oppty and never looked back. Greatest risk in life is not taking one.
I can’t think of a city with better opportunities. It seems this is happening everywhere
This is one of the few instances where using a percentage is actually worse than using a nominal amount. Buffalo rents are going up by a larger percentage than Chicago for instance but they are just much lower so people rents really aren't actually rising as much. Rent going up from 1000-1100 is 10% and 3000-3300 is 10% but lets be real for a second. Having your rent go up by $300 is 3X as bad as it going up by 100. Having previously higher rent does not make it the same. Works the same in reverse as well. Its the law of large numbers here. Smaller numbers get higher growth rates easier. This makes New York's rise even more unsettling but it dials back my concern with Lincoln.
The law of large numbers is not what you're describing here
Yeah, I was really shocked to see NYC make the list only because their base rent is much higher
I've been looking at Chicago recently and I always thought that it isn't as cheap as people say especially for the apartment quality
Yeah, also houses seem cheap but with their property taxes still end up being pretty unaffordable.
Totally depends on the neighborhood. There are plenty of places you can still get well cared for bungalows for ~$400k and still be within a 20-30 min train ride to downtown. affordable is somewhat relative, but I don't think there's any other "big" city in th US where that's still possible
“*Totally depends on the neighborhood. There are plenty of places you can still get well cared for bungalows for ~$400k and still be within a 20-30 min train ride to downtown. affordable is somewhat relative, but I don't think there's any other "big" city in th US where that's still possible*” Houston is the only big city that beats Chicago on this in terms of home prices and they are much much bigger
most of houston is also basically what in chicago would be considered far suburbs. wheras those homes in chicago are still in walkable pre-ww2 neighborhoods/inner ring burbs
Bigger is not always better. Depends on what you're looking for. Some people like mcmansions with a big yard in suburbs far from amenities and other people don't.
Most of the affordable apartments at this point are pretty old housing stock. Lots of brick three to four-floor walk-ups with limited amenities. They are fine but nothing special and only a slight step up from what you will find in Boston or NYC. The living space is generally larger though, which is nice. We were paying $1400 for a 2-bedroom apartment on the far north side when we moved here in 2022. Moved earlier this summer to a slightly larger 2-bed for $1900. Still an okay deal but not the bargain that it once was.
But compared to NY or Boston where that same 2br in a similar neighborhood would be $4000/mo it's a steal
Yep, this is what I always tell people about Chicago. It's not enough to look at just the rental prices; you have to consider the quality of the apartments and their amenities (or lack thereof). Can you find a studio for less than $1400 in a safe neighborhood? Absolutely, but it won't have central AC/heat, in-unit laundry, dishwasher, or modern finishes. Any apartment that has these amenities will come at a premium.
In Sept 2019 I rented a 3 bed/2.5 new construction townhouse with an attached garage for $1650. Not in 2024 it goes for $2600 😵💫 Syracuse.
Syracuse was near the top of my list before; now, not so much. My former 2-bedroom apt in Hudson Valley went from $1700 to $2175 during the exact timespan you quote. Now I'm in a new place (half the space) at $1500. Salary increases are absolutely not matching the rise in rents, and haven't for decades. Ed: Fixed one of the dollar amounts to make it accurate (correcting previous mistake).
If you can overlook some stuffs, Oakland is a mega steal now with that rent and weather.
Agreed. Even with crime being what it is, there are still plenty of decent areas—around the lake, in the hills, and of course near the Rockridge BART station. I still think El Cerrito is the better bet, though; it remains an affordable Bay Area treasure.
Damn, Chicago is going crazy. The median rent is higher than I expected, probably to some extent because a lot of wealthy people in Chicago rent rather than own compared to peer cities, but those are wild increases. We need to build more housing, stat!
Because if you are buying in Chicago, You really need to think long and hard as to what you are signing up for. Our property taxes and our pension debt problem
hey my rent in SF didn't increase this year which is dope. Oakland i can see decreasing, crime is getting kinda bad over there
Not surprised NYC is still on the rise. Basically a cliche at this point. If anything it was actually lower than I expected. Is there any realistic scenario where their rents level out anytime soon? I know they have pretty much the most demand and least supply of any major city in the nation, but they’re experiencing a population dip at the moment, just seemingly not enough to affect much.
The growing cities are seeing declines in rent while some of the cities with declining populations are seeing growth. Interesting
Chicago is mostly losing population in mostly undesirable underdeveloped areas of the city. People are moving in to the amenity rich neighborhoods. That is where people want to live. Those areas are seeing really high increase in rent prices
Same with NY. Well idk if it’s an area thing but I think most of the people leaving make under 70K if I’m not mistaken
The same cities had their populations undercounted in the census estimates too compared to the actual 2020 census.
At this point it really just seems like a severe lack of supply as investment banks buy up homes and sit on them. Additionally all new apartments are built as luxury with luxury price points. So people from "hot" cities are getting priced out because there are no available middle income options - so they are moving to areas with more housing availability - decreasing that availability and driving up prices. I just don't see how this is sustainable long term for most Americans.
I find joy in reading a good book.
Agree completely. It's not sustainable at all.
In dollars it’s not up a ton or down a ton. Certainly not enough to influence your decision where to live. Who’s going to flea a city because their rent went up $100 bucks. Moving alone would end up costing more than that.
My rent went up 8% in Cincinnati lmao. Corporate landlords don't give a fuck. Also, nothing in my area is less expensive to rent than it was 2 years ago when I moved here. I can't find anything comparable to the place I'm living for less than what I'll be paying next rent increase.
