"Dan Gilbert is an irritation as far as our economic development" -L Brooks Patterson

[Chicago48]

LOL. Illinois has the worst population loss in the U.S., and the worst economy in the U.S. Chicago and Cook County are shrinking, not growing. Both city and state are near bankruptcy.

Oakland County, despite being the DYes boogeyman, is an economic shining star compared to Chicago. People are moving to Oakland County, while they're fleeing Chicago.

Young people have always gravitated towards cities, and they will always do so. But when it comes to settling down, Chicago is one of the least likely places in the U.S. for inmigration.

Expressing surprise that a big city like Chicago has a huge millennial cohort makes as much sense as expressing surprise that the 18-23 cohort is in East Lansing and Ann Arbor, or the 60+ cohort is in Naples and Boca. Big cities will always draw those starting out professionally, who obviously aren't going to buy a McMansion in the exurbs at 24.

You may be right about population decline, but you wouldn't know it by all the shtload of high-rise luxury apartments being built all around Chicago. In fact it's downright scary for those of us who live here because we want to stay living in the City, but with rents like $1950 for a studio apartment staring at us, we won't be able to afford this city.
They keep on building those high rises and I for one want to know where these people are coming from.

[Bham1982]

You may be right about population decline, but you wouldn't know it by all the shtload of high-rise luxury apartments being built all around Chicago. In fact it's downright scary for those of us who live here because we want to stay living in the City, but with rents like $1950 for a studio apartment staring at us, we won't be able to afford this city.

Chicago has relatively cheap rents, and relatively little housing construction, at least compared to the NYC, LA, SF, Bos, DC type cities. There was lots of housing construction in the 90's and early 00's, boom but not as much lately.

I don't know where the hell you live where your only option is a $1950 studio. Even in the Gold Coast, the richest neighborhood in Chicago, there are studio apartments for many hundreds less, and these are even in luxury highrise doorman buildings. Heck there are one bedrooms in luxury buildings in the Gold Coast for less than $1950.

In a typical Chicago neighborhood, there is probably no one paying $1950 for a freakin studio. That would be more than even the average mortgage payment, given the median sales price of a home in Chicago is somewhere in the low 200's.

Even somewhere like NYC or London there are tons and tons of studio apartments for far less than $1950. You can live in a nice neighborhood in Brooklyn and snag a $1,300 studio in a good building, even today.