After soaring for much of the past year, apartment rents in Evanston appear to have moderated in recent months.
The real estate site Zillow provides monthly data on properties for rent through its listing service at both the ZIP code and community level.
Looking at the three-month moving average for that data, to smooth out sometimes dramatic monthly swings in the numbers, shows that rental prices in Evanston — while still dramatically higher than a year ago, are no longer increasing at a rapid clip.
In fact, the rolling average of asking rental prices for apartments and condos in 60201 has actually dropped a bit since peaking at $1,998 in March, falling to $1,891 in June.
Asking rental prices for apartments and condos in 60202 have risen from $1,499 in March to $1,574 in June.
Compared to a year earlier, prices are now up 17.5% in 60201 and 12.6% in 60202.
That compares to increases from March 2022 to March 2023 of 32.7% in 60201 and 4.3% in 60202.
Rent prices in 60201 tend to be higher because of the large number of newer high-rise apartments in downtown Evanston that command higher rents and the demand for apartments in the eastern portion of the ZIP Code from the large number of Northwestern University students seeking rental housing.
Zillow says the national median for apartment rents is now $2,100 a month — which is higher than the median in either Evanston ZIP Code.
It says the monthly median apartment rent is $1,900 in Chicago, $1,700 in Skokie and $3,975 in Wilmette.
With just over 200 apartments typically advertising for new tenants at any given time in each Evanston ZIP code, the median listing price can shift fairly dramatically on the occasions when a large new building first enters the market.
The Zillow data also appears to overweight larger, professionally managed buildings that are more likely to pay to advertise vacancies compared to smaller landlords who may only advertising a vacancy by putting a sign in the apartment window and who may tend to charge somewhat lower rents.
Thank you for this great summary, Bill. I would mention, however, that there is a direct correlation between the year-over-year rent increases and the substantial jump in property taxes on multifamily residential properties in Evanston Township in the past three years. As you know, Evanston underwent a reassessment that had a significant impact on property valuations which led to the considerable real estate tax increase on apartment buildings. We cannot overlook the negative impact that the jump in taxes has had on rent affordability in the City.
what size apartment are you referring to in the article? studio?1 bedroom? thank you in advance for clarification.
manon
It’s the median price across all apartment sizes. If you go to the Zillow site you can get a breakout by different bedroom counts.
— Bill
Al is correct. Property taxes are the first or second largest cost for landlords. It is especially difficult to predict costs and set rents going forward when 2nd installment bills are delayed by months, as they were last year. Of course, the majority of those taxes go to the education of our children, so it is very difficult to balance funding schools and providing affordable housing.
My apartment I pay 1906 a month a 2 months prior to me moving in the Tennant payed 1535 a month it’s ridiculous how much I have to pay but I was in hurry and needed an apartment asap I was escaping a dv incident