Chicago Cost of Living tracks what it actually costs to live here, from rent and taxes to the L and daycare, with every number linked to where it came from.
Why this site exists
Chicago works at a lot of price points. You can rent a two-flat apartment in Auburn Gresham, a vintage one-bedroom in Uptown or a high-rise with a doorman in Streeterville. What’s hard is finding current, trustworthy numbers in one place. Search results are full of figures that were proposed and never happened, or that changed months ago.
This site fixes that. Whether you’re budgeting for your first apartment or comparing luxury buildings, you should know the real costs before you sign.
Who runs it
Chicago Cost of Living is run by Joe Bjorklund, a Chicago resident who works with Baird & Warner, the Chicago real estate brokerage. Joe started the site to put current, sourced numbers about living here in one place. It’s his own project, not a Baird & Warner publication.
How we check every number
- We only publish a number we can link to. Every figure on the site has a visible source link next to it or directly under its table.
- We start with the source that sets the number. The CTA for fares, the City of Chicago for water rates and the minimum wage, the Cook County Treasurer for property taxes, the utility’s own filings and the Illinois Commerce Commission for utility rates.
- Then we use the best available data. For rent and childcare, where no agency sets the price, we use established data providers like Zillow, Rentometer and RentHop, plus reporting from local newsrooms like WBEZ, WTTW, the Sun-Times and Axios Chicago.
- When sources disagree, we show you. Rent is the best example: four reputable sources can give four different numbers. We list them side by side and explain why they differ.
- Every page shows when it was last checked. When a number changes, we update it and change the date. The full details are on our methodology page.
Corrections
If we get something wrong, we fix it and note the correction at the bottom of the page, with the date. Spot a number that’s wrong or out of date? Tell us, ideally with a link to the source, and we’ll check it.
Independence
No one pays to change a number on this site, and Joe’s work in real estate doesn’t shape the data. Rent and housing figures come from the same outside sources as everything else. If we ever run sponsored content or listings, they’ll be clearly labeled, and sponsors will never have a say in our data.