Chicago / Housing guide
Chicago Housing Data: Free Datasets
Homzora editorial team · Updated September 28, 2026
Everything below is free to download, with no email required. Each file records where its figures came from, when they were checked, and what they cannot tell you.
Our sources, what we verify, and what we deliberately do not publish are set out on the Chicago methodology page.
Chicago RLTO Security Deposit Reference 2026
The security deposit provisions of the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, Municipal Code Chapter 5-12. Covers the receipt requirement, the annual interest obligation, the rate summary addendum, the forty five day return deadline, the thirty day itemization deadline, the owner occupied exemption, and the penalty of twice the deposit plus attorney fees.
Compiled from the City of Chicago published ordinance summary and the City Comptroller's annual rate notice. Primary source.
Chicago Security Deposit Interest Rate History
The rate a landlord must pay annually on a deposit held more than six months, set each January by the City Comptroller, going back to 2005 and including the pre July 1997 figure.
The rate has been 0.01 percent every year since 2015. Before July 1997 it was 5 percent. On a two thousand dollar deposit that is the difference between twenty cents a year and a hundred dollars. Rates for 2009 to 2011 and 1998 to 2004 are not included because we have not verified them against a published notice, and that gap is recorded in the file.
Chicago CTA Fares 2026
Single fares, passes, reduced and student fares, transfer policy and the O'Hare surcharge, taken from the Chicago Transit Authority and the Northern Illinois Transit Authority. Both are official sources and they agree on every figure.
Several third party guides report different numbers, including a charge for transfers and a higher monthly pass price. Those figures appear on neither authority page. We publish the authority figures and record the disagreement in the file rather than resolving it.
Commute times are deliberately not included.
Illinois Security Deposit Statute Reference 2026
The Security Deposit Return Act and the Security Deposit Interest Act, which apply statewide and sit underneath the Chicago ordinance. Covers the thirty day itemization deadline, the forty five day return, the doubling penalty, the twenty five unit threshold for state interest, and the removal of the old five unit exemption in January 2024.
It also records a disagreement worth knowing about. Several published sources state that Chicago caps deposits at one and a half times rent. That cap appears in the Cook County ordinance rather than the Chicago one, and we do not publish a Chicago cap figure.
Chicago CTA Rail Line Reference 2026
Eight lines with their terminals, station counts and route miles. Which line serves an address matters more than whether a station is nearby, and Chicago differs from smaller systems in having several downtown interchanges rather than one.
Station counts by line sum to more than the system total because many stations serve multiple lines. We do not publish a station level list, because we have not verified all station names against a current CTA source.
Chicago Notice Periods and Rent Increase Rules 2026
Chicago scales notice to how long you have lived somewhere: 30 days under six months, 60 days from six months to three years, and 120 days beyond that. The same tiers govern both a rent increase and a non renewal.
Illinois has no rent control and cannot have any, since the state preempted it in 1997. What Chicago guarantees instead is time. A tenant of four years facing an increase gets four months to budget, negotiate or move.
One provision worth knowing: a short notice does not become valid once the stated period runs out. Serving thirty days on a four year tenant starts a one hundred and twenty day clock from the date of service.
Chicago Rent by Neighborhood 2026
Studio, one bedroom and two bedroom figures for Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Logan Square and Hyde Park, compiled from four named aggregators.
This one does not meet the standard we apply elsewhere. Homzora normally publishes a rent range only where three or more independent sources report the same unit type. Here just one row clears that bar. Seven rest on two sources and four on a single one. Every row records its source count and a plain yes or no on whether it meets the standard, so you can weigh each figure accordingly.
Two observations are held out and documented in the file: a Hyde Park one bedroom figure sitting 45 percent above two others, and a Logan Square figure showing an annual change nothing else reflects.
If Hyde Park is on your shortlist, the Hyde Park housing guide includes questions for comparing a full housing budget and an actual journey. Its all-size rent average is a different measure from the bedroom-specific observations in this download.
For practical questions to take into your housing search, read the Logan Square housing guide, Lakeview housing guide or Lincoln Park housing guide. Each covers the complete monthly budget and an actual commute. Their single-source, all-size rent averages are distinct from the bedroom-specific observations in these datasets.
Chicago Repairs, Heat and Habitability Reference 2026
The landlord maintenance duty, the minimum heat requirements, and the remedies available when repairs are not made.
Chicago runs a two tier framework. A written request gives the landlord fourteen days. For a minor defect, the tenant can then either withhold rent reflecting the reduced value from the fifteenth day, or repair and deduct up to 500 dollars or half the month rent. Where the defect renders the unit not reasonably fit and habitable, the tenant can terminate immediately after the same fourteen days.
Heat must be provided from 15 September to 1 June, at 68 degrees during the day and 66 overnight. Two entries in the file rest on a single source and are labeled as unverified.
Chicago Disclosure and Entry Requirements 2026
What a landlord must give you, and how much notice they owe before entering.
The RLTO summary must be attached to every lease and renewal. Failing to attach it lets the tenant terminate the lease and recover 100 dollars plus attorney fees, which is a documentation failure carrying a termination right.
Entry requires two days notice for anything that is not a genuine emergency, including routine inspections.
Chicago Retaliation, Lockouts and Void Lease Terms 2026
What a landlord cannot do, and what it costs when they do it anyway.
The lockout provision at section 5-12-160 names the methods specifically: changing locks, blocking an entrance, removing a door or window, or cutting services. The police must investigate a complaint. Each day is a separate offense. And the tenant can recover possession plus up to two months rent or twice their damages, whether or not a fine was imposed.
Retaliation carries a one year presumption. Where a tenant engaged in protected activity within the year before a rent increase, service reduction or refusal to renew, the burden falls on the landlord to prove it was not retaliatory.
Six categories of lease term are void outright, including any agreement that the tenant will pay the landlord attorney fees.
What is not here yet
We have not compiled multi source rent ranges by bedroom count for Chicago neighborhoods, as we have for other editions. Until we have, the rent figures in our neighborhood guides are single source all sizes averages and are labeled as such.
We have no Chicago survey data, so no renter satisfaction score, demand index or affordability index is published for this city.
Using these files
The ordinance and rate datasets are licensed CC BY 4.0, since the underlying material is a public record. The CTA fare file carries no license yet, because we have not reviewed the source reuse terms.
If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it and note the correction.