Upscale living in the Chicago suburbs used to mean a spacious single-family home in a quiet cul-de-sac with a two-car garage. But for a growing group, it now looks like a three-bedroom apartment with Italian marble floors, fancy new appliances and amenities ranging from a golf simulator to a massage room and free macchiatos in the lobby on-demand.
As the cost of homeownership balloons, luxury apartments in the suburbs are emerging as an answer for several types of residents.
Many retirees and empty nesters who want to age in place are choosing to downsize to luxury rentals as opposed to townhomes or smaller houses so they can forgo the hassle of home repairs and maintenance.
And younger residents with children who want to live in suburban school districts but aren’t ready to buy a single-family home have flocked to luxury suburban rentals. The rentals also appeal to many singles who no longer have to commute downtown daily for their jobs and want amenities such as co-working spaces.
The rental market in the suburbs is strong. The median monthly rent was $1,830 for a one-bedroom and $2,190 for a two-bedroom at the end of the second quarter this year, according to Integra Realty Resources, a firm that gathers data on about 120,000 apartment units in the Chicago metro area every quarter. Median rent overall has increased by 4.1% over the last year, higher than historical increases, according to Integra.
The firm surveyed apartments in Lake, McHenry, Kane, Kendall, DuPage and Will counties and some in Cook County, excluding properties in the city of Chicago. In some pockets of the suburbs, median rents for a one-bedroom apartment jumped significantly since last year: In Waukegan and Gurnee, it increased by 16.9%, and in Lake County, it went up by 9.8%.
For two-bedroom apartments, median rents increased by 6% in McHenry County and by 5.5% in Naperville and Aurora, over the last year.
Ron DeVries, senior managing director at Integra, said renters are seeking out the more spacious apartments — not just in the number of bedrooms but in terms of square footage — that are offered by high-end developers.
“With the cost of housing being so high and interest rates where they are, people are staying in apartments longer,” DeVries said. “Your needs change over time. … We are seeing demand for bigger units.”
The report compiled by DeVries’ firm about data on suburban apartments from the second quarter of 2025 found that the suburban multifamily market is 97.5% occupied, contributing to higher rents. Several new projects are in the works, especially compared with downtown Chicago, where construction activity has slowed.
The report also attributes the popularity of suburban rentals to the remote work trend that grew during the pandemic, because workers now feel less pressure to live near downtown job centers.
Brian Carley, executive director at Bradford Allen, a real estate development firm with projects across Illinois and in Florida and New York, said housing supply in suburban Chicago is still not fully meeting demand, unlike markets such as South Florida, where there is an oversupply of apartments.
“The Chicago metro area is still a really strong market,” Carley said. “It’s not like Florida, where supply has now outpaced demand a bit. … We’re still meeting the market (in the Chicago suburbs).”
Carley’s firm is in the early stages of developing an eight-story, 301-unit apartment complex called Arbor House in Arlington Heights. With features like exposed concrete, the designers wanted the property to have an urban feel. And, like luxury apartments in the city, it will have a door attendant and amenities like a pool, golf simulators, a fitness center and a co-working space. The property will have views of Busse Woods, a nearby forest preserve, and the complex will be surrounded by 25,000 square feet of retail space for shops and restaurants.
“Our intention is to create a mixed-use space with retail and open space to create dynamic kinds of living experiences in southern Arlington Heights,” Carley said.
Aaron Tucker, president and chief investment officer at Tucker Development, who worked on The Henry at Harms Woods, a luxury community of apartments and townhomes in Skokie that opened last month, echoed the idea that suburban renters are looking to get the best of the city and suburbs when they opt for luxury apartments.
Tucker’s 11-acre development will include 245 apartments and 49 rental townhomes with a gym, conference rooms, a yoga studio, a swimming pool with cabanas, fire pits and grills. The property, which was developed in partnership with Wingspan Development Group, is also close to the North Shore and an outdoor space like Harms Woods.
“From our lobby to the clubhouse space, everything is elevated to a level that really makes you feel like you’ve walked into a nice hotel or resort,” Tucker said. “We’ve given people the ability to settle somewhere that gives them all the amenities that they might have been used to downtown.”
Kay Zanotti, 70, is one of a growing number of people opting for luxury living in the suburbs. She and her husband used to have a luxury apartment downtown, but they moved to Optima Verdana in Wilmette about two years ago to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren, who live in a single-family home a short walk away.
Although Zanotti and her husband now pay more in rent than they did downtown, she said it is worth it because her suburban apartment is bigger and staffers at the new complex are more attentive.
Optima Verdana has amenities like a heated pool, free Pilates and water aerobics classes, a complimentary coffee service and dry cleaning. Zanotti said she is extremely satisfied with the property and is glad she no longer has to deal with homeowners associations or maintenance issues.
“There’s a lot of work that goes into owning a home,” she said. “Renting is pretty freeing.”
Pam Roehl, 59, who pays about $4,840 a month to rent a three-bedroom apartment at The 1010 on Central Avenue in Wilmette, also likes that she no longer has to worry about home repairs. The building she lives in is a renovated Masonic Temple with 16 units meant for tenants age 55 and older.
Roehl, who is single, had lived in Wilmette and nearby Winnetka in single-family homes while raising her kids. When her kids graduated from college and it came time to downsize, renting made more sense than buying a smaller house because she was keen on staying in Wilmette, where property taxes are high.
“When you downsize in Wilmette, you’re not necessarily downsizing to a less-expensive house, you’re just downsizing smaller,” Roehl said. “You’re paying for higher rent in this building … but what (you’d be) paying in taxes (is higher).”
She considered buying a condominium near the lakefront in Wilmette, but none of the properties she looked at accommodated dogs.
Like Roehl, George Busse, 70, and his wife, Suzanne, 65, wanted to stay in Mount Prospect, where they raised their children, to be close to family members in assisted living facilities nearby and close to the Mount Prospect Lions Club, where George is a member.
The couple downsized from their 5,000-square-foot house, where they had bedrooms for each of their five children, a library and a home gym. At first, the couple thought of downsizing to a smaller house in Mount Prospect, but eventually decided to rent. Now they pay a little over $4,000 a month for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment on the sixth floor of The Dawson, a luxury apartment complex in Mount Prospect.
It was hard to let go of their old house, but the couple now enjoys a maintenance-free lifestyle and travels more frequently.
“I never wanted to rent,” George Busse said, “but it just gives us so much flexibility.”
Photo credit: Kay Zanotti moved from a high-rise in downtown Chicago to Optima Verdana in Wilmette to be closer to her daughter and grandkids, as seen on Sep. 15, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
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