Where should I live? (Chicago, Skokie: affordable apartments, for rent, how much)

[ERCiesielski]

I'm moving down to the Chicago area in about a month. My girlfriend is going to law school at either Depaul, Loyola (watertower campus), or Kent. We don't want to live in the city because of cost, so we need to find somewhere easily accessible to the CTA. I've tried looking at the CTA maps and I'm totally confused. I think we need to be around the red, orange, or green lines because we would prefer to be on the south side to be closer to family. What good but affordable areas are there in this area on the train lines?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[JerichoHW]

Homewood maybe but CTA is for Chicago, so you will have to look at METRA.

Metra - Welcome to Metra

[oakparkdude]

How much are you willing to pay for rent? How urban (versus suburban) a neighborhood do you want? What/where will you be working/studying?

[lauren1]

If downtown area is your daily commute, I would take metra to Edison Park area.

[outsider1]

How much money do you want to spend? And also how much time do you want to spend aboard CTA? I mean it's gonna be a long haul from an affordable+decent areas on the south side. I suppose you can take Metra like the previous posters suggested, but keep in mind that Metra and CTA don't offer a combined monthly tickets, so you would have to buy one for each.
If north side is ok for you, you might try Skokie. You can take Skokie Swift(yellow line) from Dempster and Bronx to Howard where you would transfer to Red Line. There are some affordable apartments near the Skokie Swift station. Or you can live in Skokie somewhere along the 97 bus route that will take you to Howard. I think 97 stops at Skokie Swift station too.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by ERCiesielski

I'm moving down to the Chicago area in about a month. My girlfriend is going to law school at either Depaul, Loyola (watertower campus), or Kent. We don't want to live in the city because of cost, so we need to find somewhere easily accessible to the CTA. I've tried looking at the CTA maps and I'm totally confused. I think we need to be around the red, orange, or green lines because we would prefer to be on the south side to be closer to family. What good but affordable areas are there in this area on the train lines?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Well, "not living in the city" versus "living near the Red, Green or Orange Line" on the south side is an either/or proposition. None of these lines go to the suburbs, or even get particularly close.

Where on the south side is your family? How close do you want to be to them?

Originally Posted by outsider1

How much money do you want to spend? And also how much time do you want to spend aboard CTA? I mean it's gonna be a long haul from an affordable+decent areas on the south side. I suppose you can take Metra like the previous posters suggested, but keep in mind that Metra and CTA don't offer a combined monthly tickets, so you would have to buy one for each.

Actually if she's a full-time student, she will get a CTA "U-Pass" with unlimited rides for $90 per semester. That will take a lot of the sting out of the Metra/CTA "double-fare" scenario.

Originally Posted by lauren1

If downtown area is your daily commute, I would take metra to Edison Park area.

For someone who is looking to live on the south side, I could not think of a worse recommendation than the absolute furthest northwest neighborhood in the city.

[NYrules]

There are plenty of good areas in Chicago that are close to CTA, but the fact that you want to live near the parents on the south side narrows down your hunt. I have seen plenty of nice places (both apartments and houses) around Midway airport. The area is still very safe, mostly filled with cops and firefighters living around there as that is about the furthest out they can go and yet still be in the city due to the requirement of living in the city if you work for the city of Chicago. The area is known as Garfield Ridge and the other area down there is known as Clearing. The area is made up mostly of Polish and Lithuanians that take care of their homes to the point that 60+ year old homes look like they were just built last week! Anyways, check the area out. Take a drive down Archer or 63rd going west out of Midway Airport. Its a nice area.