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Comment by pie420 | Hacker News Reader

Exact opposite for me moving to SF mid 2021. Plenty of availability, barely more expensive than Chicago, landlords were bending over to get us to rent. Ended up landing a lovely 2 bedroom for 2800/mo with parking included and rent control in a great neighborhood.

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That isn't barely more expensive than Chicago; that's more than $1000 more than the median 2-bedroom apartment in Chicago.

All of my friends who live in 2 bedroom apartments in decent neighborhoods in chicago are paying $2300-2500, without parking included. Chicago median rent is artificially depressed because there are a lot of very bad neighborhoods you would never live in, while those in SF are quite rare (Tenderloin, SoMa)

You can get a 2bdr in Logan Square for under $2000. Same with Uky Village. Edgewater? Well under $1500. You can pay over $2000 if you go looking in Lakeview; just like every big city has rough areas, every big city has nosebleed areas, too. You're just much more likely to be able to afford living in the nosebleed parts of Chicago.

I couldn't even find prices for the south side (I checked Auburn and Grand Crossing) or west side (I checked North Lawndale and Austin). Nobody's suggesting you can get a nice 2bdr in Chicago for $450/mo, which I assume you could in Belmont Cragin.

> Plenty of availability,

The east coast of SF is an outlier; it has long been the least affordable region in the state; I could see where Chicago sized dollars might work there. For the folks working typical jobs, it's a place to leave.

2800 for a 2br. Ouch. Until recently, that would have been 600-1200 for most of the state - an amount people working typical jobs could afford to pay.

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