In a city-wide examination of the relationship between median monthly rent price asked (MMRA) and proximity to a CTA station for selected neighborhoods in the Chicago metro area, RentHop found that at both the city-wide and neighborhood level MMRA fell as distance from the nearest CTA station increased. RentHop looked at the median price for apartments within a 300-meter radius from the nearest CTA station, 300 and 600 meters from the nearest CTA station, etc. without regard to whether the closest CTA station was in the same neighborhood as the listing.

Across all of the data, RentHop reported that MMRA decreased by about $19 per additional meter from the nearest CTA station. Additionally, the study found that prices are at their lowest on the north-south line about 900 meters west of the Loop, and then start to increase again as you get about 1200 meters west of the loop.

Unsurprisingly, data for nearly all neighborhoods surveyed was affected by the presence of luxury high-rise apartment buildings on or near Lakeshore Drive. Although proximity to the lake doesn’t seem to say much according to RenthHop, prices are generally high closest to the water, likely in large part due to the very expensive high-rises on Lakeshore Drive.

Looking more closely at the Evanston, Lakeview, Central Chicago, the Near North Side and Hyde park, RentHop’s research shows a wide variance in MMRA in relation to proximate to a CTA station at the neighborhood level. Groups of neighborhoods also showed wide variance, which RentHop attributed to luxury buildings on Lakeshore Drive. For example, in central Chicago, an area including Near North Side, The Loop, South Loop, West Loop and Goose Island, MMRA stayed stable at about $2,000 all the way to 0.62 miles away from the nearest CTA station, where it increased almost 25%, to $2,530, only to drop precipitously, almost 36%, at 0.75 miles.