Chicagoland rent ‘out of reach’

April 7th, 2008

If all the current news about the coming recession/possible recession/current recession (whatever they’re declaring it today) wasn’t depressing enough, this article in today’s Chicago Tribune won’t do much to cheer you up.

If Chicagoland dwellers didn’t have enough to worry about already with the recession, job cuts, the rising costs of fuel, utilities, taxes and food, then this ought to really knock the wind out of their sails: Apartment rents are rising, too. The situation is bad enough for the middle class, but it hits especially hard for the working poor and extremely low-income people. A person working for minimum wage, which in the state of Illinois is $7.50 per hour, means that worker would have to work 97 hours a week all 52 weeks of the year to afford the average median apartment rent in the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet Metropolitan Area, which is $944 per month for a two bedroom market rate apartment. I must note that market-rate 2 bedroom apartments in the city of Chicago tend to be higher, and in the far suburbs tend to be a bit lower.

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