Relocating to Chicago. Help please! (Lincoln, Irving: apartments, for rent, home)

[akma43]

My wife just got admission into UIC dental and we need to relocate to Chicago from NJ. We have a two year old and are looking for places to staty (3bed/2bath) that are safe. Can you experts recommend any good places/apartments? I have been looking at Craigslist for places. We need to move in by June 1st.

Place needs to be close (30 min subway ride ok) to UIC and affordable (about $1400 - $1900 ok)

Has been crazy week. Please help!

[chet everett]

I would not put too much effort into Craig's List, lots of scammers and stretchers of the truth. There are probably some units in the broad Med Center district and Taylor St areas that would be walking distance to UIC. Chicago Reader tends to have more serious ads but even better is walking around in those areas -- many landlords don't bother with any advertising beyond a sign in the window...

There are some decent parks and such near Taylor St especially close to St. ignatius that are perfect for a two year old. If dental school is wrapped up in four years you might need to consider kindergarten but you'll have plenty of time to learn the options...

[Jandur]

Like Chet said check Chicago Reader, I also always recommend Padmapper.com. They have aggregate listings from a few sites, but they also filter out the spam automatically. Domu.com is site that is local t Chicago.

[ChiGuy2.5]

$1400 - $1900 is kind of a low budget for a 3 bed/2 bath in Chicago. Do you NEED the third bedroom? I would recommend you stick to a 2 bedroom. One way you could probably cut costs is if you live near UIC itself. The area around UIC isn't a bad area and your wife could walk to class, maybe you could ditch your car if you have one?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by akma43

My wife just got admission into UIC dental and we need to relocate to Chicago from NJ. We have a two year old and are looking for places to staty (3bed/2bath) that are safe. Can you experts recommend any good places/apartments? I have been looking at Craigslist for places. We need to move in by June 1st.

Place needs to be close (30 min subway ride ok) to UIC and affordable (about $1400 - $1900 ok)

Has been crazy week. Please help!

As others have said, Craigslist can be a little shady sometimes, but Chicago Reader has good listings. I have always checked rent.com for this, but everyone has their own stuff (also rent.com offers a $100 debit card for some properties). Honestly, I wouldn't limit yourself and check as much as you can (rent.com, Chicago Reader, etc).

Anyway, your budget for what you need makes downtown-ish areas like the loop, west loop, river north, gold coast, and probably old town out of the picture. You could probably find that in areas of Lincoln Park and Lakeview maybe. I'm pretty sure you could find it in Hyde Park which is near U of Chicago on the South Side. Historically, the south side has been where the "dangerous" parts of town are, but Hyde Park is safe.

You might also want to look up in areas around Wicker Park (although prices are increasing), and maybe the Irving Park area, Ravenswood, North Center, etc. Of course, there's the area around Taylor Street right near UIC which is an option. I think for a 3 bed, 2 bath the price might be low, but you might be able to find it on the upper end of your budget, probably in Hyde Park. Not 100% sure of the other areas.

UIC is right near the blue and pink lines, so for example if you lived in the Irving Park area, you could easily catch the blue line and get to work easily. Pink line serves mostly west of UIC, but if you were on the Red Line for example, you could transfer at a few places for the pink line.

[ChiGuy2.5]

Originally Posted by marothisu

As others have said, Craigslist can be a little shady sometimes, but Chicago Reader has good listings. I have always checked rent.com for this, but everyone has their own stuff (also rent.com offers a $100 debit card for some properties). Honestly, I wouldn't limit yourself and check as much as you can (rent.com, Chicago Reader, etc).

Anyway, your budget for what you need makes downtown-ish areas like the loop, west loop, river north, gold coast, and probably old town out of the picture. You could probably find that in areas of Lincoln Park and Lakeview maybe. I'm pretty sure you could find it in Hyde Park which is near U of Chicago on the South Side. Historically, the south side has been where the "dangerous" parts of town are, but Hyde Park is safe.

You might also want to look up in areas around Wicker Park (although prices are increasing), and maybe the Irving Park area, Ravenswood, North Center, etc. Of course, there's the area around Taylor Street right near UIC which is an option.

UIC is right near the blue and pink lines, so for example if you lived in the Irving Park area, you could easily catch the blue line and get to work easily. Pink line serves mostly west of UIC, but if you were on the Red Line for example, you could transfer at Clark/Lake for example.

I agree with this poster except for what I have bolded. LP and lakeview is too expensive for that budget. I would recommend craigslist and agree with the poster that you should check all possible outlets for renting. Just take caution while using craigslist. I would recommend you make a separate email address JUST for apartment hunting. This will ensure your privacy on your actual email address.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by ChiGuy2.5

I agree with this poster except for what I have bolded. LP and lakeview is too expensive for that budget. I would recommend craigslist and agree with the poster that you should check all possible outlets for renting. Just take caution while using craigslist. I would recommend you make a separate email address JUST for apartment hunting. This will ensure your privacy on your actual email address.

Yeah, LP and Lakeview are probably too expensive. I think there are a FEW places in Lakeview where you might be able to find stuff in that budget, but not many. There might be more on the more amateur outlets like a craigslist too, but who knows. I do agree that LP and Lakeview are probably too expensive, but I'm pretty sure a few places might be OK.

[cump]

I agree with the idea of scaling down your wish list to a two bedroom. That would give you more choices in better areas.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by cump

I agree with the idea of scaling down your wish list to a two bedroom. That would give you more choices in better areas.

Yeah, understand the OP probably wants a home office or study or something, but for the price range that he wants, it'll be harder to get. Either scale down to 2 bedroom, get lucky finding it, or increase monthly rent budget to over $2000/month (probably).

I would say though look in Hyde Park if you want to maintain your budget or North Center, Irving Park, Ravenswood, etc. if you can't find anything anywhere, go down to 2 bedroom or increase your budget by a few hundred $$ and see if you can find more.

[akma43]

These are all great suggestions. I need to have the 3bd place because my parents are staying with us too. I will look into those places. I can push up my budget to $2000 - $2200.