Lauren Cortesi was a month into her apartment search when the thrill of finding a new home morphed into despair.
Picking through listings on Craigslist and in the Chicago Reader, Cortesi, 26, said she visited “glorified studios” advertised as one-bedrooms, “sterile” apartments that felt like hotel rooms and a particularly distressing home occupied for the past 10 years by a woman and her dozen cats.
Cortesi, who was looking for a one-bedroom after four years of living with roommates in Lakeview, said she was surprised at how little she could afford on her teacher’s salary.
“I had a total breakdown,” said Cortesi, who teaches 7th and 8th graders at Stone Academy in Rogers Park. “At one point I called my mom, and I just lost it.”
Cortesi seemed at peace after finally signing a Sept. 1 lease for a Ravenswood one-bedroom she found through the Apartment People, a Lakeview-based apartment search service.
But her angst-ridden apartment hunt is symptomatic of a rental climate that favors landlords and squeezes tenants.
Long gone are the days when Chicago renters were wooed with free parking, two months free rent, free gym memberships and free DVD players as landlords scrambled to fill vacancies. With the busy Sept. 1 and Oct. 1 move-in dates looming, people in the market for an apartment are finding higher rents, fierce competition — and little room for waffling.
While still more affordable and hospitable than its big-city counterparts on the coasts, Chicago’s rental market increasingly is compelling renters to sign checks on the spot because good apartments are snapped up almost immediately, agents say.
“I had, in a two-week period, four apartments get snatched from my clients,” said Jason Raider of Raider Realty, an independent rental consultant. “If something is attractive to you and other people, don’t be hesitant.”
The competition in trendy neighborhoods is particularly cutthroat. Apartments that pop up in Wicker Park and Bucktown “are gone in a day,” Raider said.
Finding affordable digs in Wicker Park and Bucktown has gotten so difficult that the artists and hipsters who pioneered those neighborhoods’ gentrification are now pushing into Pilsen, Bridgeport and Logan Square, Raider said. Renters who once wouldn’t consider living west of Western Avenue are shedding preconceived notions of where they “should” live.
“People are becoming more comfortable going past what they once considered an ‘acceptable border,’ ” Raider said.
With rents up more than $100 this fall over last in some neighborhoods, some people have no choice but to branch out.
Renters priced out of Lincoln Park and Lakeview — where one-bedrooms that cost $800 last year are now going for close to $1,000 — are heading farther north to Uptown, Buena Park, Edgewater and Rogers Park to stay along the Red Line, said Lindsey Chesen, an appointment scheduler at Chicago Apartment Finders. Consequently, those neighborhoods are seeing rent hikes of their own from about $650 a month for a one-bedroom last year to $800 this fall, she said.
Lincoln Square and Ravenswood also are new favorites among renters who increasingly are exploring areas outside the crowded Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Wicker Park and Bucktown circuit, said Apartment People CEO Ilene Collins. Rents there remain affordable, Collins said, and people appreciate the access to the Brown Line and a large pool of recently rehabbed units.
Other renters, discovering they won’t find a better deal than where they currently live, are just staying put, said Eric Scholl, Apartment People leasing manager.
“What I’m noticing is that people are looking for apartments and then deciding not to move and re-signing their lease,” Scholl said.
This fall’s squeeze is a continuation of a trend that began last year, when a drop in apartment vacancies allowed landlords to impose the steepest rent hikes in five years. The apartment vacancy rate in the Chicago area has continued to decline since then, from about 5.4 percent in the first quarter of 2006 to 5.3 percent the same period of 2007, according to Hendricks and Partners, a Chicago-based real estate broker. Rents increased by 3.1 percent this year over last, according to the firm.
Strong job growth has brought more people to Chicago looking for housing while higher mortgage interest rates have led some would-be home buyers to stick to renting. Condo conversions simultaneously pushed renters back into the search pool and removed rental properties from the market.
Also, “there are lots of people who are transitioning out of houses who didn’t realize the house would be so expensive,” said Bill Montana, senior investment partner with Hendricks and Partners. “The [landlords] we talk to seem to be getting those types of renters.”
Despite stiff competition, some renters do find happy endings.
Kestelle Wiersma, 26, said she is thrilled with her new Pilsen apartment, where she moved in July with Raider’s help after living with a roommate in a two-bedroom in Lincoln Park.
Wiersma, who said she moved because she wanted to live alone and get more apartment for her money, said in Pilsen she pays $850 a month for a “huge” one-bedroom plus office with granite countertops, stainless-steel appliances, a Jacuzzi bathtub and a porch. In Lincoln Park, Wiersma split the $1,400-per-month rent for a two-bedroom she said was about the same size as the Pilsen place and had water damage, cracked walls and unlevel floors.
While moving from homogenous Lincoln Park to the more diverse Pilsen — where she hadn’t spent much time — was a step out of Wiersma’s comfort zone, she said she’s glad she did it.
In Lincoln Park, Wiersma didn’t know any of her neighbors, and the transient nature of the neighborhood made her feel lonely. Pilsen is much more residential and community-oriented, Wiersma said, so she feels more connected to the people and activities around her.
“I’m so happy here,” Wiersma said. “If I want the Lincoln Park scene, I can drive up to it.”
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Before you sign …
Too often, Shannon Weiss said, renters on the hunt for an apartment don’t do their homework before signing a lease — and only later discover their dream pad is replete with problems.
“This is going to be their home, and people are way too cavalier,” said Weiss, head of the Center for Renters’ Rights in Chicago. “No matter how pretty it looks, it’s important to thoroughly, thoroughly look at the place you want to live in.”
Weiss gives some tips on how to kick the tires.
– Always carry a pad and paper, and write down what you see — not just so you can compare apartments, but also so you record what needs fixing.
– Check everything. Turn the water on to check the pressure and make sure it runs well. Look under the sinks to make sure there’s no opening where the pipes go into the wall where insects or rodents could get in. Turn the lights on to make sure they work. Open all cupboards and closets to see what’s inside. Ask if there’s a bug problem in the building.
– Weiss suggests writing down everything you want fixed and adding it to the lease as an addendum. Establish a date of completion for the repairs, and state in the addendum that if those items are not fixed before that date, the contract is invalidated. The landlord must initial the addendum.
– Check the management company’s reputation by visiting the Better Business Bureau at chicago.bbb.org.
— Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
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aelejalderuiz@tribune.com
