Chicago isn’t the bastion of desirable place to live. Sure it’s a major city, but it’s really only viable in a few industries and the weather is abysmal.
Look towards either coast and you’ll see more moderate climates being a lot more expensive.
Chicago is absolutely a desirable place to live, half of my friends moved there or are planning to move there. It’s the 3rd largest city in the USA, and while the winter weather sucks, it has head over heels the best urban design I’ve seen in an American city which more than makes up for it. I’m curious as to what industries you wouldn’t be able to make a career in in Chicago? They have a significant presence in just about every major industry sector except local natural resource extraction.
Regardless, it’s not desirability in and of itself that makes coastal cities expensive, it’s shit housing policy. Demand exacerbates the issue, yes, but the root cause is that there are more people trying to live there than housing units available. NYC for example is building less than 30% of the housing units required to meet demand. It’s not because there’s nowhere to put them, these units have already been designed, planned, and submitted for approval, but most of them will get buried in red tape, bureaucracy, and NIMBYism.
Outside the USA, it’s much easier to find desirable, affordable cities. There’s plenty across Europe and Asia that make American coastal cities look like hovels. Tokyo is the prime example, but outside the USA, cheap housing in major cities is more of the norm than the exception, with some outliers like London. I just randomly picked Berlin, a city I know nothing about other than it’s a fairly major one in Germany, and median rent for a 1br apartment in the city center is around $1400 equivalent. I wouldn’t say that’s cheap, but it’s nowhere near as outlandish as SF bay area or NYC.
