Illinois's statewide two-bedroom fair market rent is $916. Illinois's cheapest rent area is also $916.
The median and the floor are the same number, which means more than half of Illinois's 83 rent areas are priced at the very bottom of the state's range.
And then there is Chicago. Cook County's two-bedroom is $1,781 — 94% above the statewide figure. Illinois's dearest rent area is $2,050, higher still.
One state, a 124% internal spread, and a median that describes only its cheapest half.
A note before you start. This is general education, not housing, legal or financial advice. Rent figures come from HUD's Fair Market Rents for FY2026, published under 24 CFR 888.113. An FMR is the 40th percentile of GROSS rent — rent plus tenant-paid utilities — for standard-quality units in a defined rent area, so roughly 60% of units cost more. Take-home figures are computed by this site's own tax engine for tax year 2026 on a single filer. Illinois landlord-tenant law is outside this dataset.
1. What HUD says renting costs in Illinois
| Unit size | Statewide fair market rent |
|---|---|
| Studio | $672 |
| 1 bedroom | $759 |
| 2 bedroom | $916 |
| 3 bedroom | $1,231 |
| 4 bedroom | $1,415 |
Illinois's statewide studio at $672 is among the cheapest in the country, and its statewide two-bedroom is forty-first-highest of the fifty states.
Neither figure describes Chicago. See section 2 — every number in this table is a description of downstate Illinois.
The two-to-three-bedroom step is $315, or 34%.
Work out what rent your own income actually supports in Illinois2. The statewide figure describes the half of Illinois that is not Chicago
This state needs the caveat more than any other in this series, and the reason is arithmetic rather than opinion.
Illinois's statewide median ($916) equals its minimum ($916). A median can only equal a minimum when at least half the observations sit at that value. So at least 42 of Illinois's 83 rent areas are priced at $916.
Meanwhile roughly two-thirds of Illinois's population lives in the Chicago metropolitan area, where the two-bedroom figure is $1,781.
Put those together and the statewide figure is a description of most of Illinois's land and a minority of its people.
| Statewide median | Chicago rent area | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 bedroom | $916 | $1,781 |
| Gap | — | +$865 a month |
| Annually | — | +$10,380 |
$865 a month is more than Alabama's entire statewide two-bedroom rent of $837, and more than Mississippi's $842. The gap between two halves of one state exceeds what a whole two-bedroom costs in two others.
If you are moving to Illinois, the number you need is in section 3, not section 1.
3. Cook and DuPage: one rent area
| County | Studio | 1 bed | 2 bedroom | 3 bedroom | Rent area |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cook County | $1,480 | $1,581 | $1,781 | $2,294 | Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL HUD Metro FMR Area |
| DuPage County | $1,480 | $1,581 | $1,781 | $2,294 | Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL HUD Metro FMR Area |
Identical on every line, because they are one rent area.
A rent area is a measurement boundary. HUD reports one 40th-percentile figure across the whole Chicago metro rather than one per county, which reflects its treatment of the metro as a single housing market. It is not a claim that Cook and DuPage cost the same, and this page cannot tell you the difference between them — the data does not contain it, and this site does not invent figures it has not measured.
What it does settle: if you are renting anywhere in metropolitan Chicago, $1,781 is your planning figure.
Income required at 3x: $64,116 for the Chicago rent area's two-bedroom, against $32,976 statewide. A $31,140 gap in what a landlord will demand, inside one state.
And Illinois's dearest area is $2,050 — above Chicago's $1,781. So Chicago is not the ceiling; the collar counties and outlying parts of the metro area go higher.
4. Three things a fair market rent is not
It is the 40th percentile, not the median. Roughly 60% of standard-quality units rent for more than the FMR.
It is GROSS rent, including tenant-paid utilities. A Chicago winter is a long heating season, and much of the city's rental stock is old, which makes the utility component larger than the headline rent implies.
It is per rent area, not per county. In Illinois this is the whole story — see section 3.
5. Illinois's flat 4.95%
Illinois levies a flat individual income tax of 4.95%. Its constitution requires a non-graduated rate, so the flatness is structural rather than a policy setting.
Illinois allows a personal exemption but no standard deduction, which is an unusual combination — most states offer one, the other, or both. The exemption is a fixed dollar amount rather than a percentage, so its relative value falls as income rises.
| Annual salary | 30% of gross | 30% of Illinois take-home | The gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| $45,000 | $1,125 | $907 | $218 |
| $60,000 | $1,500 | $1,190 | $310 |
| $85,000 | $2,125 | $1,614 | $511 |
One genuinely favourable feature for a Chicago renter: Chicago levies no city income tax. That distinguishes it from New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and most large cities that do — and it means every figure on this page is complete for a Chicago resident, which is not true of the Michigan, Pennsylvania or Maryland pages in this series.
Illinois's sales tax is a different story. Combined state and local rates in Chicago are among the highest of any large American city, and none of that is in any figure here.