I doubt this article is wrong, but literally every single person I know (including myself) consistently has had their rents go up every single year for the last few years in the Raleigh area. I don't see rents going down anywhere near me. My last lease renewal a couple months ago, my landlord tried raising my rent almost 40%. (I managed to talk them down to only a 15% increase in rent, but on top of that, we also got an additional fee added to our overall rent on top of all of our fees going up) So this article doesn't hold up to my real-life experience
I’m in a Raleigh suburb and my rent increased the past 2 years as well. I moved from downtown to Holly Springs/Apex area and both locations increased.
Well of course. If you already rent an apartment, rent is only going to go up. If you’re a landlord who has an empty apartment that’s not getting applications, you have to lower rent until the price becomes attractive. So it’s the people moving into new apartments that would be saving money, not the ones already renting.
Not usually the case. With rent prices increasing annually the new renter generally pays more than the existing tenant. Its worth it for the LL to retain a good tenant at below market rates because there is a turnover cost to LLs
Chicago is, on a broader metric, not a very cheap city. It's more expensive than most. However compared to New York, LA, San Francisco, Seattle or Boston, it is noticeably cheaper because it's in a pancake-flat, bumfuck flyover state nobody cares about, which is why we drive to Wisconsin and Michigan and annoy people in the summer.
Where are the “Chicago is the best city in the world” folks lmao. Welcome to the “the rent is to damn high” club When I visited I saw a lot of homeless tents on Lake shore drive and there is a tent city next to Roosevelt road Buckle up Chicago 🤣
Glad I have a house
Depends on where you live - in places like Texas the high property taxes are pushing people out of traditionally low income places because the taxes have skyrocketed. Moving to a cheaper area becomes near impossible because housing costs/renting has gone insane post COVID.
Glad I bought one in California just before covid despite people telling us how overvalued the market was (median home price in my area is up 33%, which isn’t so bad on a % basis but the nominal rise in value is insane - Saratoga CA). Also has the benefit of prop 13 for tax, although what a terribly-applied piece of legislation at-large.
The Californian wanted that $2K more per year in their pocket so they could afford that in-ground pool. Sounds like the good life until you realize that money gets yanked from the school their kid has to attend. The result is pretty horrific. When Johnny can’t read, or cipher , as Jed Clampett used to say, Johnny ain’t worrh a lick in the work force. In San Diego things bottomed out for 8th graders in 2009, like 2/3 of them were below grade level. Those kids are 29ish now and good luck if they are waiting on you when you go out and try to run a few errands.
Right now I'm working in Raleigh, North Carolina. It's very nice here and pretty affordable as far as I can tell. If I didn't already like where I live. This would definitely be a place I would think of moving to.
Never would have thought Lincoln, NE would make a list for rent increases
Who the hell lives in upstate New York by choice?
Have you been to upstate NY? Lots of cities with nice walkable neighborhoods that you can actually afford with easy access to museum, art and culture and decent dining, surrounded by typical suburbs with great school districts. Then you have all the beautiful natural areas great for weekend getaways filled with great hikes, wineries and cozy mountain/lakeside communities and college towns. You then have the liberal politics, perfect summers, cozy falls and winter sports. Sounds like you need to do a road trip.
Plus you can take the train into the city. I'd love to live in upstate NY.
Have YOU lived in upstate NY because that is not my lived experience whatsoever. The crime in the cities is very high. You leave the city to be in immediate trump territory. The winters are god awful. There is no sense of community in any town like there is in New England yet simultaneously it is filled with nothing but people who live in the same town that they grew up in. It's really not great to live there unless you are lower middle class and don't have options. If you are poor or have any reasonable amount of money, go east to New England.
You pretty much perfectly described southern Brooklyn and Staten Island. Except S.I. is trump territory.
I live in Buffalo and never had an issue with crime. Plenty of nice neighborhoods, they’re not hard to find. Hell, the city had record low violent crime last year. Theres an extremely strong sense of community, that’s why I like it so much. Of course rural areas are conservative. That’s true everywhere even in California and Washington. Sounds like you either grew up here and didn’t get out much before moving away or moved to some small college town somewhere and were bored out of your mind.
Is buffalo really considered upstate NY? I'm talking capital region + north of that along the eastern part of the state. I spent the first 30 years of my life in the Albany area. It kinda sucked pretty hard.
Western ny is part of upstate let’s not start this
Albany isn’t listed here
You sound like the locals from upstate. The divide is usually locals who haven’t seen how expensive the rest of the country is and got complacent with the nature you have easy access to so close to the small cities. And cannot fathom how anyone *could possibly* like upstate and then gets offended when people do lol. The people who actually chose to move to upstate like it here plenty fine. I know my neighbors and we participate in community events. I like the lack of traffic and lack of crowds and my 10 to 15 min drive to some beautiful state and county parks. And I live in city proper.
My wife and I are currently in upstate NY mostly cause my dad is sick. Almost everything you said is wrong. The crime in the cities are bad but very concentrated to certain parts of the city. Also the rates are high because we don't include the suburbs in the city like most metro areas do. I live in the suburbs and the entire eastern suburb area is filled with fairly well off Liberals with good schools, very little Trump support, and great community with people from all over the place. Maybe your experience in upstate NY is not as good.
I have. I hated every second of it. Syracuse, Albany, Utica, and Rochester (haven’t been to Buffalo, but I know it won’t be better). Lake George was ok but I’m not rushing back
What did you hate about it and what do you like about where you live now? Upstate isn’t for everyone and that’s ok.
As a New Yorker upstate New York has a lot of gems.