Can someone please who is familiar with the Chicago area?

Question

I am moving the end of April to Chicago from Atlanta. I am looking on sites for apartments, I would love to stay downtown or near the lake, but all the apartments are pretty expensive. Can someone please tell me names of areas that are right outside of downtown? For example, I see there are places like Wicker Park, Lincoln park..etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Wicker Park is a gentrifying but not completely unaffordable northwest of downtown, very convenient to the blue line 'L' trains (Damen and Western stops). This was where MTV's "The Real World" apartment in Chicago was located. The buildings are old, but generally well restored. Further west (in areas like Humboldt Park and Logan Square), prices are much cheaper, but the neighborhood gets rougher.

Lincoln Park is a very nice area well north of downtown, not far from Wrigley Field. It is convenient to the red and brown line 'L' stops on the north side. If you go even further north things get cheaper, though a bit seedier.

Closer to downtown there are gentrifying areas south and west of the Loop. The cheapest area near downtown would be re-hab buildings near the UIC-Halsted 'L' stop west of the Loop. Parts of this neighborhood can be fairly rough, but it is gradually gentrifying. There is a lot of new construction south of the Loop (near the Roosevelt and Cermak/Chinatown 'L' stops), but most of these buildings are fairly pricey.

You might also check to see if there is anything available in the Loop itself (not North Michigan, but the Loop--south of the Chicago River). A lot of the office buildings include apartment floors, some of which are surprisingly affordable.

Answer 2

You don't have to live close to downtown to have easy access to the Loop or have a nice apartment. Public transportation here, while it does have it's problems, is pretty reliable. You can live further away and get to the Loop in about 30-40 minutes, and the rent will be a hell of a lot cheaper. Look at places like Andersonville, Edgewater, Roscoe Village, etc., places a little further away from downtown. In fact, Andersonville, Edgewater, Buena park, etc. are close to the lake AND relatively inexpensive. You'll save money. Lincoln Park is expensive and Wicker park is getting there too, if all the "poor" folks haven't been priced out already.

Answer 3

I live in bridgeport which it takes me like 10 minutes to drive to downtown. I love the neighborhood compared to all the others I used to live in. Bridgeport in my opinion, the rent is pretty high. If your lucky you can find something you can afford. Plus it depends on how big you want the apartment. We pay $700 for a 3 bedroom, kitchen, dining room, pantry, and front room. its the cheapest we found. The schools here are very very good.... well at least the one my son goes to. He is in pre-school and he is already reading. Pilson area someone mentioned, I have never lived there but it is very very crowded. It took me once 45 minutes to drive down 6 blocks. I would believe the rent there would be cheaper. I have a hard time walking down the streets in Pilson because hardly any one speaks English. If you do have kids make sure the neighborhood is good for them too. Some other neighborhoods you can look into Summit and Midway area after Cicero toward Central. The previous two that I mentioned are not close to downtown but are nice to live in. You can get to downtown from anywhere in Chicago using the buses and trains. To name a few neighborhoods that are not good that i have lived in:

Gage park area- mostly African american and Hispanic. Frequent shootings.

Marquette park area- mostly African american some Hispanic. Lots of shootings and drug dealing.

Englewood area- African american. Lots of shootings and drugs.

brighton park area- Hispanic. I lived there for 1 1/2 yrs and didnt make any friends because none of the people spoke English. Also lots of shooting and schools are over crowded. We are on a 3 yr waiting list for my son at 3 diffrent schools.

Answer 4

Wicker Park, Lincoln Park are very expensive. If you wanna save money and not compramise your safe being, I'd recommend Pilsen which is about 10 minutes from downtown, and is right next to University Village and is easy accesible to public transportation. If your luck you may be able to find something on Taylor street, but they can be very pricy. Try Bridgeport which is just south of Downtown and has a lot of transportation. Humboltpark used to be very bad, but it's going under extreme geterfication ,and is decent now it's located right west of Wicker Park. You should be able to find decent rent rates in any of those areas.

Answer 5

Those are nice places - you're probably looking for the boundaries of those neighborhoods, right? It's a bit vague, of course - based on Realtors - but for the most part, Wicker Park and Bucktown extends for about ten blocks in all directions around the North/Damen/Milwaukee interchange. The South Loop is from Jackson to Cermak and the lake to about Halsted - west of Halsted and Roosevelt to about Chicago is the West Loop. Lincoln Park and Lakeview are from Fullerton to Irving Park, the lake to Ashland (and includes "Wrigleyville," around Wrigley Field). Andersonville is around the Foster and Clark interchange. Those are some key neighborhoods to look.

Answer 6

Many good areas are listed in the above answers. In general, the closer to the Loop and Lake, the costlier the rent. Good transportation is available throughout the city near the various subway and elevated train lines...look near these. Auto traffic is congested, especially during rush hours. Parking downtown is costly.

A good source of information is the Reader. It's a free weekly publication that is distributed on Thurs. Use it for housing, entertainment, shopping, humor, insight, etc. View it online at the site below:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/

Chgo has 77 neighborhoods! When looking for housing view the neighborhood map at the following site:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/transactions/chi-community-areas,0,7520020.htmlstory

Answer 7

Wicker Park is now a good are, Lincoln also, Bucktown is good, north side up around Wrigley such as Boys-town or Wrigleyville. Try to stay out of what they call the Westside or Southside...bad neighborhoods. Wicker park is O.K. though...it's being more yuppy...also around where Cabrini-Green use to be is nice now. LOL a few years ago you would have been living in the ghetto but know it's all condo's and such.

Answer 8

Go farther west to Oak Park. The Green Line and the Blue Line goes there from downtown. Its multiracial with nice restaurants and stores. If you drive its 20 minutes from downtown on the 290 expressway. And it has tons of culture like Frank Lloyd Wright houses and architecture.

Very friendly and safe.

Answer 9

Berwyn, North Riverside, Riverside, Westchester, are all nice areas and have affordable apartments. Just 10 miles from downtown. They have apartment guide books which I will be more than happy to send you one. I've been here 15 years and love it!

Answer 10

Here is a guide to some Chicago apartments.
If anyone has an apartment they would like to add and has all the info like website, address etc.. please send it to me.
http://www.chicago-life.com/apartments.html