6. What the two-bedroom actually requires
| Statewide | Chicago rent area | |
|---|---|---|
| 2-bedroom | $916 | $1,781 |
| Gross income a 3x screen demands | $32,976 | $64,116 |
What passing that screen leaves
| Statewide 2-bed | |
|---|---|
| Gross income required | $32,976 |
| Illinois take-home, single filer | About $27,200 |
| Take-home per month | $2,267 |
| Rent | $916 |
| Rent as a share of take-home | 40.4% |
What the two-bedroom costs at real salaries
| Annual salary | Statewide | Chicago rent area |
|---|---|---|
| $45,000 | 30.3% | 58.9% |
| $60,000 | 23.1% | 44.9% |
| $85,000 | 17.0% | 33.1% |
Rent as a share of take-home pay.
The two columns are almost twice apart at every salary, which is what a 94% rent gap does.
Statewide Illinois at $45,000 is 30.3% — essentially on HUD's line measured against take-home, at a modest salary. That is a genuinely affordable result.
The Chicago rent area at $45,000 is 58.9% — severely cost-burdened — and the 3x screen on $1,781 demands $64,116, so the application fails before the budget does.
Even at $85,000 Chicago is 33.1%, past the line at a good salary.
7. Rent versus buy in Illinois
Three things decide it, and the rent is not one of them:
Appreciation. Backward-looking, county-specific, and not a forecast. Illinois's county variation is very wide and a state figure would mislead badly.
Selling costs. Around 7% of the sale price, and it never comes back.
Ongoing carrying cost. Illinois's effective property tax rates are among the highest in the country — consistently in the top few states — and this is the single strongest structural argument for renting rather than buying here.
Why it matters so much: a high annual property tax is a permanent carrying cost. It does not stop when the mortgage does, it rises with assessments, and it pushes the break-even year materially later than in a low-property-tax state with the same house price.
Illinois offers a general homestead exemption reducing the assessed value of an owner-occupied primary residence, plus additional exemptions for seniors and others. The amounts vary by county and are outside this dataset — Cook County's rules differ from the rest of the state — and are worth checking against your county assessor directly.
The honest counterweight: Illinois house prices are low relative to income compared with the coasts. A high tax rate on a low price is not the same burden as a high rate on a high price, and the calculator handles both. Run it rather than assuming.
Run the Illinois rent-versus-buy calculator with your own county.
8. What you can actually control
Never budget Chicago on the statewide figure. $916 and $1,781 are $865 apart, and the statewide number describes at least half of Illinois's rent areas but a minority of its people.
Cook and DuPage share one HUD figure. The real difference between them exists and this page cannot size it. Get actual listings.
Downstate Illinois is genuinely cheap. At $916 the statewide two-bedroom is 30.3% of take-home at $45,000, which very few states manage.
Get the landlord test and the budget test straight. 3x gross gets you approved. 30% of take-home is what you can carry. On Chicago's $1,781 those are $64,116 of income and, at that income, $1,267 of rent — $514 less than the rent itself.
Existing debt does not appear in the landlord's test.
Chicago charges no city income tax, so the take-home figures here are complete — unusually for a large American city.
But count the sales tax. Chicago's combined rate is among the highest of any large city and it is in none of these percentages.
And a pre-tax 401(k) deferral saves 4.95% of state tax on top of the federal saving, which is modest but real.
9. How HUD's cost-burden thresholds actually work
The 30% and 50% figures quoted throughout this article are not rules of thumb. They are regulatory definitions, and knowing where they come from tells you what they are and are not good for.
HUD defines a household as "cost-burdened" when it spends more than 30% of gross income on housing, and "severely cost-burdened" above 50%. The threshold traces back to the National Housing Act, and HUD uses it to measure housing need and to set programme eligibility.
Three things follow from that origin, and all three matter to a renter:
It is measured against gross income because a housing programme can verify gross income. A caseworker can read a W-2. They cannot easily verify what your actual tax withholding, retirement deferrals and health premiums leave you. Gross is administratively tractable, not economically correct.
It counts housing costs, not just rent. HUD's measure includes utilities, which is precisely why the fair market rent is defined as gross rent. If you are comparing your own situation against the 30% threshold, include your utility bills — otherwise you are measuring a smaller number against the same line.
It is a population statistic before it is personal advice. The threshold exists to answer "how many households in this county are struggling," and it does that job well. It was never designed to tell one household what it can afford, and it does not account for household size, debt, childcare, medical costs, or the tax rate where you live.
Which is why this article reports both figures. In Illinois a two-bedroom at $916 against a $32,976 income is exactly at HUD's 30% line by HUD's own measure. Against what actually reaches that household's account it is closer to 40%. Both numbers are correct; they answer different questions.
If you want one number to plan around, use 30% of take-home. It is the more conservative of the two, it is the one that reflects what you can actually spend, and it is what this site's calculator reports alongside the conventional figure.
10. What a landlord checks besides your income
The 3x income screen is the most visible test, and it is not the only one. None of the following is a legal requirement — they are common industry practice, and individual landlords differ.
Credit score. Most professionally managed buildings run a credit check, and many publish a minimum. A low score does not automatically disqualify you, but it commonly triggers a larger deposit or a guarantor requirement.
Rental history and references. Previous landlords, length of tenancy, and any eviction filings. An eviction filing can appear on a tenant screening report even where the case was dismissed, which is worth knowing if you have one.
