Apartment Rents Fall in the City

Apartment rents fall in city, county: studyApartment rental rates in Chicago declined 4% in the first quarter compared with first quarter of 2009, according to a new study by DePaul University’s Institute for Housing Studies. The decline was steeper in suburban Cook County, where rents fell 7% over the same period. Rents were most resilient on Chicago’s South and West sides. DePaul’s James Shilling, chairman of the school’s real estate studies program and director of the housing studies institute, said the number of people displaced by foreclosures in those areas may have spurred demand and caused more people to seek lower-cost rental housing there. Rents on the South Side were down just 3.7% in the quarter from the year-ago period, while rents on the West Side increased 5.1%. The biggest decline was on the Northwest Side, where rents fell 7.8%. On the North Side, rents were down 7.2%, according to the study, which tracks “nominal” rents.