According to a recent news release from RentJuice, the “average cost of renting a home in Chicago is $1,410. Rent for a 3-bedroom in Wrigleyville “is below average: average rent for a three-bedroom unit in Wrigleyville is $2107, and average rent for a three-bedroom unit in Chicago overall is $2204.”
That’s only the tip of RentJuice’s idiocy iceberg:
Chicago’s north side has earned a reputation for having cheaper rents than the rest of the city. Neighborhoods like Rogers Park, Edgewater and Uptown have particularly affordable rental listings that are well below Chicago’s average prices.
Consumers in need of an inexpensive place to set up shop should check out Albany Park, where a studio can be leased for an average of $614, the lowest average cost of an apartment in Chicago. Thanks to the addition of several large residential buildings in the neighborhood, Albany Park can be labeled an up-and-coming neighborhood. Once known solely for Korean barbecue, some say Albany Park now offers the best ethnic cuisine in the city, attracting the foodie crowd. Years down the line, renting a home in Albany Park could be looked at as much more than a cost savings strategy.
Perhaps these numbers accurately reflect RentJuice’s pathetically incomplete data set of Chicago rentals. If that’s the case, the news release should have made less sweeping statements. As written, it’s laughable and deeply misleading to renters. But then, RentJuice’s customer base includes apartment rental services – an industry whose business model is premised on misleading renters.
I’ll be kept awake for a while pondering how anyone could characterize a neighborhood of more than 50,000 people whose population is half Hispanic as being “once known solely for Korean barbecue.”
The folks at Chicago Agent Magazine ran the news release without comment.