The security deposit. How much a landlord may ask for, when it must be returned, and what may be deducted are all governed by state law, and those rules vary enormously. Check Illinois's own statute — this site's rent dataset covers HUD fair market rents and does not cover landlord-tenant law, so nothing on this page should be read as describing it.
Application fees. Charged per applicant in most markets, and often non-refundable. Applying to several places at once is a real cost.
Guarantors and co-signers. Where an applicant fails the income screen, many landlords will accept a guarantor — commonly at a higher multiple, such as 80x the monthly rent in annual income rather than 36x. That is a much larger number than the tenant's own test, and it is the usual route for students and recent graduates.
Proof of income. Pay stubs, an offer letter, or tax returns for the self-employed. Self-employed applicants are frequently asked for two years of returns, which is a materially higher bar than a salaried applicant faces on the same income.
The practical point: the 3x screen decides whether you clear the first filter. Everything above decides whether you get the apartment, and several of those items cost money to fail.
11. When these figures change
HUD publishes fair market rents annually, effective at the start of the federal fiscal year on 1 October. The figures in this article are FY2026.
Three ways your area's number can move:
Re-measurement. HUD builds FMRs from American Community Survey data with more recent trend adjustments. A rent area whose measured market has moved will see its figure move with it.
Redefinition. HUD occasionally redraws rent areas — splitting a metro, adding a county to one, or creating a small-area FMR where ZIP-level figures replace a single metro figure. When that happens, a county's published rent can change substantially without any change in its actual market. Illinois has 83 rent areas today; that count is not fixed.
The floor. HUD applies a national minimum. In FY2026 the two-bedroom floor is $973, and seventeen states have at least one rent area sitting on it. When the floor rises, every area at the floor rises with it — regardless of what happened locally.
What that means for planning. A fair market rent is a well-sourced annual snapshot, not a forecast. If you are signing a twelve-month lease, the figure that matters is the rent in the lease, and the FMR is context for judging whether that rent is reasonable for the area and the unit size.
Voucher holders should note one thing more. FMRs set the basis for Housing Choice Voucher payment standards, and a public housing agency may set its standard within a range around the FMR rather than exactly at it. Your agency's payment standard is the operative number, not the published FMR.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average rent in Illinois? HUD's statewide fair market rent for a two-bedroom is $916 a month for FY2026, forty-first-highest of the fifty states. Cook and DuPage Counties both show $1,781, because they share the Chicago rent area.
Why is Illinois's statewide figure the same as its cheapest area? Because a median can only equal a minimum when at least half the observations sit at that value. At least 42 of Illinois's 83 rent areas are priced at $916, which is why the statewide number describes downstate Illinois rather than the state as a whole.
What income do I need to rent a two-bedroom in Chicago? A 3x landlord screen on the Chicago rent area's $1,781 needs $64,116 a year. On the statewide $916 it needs $32,976.
Why do Cook and DuPage County have the same rent? Because HUD places both inside the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL HUD Metro FMR Area and publishes one set of figures for the whole area. It is a measurement boundary, not a claim that the two counties cost the same.
Does Chicago have a city income tax? No. That distinguishes it from New York, Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore, and it means the take-home figures on this page are complete for a Chicago resident.
Is 30% of income a realistic rent budget in Illinois? Downstate, yes — the statewide two-bedroom is 30.3% of take-home at $45,000. In the Chicago rent area it is not: $1,781 is 33.1% of take-home even at $85,000.
Does Illinois have a standard deduction? No. It allows a personal exemption — a fixed dollar amount — but no standard deduction, which is an unusual combination.
Should I buy in Illinois instead? Illinois's property tax rates are among the highest in the country, which is the strongest structural argument for renting. The counterweight is that Illinois house prices are low relative to income, and a high rate on a low price is a different burden from a high rate on a high price. Run the calculator.
What to do next
Illinois's statewide rent figure and its largest city's are $865 apart, and the first one describes at least half the state's rent areas.
- Illinois rent affordability calculator — the landlord's test and the budget test, side by side.
- Illinois take-home pay — the flat 4.95% at your own salary.
- Illinois rent vs buy — the break-even year, computed rather than assumed.
- The 30% rule is measured against the wrong number — the full argument.
- Renting in the USA in 2026 — all fifty states, county by county.
Every figure on this site is sourced and dated. How we source every number.
Rent figures are HUD Fair Market Rents for FY2026, from HUD User, published under 24 CFR 888.113. An FMR is the 40th percentile of gross rent including tenant-paid utilities for standard-quality units in a defined rent area — not a market median. Cook and DuPage Counties fall in the same rent area and therefore carry identical figures. Statewide figures are the median across Illinois's 83 distinct rent areas, unweighted by population — which is why the statewide median equals the state minimum. Take-home figures are computed by this site's own tax engine for tax year 2026 on a single filer with no dependents or pre-tax deferrals, using federal figures from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. The 3x landlord screen is a common industry practice, not a legal standard. Illinois landlord-tenant law, property tax rates, homestead exemptions and sales tax rates are outside this dataset and are discussed qualitatively. This is general education and not housing, legal or financial advice.