Hi!
Last summer, I worked at a camp near Chicago (Camp Henry Horner in Ingleside! Go CHH!). We (counselors) visited the city a couple of times, and I fell in love with it, as much as a grown man can fall in love with a city. I would really love to live there after I graduate from college. My question is this: About how much does it cost? What I mean is, what is the average price for apartments, transportation (public), and all that tripe? About how much do you spend on these things in a month, if you don’t mind sharing? I promise the information won’t be used against you in a court of law. Well, an American court of law, at least. I checked the net’s apartment resources, which were scarce, and each only listed about 3 or so apartment buildings. Am I to believe there are only 3 apartment buildings in the whole damn city? Who do they take me for?!?!?!
Well, last summer we were looking for a place. We were thinking of living on the North Side (i.e. Roger’s Park). The places we found that we were willing to live in were around $695 and up. These places tended to be really small (we estimated that the bedrooms in most of them would fit a double bed, and maybe a small dresser), no utilities were included, no pets allowed. The other places we saw cost less money, but were…well, let’s say I’m still having nightmares. And there was street parking for all the places we saw. Which is fine for some people, but we weren’t fond of the idea.
There was one place we almost got, but at the last minute the guy said, “Oh yeah, and the shortest lease you can get is two years, and the rent goes up a minimum of ten percent after the first year.” Uh, yeah…we’ll get back to you.
We didn’t look closer to downtwon Chicago, because of the cost and because it would have given us both ridiculous commutes to work.
We ended up in Brookfield, which is near the Southwest side of the city (where we both grew up). We have a one-bedroom apartment, which I think is a decent size. Heat and water are included in the rent. And there’s a parking lot for the building. We pay $595/month.
Anyway, that was our experience.
If you have any other questions, feel free to email me.
Breck, did you try this service right on the Chicago Reader webserver?
What is a place where I should absolutely NOT live?
One thing I would take into consideration before deciding where to find some place to live is where your job is going to be. For example, if your job is in the “Loop”, public transportation is available to/from most Chicago neighborhoods as well as the outlying suburbs. If this is the case, you have a much greater variety of housing options/prices available to you. However, if your job isn’t centrally located, your options are much more limited. My job is in Schaumburg in the NW suburbs. Some people choose to live in the Schaumburg area, but the rents are higher, like $700-800 for a one-bedroom and approaching $1000 for a two bedroom. Or you can live farther away and pay a lot less, but you have the driving commute to deal with. Some people in my office live in the city, but they face 1 to 1 1/2 hour commutes each day. Other people live almost in Wisconsin. Again, the housing is cheaper, but the driving sucks. Even where I live, 12 miles away, almost all on expressway, takes 30 minutes on a good day. Add rain/snow/the sun being at a funny angle and it’s worse. I guess the old real estate adage of “Location, Location, Location” is really true. BTW, I rent a two-bedroom townhome for $1000/month. However, I am renting from a friend and probably not paying “market rate” which I would put at about $1200 for a similiar place. Hope this helps!