The Apartment Rental Market: Experiencing the Winter Chill

It’s beginning to look a lot like winter in Chicago. The snow parking ban is in effect, Chicago’s Bears are waiting until next year, and apartment rental activity is experiencing traditional seasonal adjustments.

As of early January, average apartment rental rates are down 5.0% from the previous month, moving lower to $2,310 per month for studio apartments as well as one-, two, and three-bedroom or larger apartments. One month ago it was $2,430 per month. The average time it takes for landlords to rent a newly available unit increased to an average of 60 days, four days longer than in December.

This is not an uncommon occurrence. The prime apartment rental seasons are in May and October. Once those prime times have passed, rents typically, but not always, fall lower and it takes longer to lease units because of decreased demand. When looking more closely at the overall rental market in the City, studio apartments declined 4.9% to an average of $1,350 per month, one bedroom rents declined 3.0% to $1,920, and two bedroom rents declined 3.2% to $2,350 per month.

Pioneer Realty Group tracked apartment rents through early January across the City, in neighborhoods that included Logan Square, Hyde Park, Lake View, North Center, Rogers Park, and the Fulton Market/West Loop. The firm notes that despite declines in average rents across the city as a whole, there are markets where rents increased and the average days on the market (DOM) actually declined because of strong demand—even if it means moving in December or January.

In the West Loop, which includes the popular Fulton Market area, the average rents increased 7.8% to $3,480. However, units weren’t flying off the shelf. The average DOM was up just under 20% to 84 days.

Of the submarkets noted by Pioneer, Lake View had the most expensive two-bedroom units at $2,870 per month—a price that represented a 3.4% decline from one month ago. Rogers Park had the least expensive two-bedroom units at $1,870 per month.

As a category among the highlighted markets, studio apartments had the most neighborhood declines. Where studio rents across the City declined by 4.9%, the neighborhood declines included Logan Square, -18.3%; Lake View, -10%; Hyde Park, -7.6%; and West Loop, -1.6%. In the other markets, Rogers Park and North Center, declines were nominal.