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Does anyone notice that it's EXTREMELY hard to find an apartment in Chicago??

I was planning to move out of my apartment Aug 31st. I've been looking since like July 1st. I have only 2 weeks and I have no idea where I'm going to be living. I'm looking for and affordable 1 bedroom. Any place I find that has good prices says they don't have any 1 bedrooms available. I'm really worried that in 2 weeks I won't have anywhere to live. Originally I thought it was the area I was looking in but I'm trying various areas in Chicago and still having no success? Has anyone else been through this? I've tried newspapers, craigslist, chicagoreader, etc. Still no success. Any suggestions?????? I have viewed apartments that I liked and were in the price range I was looking for and when I went back a few days later to apply, they tell me there's none available anymore. Or, I see places that are in the paper that say they have 1, 2, 3 bedrooms etc and when I call they say they don't have any 1 bedrooms AVAILABLE. They have them in the building and they mention them in the ads but there are none available.

Public Comments

1. Could it be that the cost of living in Chicago is outside your budget? You might want to consider looking for a studio apartment instead of a one-bedroom, or possibly moving your search to a nearby suburb with apartments you find within your range and needs.
2. just check online and make a reservation at Westin hotels. its at least a 3 star rating and its cheap.
3. Look for a studio. Some of them are just as big as 1br's, but it opens up a lot of apartments to you. Also, look at condo buildings, they are nice places to live and the rent can be lower than apartment buildings -- owners just want to cover their mortgage and find a decent person to fill the place. You could also use a locator Chicago apartment Finders Chicago Apartment and Condo's Apartment People The building pays the fee.
4. where in chicago? we live in far south subs.. when we were looking for an apt ,we just drove around the areas we liked looking for rent signs. we found alot affordable apts that way (alot outragous ones too LOL) good luck..
5. The city has like a million open apartments. Ive moved neighborhood to neighborhood here since Ive lived here and never has a problem finding something I liked in a place I felt comfortable. Maybe Ive just been lucky so far.
6. Extremely hard? I'm looking in the Sun Times right now and I see three whole pages of apartment ads. And that's just one source. There are thousands of apartments available in Chicago right this very minute and many of them are one bedrooms. Every time I've moved I never had the problem of not being able to actually find an apartment. Only problem I had was picking which one I wanted. Not sure what you're problem is, but if you've checked all of those sources (newspapers, Chicago Reader online, Craigs list, etc.) and not found ANYTHING, either you're looking for a 1 bedroom for a price no one will offer (less than $450 or something) or they simply don't want to rent to you. You aren't bringing any shady-looking friends along with you, are you? Landlords might be turned off by that. Seriously, there is something more going on if you can't find an afforable one bedroom apartment ANYWHERE in the city. C'mon, Chicago is the third biggest city in the nation. There is ALWAYS an afforable one bedroom somewhere. Try one of those apartment services where they drive you to the apartments. if they drive you there, it MUST be available.