It's Hard out There for a Renter

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Mar 24, 2006 3:30PM

Hope you got that first-quarter raise you were betting on getting. The Sun-Times is reporting that Chicago area apartment owners are planning to make the most substantial rent hike in 5 years with this spring's leases. That means that rents will go up from 3% in some suburbs to 11% in neighborhoods like Streeterville.

The reason is one of those "good thing causes bad thing" cycles that you just can't get around. So, we've had steady job growth, which is great, right? But as people move into the region, fewer apartments are available. Also, lots of rental buildings have been converted to condos, and not that many apartments have been built lately.

Everyone's saying that it's been a renter's market for years, that rents have been flat since 2001, but all that's about to change. Landlords have faced higher costs for heating, property taxes and insurance, and to compensate for that, rents will go up, and it will be a landlord's market.

The sort of good news is that most of the rent increases will be done on the most expensive units, like those that charge $1,700/month and higher. This is only good news because most of us aren't living in those units anyway, right? Or maybe Chicagoist is the poor friend in the group. But it's good to see that the hikes will be applied to those who maybe can afford to pay a little more and not to everyone.

Also, maybe builders will start to get a clue and realize that they shouldn't build everything as condos when there's still a big demand for more apartments.

Image via rachelleb