Key takeaway: ChicagoCostOfLiving.com publishes sourced, dated cost figures for the City of Chicago, covering all 77 community areas plus 15 popular neighborhoods within them. Our citywide one-bedroom figure is a $2,079 a month median (Zillow, August 2026), and every number on the site links to the organization that published it.
This page is for reporters, researchers, students and anyone who quotes our numbers in an article, report or class project. It explains what the site covers, where each kind of number lives, how to label it correctly and how to credit it. A plain-text list of our main pages is at /llms.txt.
What does ChicagoCostOfLiving.com cover?
Living costs inside the City of Chicago: rent by neighborhood and ZIP code, property taxes, sales and other city taxes, CTA, Metra and Divvy fares, ComEd, Peoples Gas and city water bills, groceries, childcare, health insurance, pay and the income needed to live here. Unless a page says otherwise, a figure is for the City of Chicago, not the Chicago metro area or Cook County. Suburbs appear only in our Chicago vs. suburbs comparison, where each place is named.
What we leave out on purpose: we do not describe who lives in a neighborhood, rank areas by crime or call any area safe or family-friendly. Our neighborhood pages cover costs, transit and amenities only. So you will not find those kinds of judgments here.
Key Chicago cost figures, with label, geography and date
These are the figures people ask about most. Each row gives what is measured, the unit, the place it covers, the period it refers to and who published it.
| Statistic | Value and unit | Geography | Reference date | Original source | Our page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent, one-bedroom apartment | $2,079 a month | City of Chicago | August 2026 | Zillow rent report, via Axios | One-bedroom rent |
| Combined sales tax rate, most purchases | 10.5% | City of Chicago | Since August 1, 2026 | Illinois Policy Institute | Sales tax |
| Median homeowner property tax bill | $4,597 a year, up 3.2% from $4,457 | City of Chicago | Tax year 2025 bills, mailed in 2026 (vs. tax year 2024) | Cook County Treasurer, tax year 2025 bill analysis | Property tax |
| CTA full fare, L train ride / bus ride | $2.50 / $2.25 a ride | CTA system | Fare chart effective February 20, 2023, still current | CTA fare chart | CTA fares |
| CTA/Pace 30-day pass, full fare | $75 | CTA and Pace | Fare chart effective February 20, 2023, still current | CTA fare chart | CTA fares |
| ComEd price to compare (supply plus transmission) | 10.103 cents per kWh | ComEd service area | October 1, 2026 to May 31, 2027 | Plug In Illinois (Illinois Commerce Commission) | ComEd and Peoples Gas |
| Minimum wage, employers with 4 or more workers (tipped) | $17.05 an hour ($12.96 tipped) | City of Chicago | Since July 1, 2026 | ABC7 Chicago | Minimum wage |
Source: each row links to its original publisher; our page for that topic gives more detail and context. Numbers on this page last checked October 28, 2026 against the sources in the table above.
Which income figure should you quote?
We publish two income figures for the same apartment, and they answer different questions. When you quote one, name the method so readers know which question it answers.
- 30% rule: monthly rent times 12, divided by 0.30 (the same as rent times 40). At the $2,079 median one-bedroom that is about $83,160 a year (our calculation). Used on the neighborhood comparison, the neighborhood finder and every neighborhood profile.
- Full budget: the salary calculator adds typical monthly costs, federal, Illinois and payroll taxes, and 10% saved. For a single person renting a $2,079 one-bedroom it gives about $57,400 a year before taxes (our calculation).
The full explanation is on our methodology page under Two ways we measure the income you need.
Where to find each kind of number
- How much it costs to live in Chicago: the citywide overview.
- Neighborhood cost comparison: one table of every area we track, with rents and the 30% rule income.
- Chicago one-bedroom rent and rent by ZIP code: citywide and ZIP-level rents with sources and dates.
- Chicago cost index: the headline numbers in one place, refreshed monthly.
- Salary calculator and rent vs. buy calculator: our tools and their assumptions.
- Chicago cost of living FAQ: short sourced answers to common questions.
- Methodology: how we pick sources, build neighborhood profiles and do our math.
How to cite our Chicago cost of living data
- Credit both the original publisher and us, with the reference period and a link to the page the figure came from. Example: Chicago median one-bedroom rent was $2,079 a month in August 2026 (Zillow, via ChicagoCostOfLiving.com, chicagocostofliving.com/chicago-one-bedroom-rent/).
- Keep the label exactly as we give it. Median, average and typical mean different things, and asking rent is not the same as what renters pay.
- Keep the geography. A City of Chicago figure should not be described as a Chicago area or Illinois figure.
- Neighborhood rents are typical asking rents from the named sources on each profile, for the period in its at a glance table. They are estimates, not a guarantee of what any one apartment costs.
- Figures marked our calculation are math we did from sourced inputs. The formula is shown next to each one.
How often do these numbers change?
Neighborhood rents are refreshed every quarter (next in January 2027). The cost index is refreshed on the first Monday of each month. Taxes, fares, utility prices and wages are updated when the agency that sets them makes a change. Pages that were rechecked carry a line saying when their numbers were last checked. If a page and its original source disagree, the source is more current.
Corrections
If you find a number that does not match its source, please tell us through our contact page. ChicagoCostOfLiving.com is run by Joe Bjorklund, a Chicago real estate broker with more than 15 years of experience and a Managing Broker designation, who moved to Chicago himself; see About.