Even with thousands of new apartments on the way, Chicago ranks 14th in national rental boom

Chicago’s hot rental market has been the main driver behind the latest building boom, but when we zoom out and take a look at other major cities, Chicago’s rental boom doesn’t compare to what’s going on in places like Houston, Dallas, New York, and Los Angeles. According to numbers crunched by RentCafe, Chicago doesn’t even rank in the top ten cities with the most number of apartments being delivered this year—the Windy City comes in at 14th. According to the data, the Chicago metro area is expected to see 8,377 new rental units delivered this year. A big chunk of these rentals are coming to the city’s downtown area, and so far, Chicago has already had a couple of high profile apartment tower openings with Wolf Point West and Marquee at Block 37, which combined represent 1,200 new downtown apartments for this year.

Nick Fochtman

So, which cities are expecting to receive more apartments than Chicago this year? Well, it’s quite a few. Phoenix, San Francisco, Charlotte, and Denver rank just ahead of Chicago. Texan cities are experiencing some serious growth this year when it comes to rentals. Houston takes the lead with nearly 26,000 new apartments being delivered just this year, while Dallas comes in second place with 23,000. The numbers certainly help put things into perspective.

Chicago’s rental market has been hot in the last several years, and the trend doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon, however, Chicago’s apartment boom may just be a bump compared to the mountains of new apartments coming to other major metro areas.

• Apartment Construction at a 10-Year High, Eases Pressure on Rental Prices in Booming Markets [RentCafe]
• Chicago's Apartment Boom Shows No Signs of Slowing Down [Curbed Chicago]
• Mapping the 40 High-Rises Under Construction in Chicago Right Now [Curbed Chicago]