Apartment Market (Chicago, Lincoln, Noble: real estate, apartments, rentals)

[monksy]

I hope that this isn't a repeat of a previous question. [I couldn't find any in the search] However:

What is the apartment market like in Chicago? From my previous experience I've noticed that they don't have apartments any older than 3-4 weeks at most. Does the market start new for the next upcoming month after the calendar turns, is it the second week? To me it seems like there are usually more listings in the first 20 days and then there are fewer listings. [For example right now there are much fewer listings]

From my understanding, the listings tend to get filled pretty quickly.

[marothisu]

The apartment market is pretty hot and has been for awhile. Tons of places in the "downtown" area are currently under construction as well as some outside of that (i.e. Wicker Park, Lakeview, some planned for Logan Square, Noble Square, etc).

I'd say a majority of the leases expire either end of May or end of September/October. Management companies usually start asking their tenants 2-3 months in advance whether they'll be staying or not so starting now or end of March is a good time to start looking for some place with a lease beginning June 1. However, each lease is different, so you should always be looking.

Things can be hot, but not all listings get "sold" within a few weeks, but I think many do. Thing is to get in early on these things. Definitely don't try and leave it up to the last minute.

[Link N. Parker]

I agree with Marothisu, except most leases expire at the end of April. The Chicago rental market operates on a cycle the runs May 1 thru April 30. There is also a cycle that runs Oct 1 thru Sept 30. Most landlords try to run on th eMay cycle, but not all do. It just depends. You will notice that most years, there is a lot of inventory in Late Feb, March, and April, with start dates for May 1. The key is to start looking early, and if you see a good unit, GRAB IT, dont try to play the "I know I can find better" game, you may wind up with a less than desirable unit. The rental market is very competitive these days, partially because of the housing bust. See, during the housing boom, everyone was building condos and not many new rental were being built. So when the housing bust happened in 2007, there was not a lot of new or high quality units available. A lot of condos started to convert to rentals, but the high quality units in good locations go very quickly. Landlords have been siezing on this. There are numerous new construction projects out there, with some projects delivering 1000 rental units or more...this is good for the market, but when I checked the asking prices, some of these buildings are asking ridiculously high prices, like $1800/month for a 700 sq ft studio.

[Bird4Prez]

These are both good replies. The only thing I would add is the element of flexibility. Depending on where you are WILLING to live, you can get something reasonably priced anytime (and they may even cover a lot of utilities)......so that kind of allows you to pick and choose when you want to move regardless of market trends. I have lived in some buildings in gentrifying areas that allowed me to move in whenever. If you have a good tenant history, good credit, a job/a lot of money saved, and are not extremely picky.....you can sort of dictate things. This isn't anything like the NYC or SF markets (from what I have heard).

[Link N. Parker]

Bird4 is right, you CAN find great deals, it depends on what you are looking for, where you are willing to live, etc.

I think the key thing to note is, back to what I was saying before about the housing bust, there were no rentals being built for years, in the hotter areas....they were all condos...and then in the housing bust, no condos were beuing built either, but population kept increasing....but this was the case mostly in the hotter areas that have already been established...you cand find great deals in places like Noble Square, West Town, Ukranian Village, and Lincoln Square. And you can always find deals on places that might not be totally brand new, condo-quality or whatever...sometimes the best deals are in places you wouldnt know about; for example I found a 2-bed plus parking, rehabbed older unit, in Bucktown for $1100...it doesnt have the best view, and does not have a fireplace or anything fancy like that, but its a nice unit anyway.

[hlcc]

demand for apartment seems pretty high right now. Recently I used one of those self serve listing websites that uploads your property to the MLS database for my Loop apartment. The same day the listing got uploaded to the MLS, got 3 appointments to view the place and was able to hammer out a deal and rent out the place the next day.

[MassVt]

How about the reliability of Chicago Craigslist for apartments/houses?

[Link N. Parker]

There are a lot of fake listings on Craigslist, and even padmapper/padlister....you will see an ad for a unit that is **perfect*....perfect location, perfect amenities, and perfect price, but there will be no phone number, only an email address to contact the lister...so you send an email but dont hear anything back at all....Im thinking that either the listing was fake, and they are fishing for email addresses, or the listing simply rented quickly and the lister isnt politely removing the ad, and is rudely ignoring emails that come from people inquiring.

[Bird4Prez]

Craigslist is filled with dicey crap like Link mentioned. I think the Chicago Reader website's rental search engine is pretty good if someone is moving from far away:
Apartments and Rentals | Real Estate | Chicago Reader Classifieds

Also, IMO there are maybe 8-12 "hot" neighborhoods citywide where you would encounter any real difficulty finding a place at your own discretion. Certain further off neighborhoods have large apartment buildings advertising their vacancies and prices/amenities. So picking a neighborhood you want to live in and then walking the side streets is a good option (maybe old fashion). If the OP is intending to move here.......maybe specify what else you are looking for in a neighborhood. One of the best features of the city is that you can live in a quieter/further off neighborhood and still take advantage of everything the city has to offer.

[MassVt]

Thanks for the information; I'm sure that Craigslist has similar problems regardless of the city..

I've also never understood the need to actually "live" in the so-called "hotspots", when you can reside somewhere else, and just commute( by subway, bus, or car) to the nightlife areas..