Faro Labs / Markets / Chicago, IL
Chicago real estate investment market
What a typical rental in Chicago, Illinois costs, rents for, and returns: underwritten by Faro's own engine, not a scraped summary.
Returns assume 20% down at 6.75% over 30 years, 7% vacancy, and standard operating costs: Faro's default assumptions, the same ones every report starts from. Home value and rent trends as of 2026-05-31.
Difficult for both
At market rent, a typical Chicago rental runs $377 short each month, and home values moved 2.8% over the last year. Neither leg is carrying deals right now, which means the ones that work here are bought well below market rather than at it.
The price a deal actually works at
Faro models five price points for Chicago, from a weak buy to a strong one. The market-rate deal is $325,887; a good buy is $293,298 and a great one $260,710 roughly 20% below market value. Those are the bars a specific listing gets measured against when you run it.
How Chicago compares
Of the 210 markets Faro publishes, Chicago is the 127th most expensive to buy into: 18% below the median covered market, and the 24th strongest on rent-to-price. Within Illinois it's the 2nd priciest of 4 markets we cover. On the last year of home-value change it ranks 29th.
To break even at the default financing, a typical Chicago property would need about $2,658 a month in rent: $466 more than the $2,192 the market currently supports.
What each tier costs in Chicago
Faro models five price points per market. A listing gets measured against these bars, not against a national average.
| Tier | Purchase price | Market rent | vs. market rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weak buy | $358,476 | $2,082/mo | +10% |
| Fair buy | $342,181 | $2,148/mo | +5% |
| Market rate | $325,887 | $2,192/mo | — |
| Good buy | $293,298 | $2,302/mo | -10% |
| Great buy | $260,710 | $2,411/mo | -20% |
A typical Chicago deal, underwritten
The market-rate property above, run through the same engine every Faro report uses.
| Purchase price | $325,887 |
|---|---|
| Monthly rent | $2,192 |
| Cash required (20% down + 3% closing) | $74,954 |
| Net operating income | $15,766/yr |
| Monthly cash flow | -$377 |
| Cap rate | 4.8% |
| Cash-on-cash return | −6.0% |
| DSCR | 0.78 |
What it would take to break even
A typical Chicago property would need about $2,658 a month to cover itself at the default financing: 21% above the $2,192 the market currently supports. That gap is the honest size of the problem: it isn't closed by trimming an expense line, it's closed by buying meaningfully below market, putting more down, or finding a property that rents well above its market's median.
Where it sits in Illinois
Faro covers 4 Illinois markets, and Chicago is the 2th priciest of them at $325,887. Within a single state the tax and insurance environment is broadly shared, so the differences between these markets come down to price, rent, and pace, which makes them the most useful comparison set on this page. The nearby markets listed below are the rest of that set.
Chicago investor questions
Is Chicago a good place to buy rental property?
A typical Chicago rental at $325,887 renting for $2,192 a month returns 4.8% on a cap-rate basis and runs short by $377 a month at 20% down. Individual deals vary far more than markets do, which is the whole reason to underwrite a specific address.
Can you cash-flow a rental in Chicago?
Not at the market's own price and rent. A typical property runs $377 short each month. It would need about $2,658 in rent to break even. Deals that work here are bought below market rather than at it, which is what the price ladder above is for.
Are rents going up in Chicago?
Rents moved up 6.1% over the last year, measured across 49 ZIP codes. The typical market-rate rental sits at $2,192 a month.
Where do these numbers come from?
Price and rent come from a modeled city-level benchmark dataset; the year-over-year trends are Zillow's ZHVI and ZORI indices, taken as the median across every covered ZIP so one unusual ZIP can't swing the figure. Every return metric is computed by Faro's own underwriting engine. Days on market and sale-to-list aren't shown because we have no city-level source for them we'd stand behind.
Other Illinois markets
Run the numbers yourself
A market average is not a deal.
Paste a real Chicago listing and Faro underwrites that specific property from its own comps, with a target price you can actually offer.
Estimates for analysis and educational use only: not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Verify every number independently before making a purchase decision.