Renting in Chicago from out of town?

Check Chicago market data + run any listing through a free scam check before you pay.

Free to try. No credit card.

Chicago housing market & cost of living (2026)

A mid-priced big city by national standards:

✓For-sale: Zillow puts the typical Chicago home value near $315,000 (up 1.6% year over year), while Redfin reports a median sale price around $420,000 for the three months ending May 2026 (up 6.3%) - the gap reflects different methods (a broad index vs recent closed sales).
✓Rent: Apartment List pegged the median rent at $1,822 in mid-2025 (1-bed $1,688, 2-bed $1,838); RentCafe shows a broader average near $2,494 by June 2026.
✓Affordability edge: Chicago runs roughly 5-16% above the U.S. average, but far below New York (+72.5%), Boston (+50.8%), and Los Angeles (+61.7%).

A two-way, remote-driven market:

✓Remote work is fueling long-distance moves: Redfin found 18.8% of house hunters were eyeing a different metro in Q4 2025, up from 17.9% a year earlier.
✓Chicago logged a net outflow of -13,218 searchers in Q4 2025, yet remote workers keep arriving from New York, California, Florida, and Texas for big-city life at lower cost.
✓Many newcomers land in the suburbs - Naperville, Oak Park, Evanston, Downers Grove - for more space and strong schools.

Out-of-area renters are the #1 scam target:

✓The FTC logged nearly 65,000 rental-scam reports and about $65 million in losses since 2020 (median loss $1,000); the BBB estimates 5M+ victims and 43% of online searchers have seen a fake listing.
✓About half of FTC-reported scams started on a fake Facebook ad, 16% on Craigslist, and renters 18-29 are 3x more likely to lose money.
✓Safe steps: reverse-image-search the photos, verify the owner via county records, never wire / gift-card / crypto a deposit sight-unseen, and insist on a live video walkthrough.

Save your results + get DFW rental alerts

Free account keeps your tool results and flags new DFW scams for you. No card needed.

We'll send DFW scam alerts and occasional Remote Prop View updates, including plan offers. Unsubscribe anytime.

The full guide maps Chicago submarkets by price + the remote-rental checklist. Sources: Zillow, Redfin, Apartment List, RentCafe, FTC, BBB.

Click anywhere on this card to unlock with a Basic Plan - plus property search, market analysis, and 55+ DFW insights.