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Exactly When Did Chicago Get Too Expensive for Millennials?

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It's a good question: at what point did Chicago rentals get too expensive for Millennials (or for that matter, any generation)? The question is defined as the pace of inflation for rent versus salary. Incomes have been sputtering along somehow, while housing costs have had no problems creeping unapologetically up. In Chicago, median rent is 30.3% of median income.

Apparently, that point was Q2 2012. Why? The number of renters is outpacing the number of rentals, which drives rents up. And which then means, of course, more delays in purchasing a home down the line.


Silver lining: the major influx of development should help ease these numbers in the city. Other markets across the country will need a similar pipeline to help renters out. Is the next hipster movement going to be a mass exodus out of gleamingly convenient, glamorous, yet expensive city life, equipped only with high speed internet?

·Chicago's Apartment Boom Shows No Signs of Slowing Down [Curbed Chicago]
·The exact moment big cities got too expensive for millennials [Crain's]