You haven’t tried to rent an apartment in the past year then. With the recent influx of people into the city, the rental market has gotten really hot. The prices are up across the board by quite a lot even compared to six months ago. Bait and switch happens quite often now, and it’s not so easy anymore to find cheap apartments in great neighborhood. Rental agencies and landlords pressure potential/current tenants all the time because they know they can easily find someone else to take the lease.
As Ingenieux said, finding a decent apartment in Lincoln Park or Gold Coast has become extremely difficult. Similar things are happening to Wicker Park, parts of Lakeview, and South Loop.
No, it’s still not nearly as bad as NYC or SF. But it’s not as good as people make it out to be.
