What have you seen your Chicago rents do over the years?

[Henry Lazerow]

Thought this would be a cool topic to see what Chicago BP investors seeing for real life rent growth in 2024? 

My Rogers Park small 550 sq ft 2brs were $1250 in 2020 then $1450 last year and this year got $1600 with 3 apps on the last listing. Many of my clients in Avondale and areas along the blue line have seen the strongest growth. 2 years ago rehabbed 2/1s we got $1750 in Avondale this year we got $2100 with 10 applications same unit. Another of my clients 2/1s that is on boarder of logan/Humboldt park used to go $1600 2 years ago and now went at $1900 with multiple applications probably could of put it in the $2000s will on next re-leasing. I have also noticed a change in the quality of tenants, it seems higher income earners are now renting for longer and also happy to live in the more working class areas. 

I have also noticed AIRBNB rents jumping. Last year was a slow year for airbnb and I was considering switching it back to LTR but this year has been high occupancy and bringing in $3000s in summer and $2000s in fall/winter, huge jump. 

The areas where I forecast the strongest future growth are Rogers Park, Albany Park and Portage Park. All seeing strong gentrification but still much cheaper then the fully gentrified areas. I think these neighborhoods have the potential to be high demand destination rentals due to parks, the lake, nightlife, easy transportation, etc. 

What are your favorite areas right now? 

[Daniel Baker]

Hey Henry!  You should get on @jasonwagner's distribution list for his Wagner report (google it).  We manage on the North side of the city and yes we have also seen large increases in the past few years.  For my company Lincoln Square has seen some of the largest increases.  I have had multiple showings in Lincoln park where people scheduled a showing just to show up and ask me if we had anything else in the area that was open because they had lost out on so many other apartments.  

[John Warren]

@Henry Lazerow this has been the strongest rental growth season for us on record. We have a large exposure in the suburbs like Berwyn, Forest Park or Cicero. We are seeing 1 bedroom rents up over 10% YTD. In some communities, the 1 bedroom apartments are up closer to 15%. It is insane. 

I am seeing a lot of strong rental growth in Chicago as well. Our Irving Park and Albany Park locations are seeing very good growth this year on the rent, and we are definitely getting high quality applications as well. 

[Henry Lazerow]

@John Warren thats awesome! Yeah the 1brs have done crazy good lately. I actually have a little 1br condo near my other building in Rogers Park contingent I close in 2 weeks its rented $1100 and I'm going to bring it up to $1350 maybe even try $1375-1400. Tenants been there 4 years paying the same way under market. 

[Brie Schmidt]

My Albany Park property got $1,300 in 2015 for a 2 bedroom and now I get $1,700 and have not updated it.  My 2+office was getting $1,450 in 2015 and now I get $1,900 with no improvements.  

[Jonathan Klemm]

Hey @Henry Lazerow - We have been able to raise our rents across the board and we have properties scattered around Chicago and suburbs.  Our highest rent increase was in Libertyville, where we own a condo.

Even our CHA/section 8 rent rentals allowed us to increase our rents about $75.

I also have an AirBnb in the Logan Square area...to be honest, it's really just been steady and consistent. We use pricelabs to adjust the rent, which seems to be up about 10% overall. I would expect it to be more, but our STR is quite simple, nothing fancy.

For the record - rents should being going up because so have the taxes...