Rents Climb in Chicago North; Magnificent Mile Rentals Experience Decline

CHICAGO, July 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The average asking rent in the Chicago metro area rose from $1,378 during the first quarter to $1,614 at the close of the second quarter, according to RentJuice®, a Zillow® business and provider of lease marketing technology to thousands of real estate property managers and brokers. Asking rent, however, is still not as high as in the New York ($4,130) and Boston ($2,308) metro areas.

Availabilities Dip for Solo Renters

Renters looking to move this summer will find themselves with a considerably different selection than last quarter. Availabilities by configuration have swung in favor of families and those with roommates. Three in 10 (29.6 percent) availabilities in Chicago are two-bedrooms, a 12 percent increase in just three months. Additionally, the availability of three-bedrooms increased by 17 percent and make up 9.5 percent of all availabilities on the market today. Studios and one-bedrooms carved the opposite path. The availability of studios dipped by 9 percent and one-bedrooms dropped by 10 percent.

Chicago North Sees Hike in Prices; Higher Priced 'Hoods See Declines

In Chicago North, rents are on the rise. Lakeview (44 percent), Ravenswood (31 percent) and West Rogers Park (18 percent) witnessed some of the largest jumps in average asking rent during the second quarter. This wasn't the case, however, for some neighborhoods along the Magnificent Mile – known for having higher price tags than the Chicago metro area overall. Streeterville experienced a modest, 1 percent hop in asking rent, whereas the Gold Coast saw a 3 percent decline.

"Changing inventory and demand are often primary causes when neighborhoods see significant swings in price," said David Vivero, vice president of rentals at Zillow. "RentJuice is helping real estate professionals streamline efforts and gain insight into what's working and what's not so they are best equipped to manage the market's fluctuations."

All data and the associated whitepaper are available for download at: http://info.rentjuice.com/Chicago-Rent-Index-Q2-2012.html

RentJuice is an online platform that allows property managers and landlords to instantly share their availabilities with partner companies for free to shorten vacancies and improve communication. It also offers an upgrade that provides agents, brokers and leasing offices a "virtual rental office," available from any browser, iPhone®, iPad® and Android™. To ease the increasingly competitive rental process for renters, RentJuice recently introduced online lease signing and the ability to fill out RentJuice's "Common Application" online once to prepopulate their personal information and quickly complete any real estate office's custom leasing-related form.

For more information about RentJuice and its benefits for real estate professionals and renters, visit www.rentjuice.com.

About RentJuice
RentJuice is a leading provider of rental relationship management software for landlords, property managers and rental brokers. Founded in 2009, RentJuice currently serves more than 1 million rental units, helping rental professionals manage their client relationships and market rental listings to renters. RentJuice was acquired by Zillow, Inc. (Nasdaq: Z), the leading real estate marketplace, in June 2012 and now operates as part of Zillow's growing rentals marketplace. 

RentJuice and Zillow are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc.
Android is a trademark of Google, Inc.
iPhone and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc.

SOURCE RentJuice