What are parking spaces worth to Chicago tenants?

Comparing rent costs can be a confusing process. The rent for one friend’s apartment includes heat, the rent for another’s includes parking but not heat, while still another has everything included in his rent (including TiVo, the lucky jerk).

While these extra goodies may make it difficult to compare rents, they also make it difficult to figure out how much you’re actually paying for the goodie (because trust me, it’s never free). For those friends who knew how much they were paying each month to not have to circle the block ten times searching for street parking, I asked how much they were paying for their parking space, and how much they thought that space was worth.

One friend pays $25 a month to park her car behind her Rogers Park three-flat and considers it barely worth it. “The street parking here isn’t bad,” she said. “But for less than a dollar a day, I figure I might as well.” What if her landlords increased the cost of her parking space to $50 a month? “No way. For $50 a month, I can circle the block.”

Another friend in Lake View pays $110 a month to park in an outdoor space behind her three-flat, but thinks that the money is well spent.

“My last apartment [in Lake View] didn’t have parking, and I basically never drove because finding a new spot was a total pain,” she said. “To me, paying a little more each month is worth being able to drive to the grocery store, and not worry about carrying the bags ten blocks.”

Still another friend tacks a whopping $125 a month onto his rent for an indoor garage parking space behind his Pilsen apartment. “Crappy used car from mom and dad: $1,000; indoor parking: $125; hating the Chicago winter just a little bit less: priceless,” he said.

So how much do you pay for parking? In which neighborhood? Yo wants to know.

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