smartasset™ Reporting Chicagoans Need to Make over $75K to Afford a 2-Bedroom Apartment

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple years, chances are you’re at least somewhat familiar with how crazy Chicago’s rental market has been, especially within the past 12 months or so. But as you might expect, Chicago isn’t the only major market that is seeing rising rents, and in fact, the Windy City is still faring much better than in major coastal cities like San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles in terms of affordability.

According to a recent report from smartasset™, Chicago households need to be making just over $75,000 a year to afford the rent of a two-bedroom apartment, which assumes rent should be no more than 30% of a household’s income. For those of us living in Chicago, that’s a figure that may seem pretty daunting at first, but it’s still only 8th among major cities mentioned in the smartasset™ report, putting us behind San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington DC, Seattle, and Miami.

Although it may not seem like it, Chicago is also far down the list of cities with the fastest rise in rental rates, coming in 12th place behind L.A., Phoenix, Dallas, Miami, Detroit, San Francisco, Seattle, Riverside (CA), Washington D.C., Atlanta, and Houston.

As it stands, Los Angeles is where rent prices are jumping the highest, up over 17% from last year alone. For some perspective, Chicago rent prices have only jumped 1.7% since 2015, with a current market rent of $1,775 for a new two-bedroom apartment.