Why is Chicago so cheap? (Northbrook, Libertyville: city hall, renting, insurance)

[mayhem_223]

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

Chicago's relative isolation (when compared to NE cities) and distance from well-known vacation spots, coupled with usually brutal winters, accounts for the difference in real estate pricing from other major USA cities.

Canada real estate in general seems to be more expensive than the USA. The prices people pay for homes in Toronto on the HGTV television shows dwarf anything you would pay in Chicago. I don't know how to account for that.

And if you're American you need work visa because Toronto is in Canada. What else? Do many employers in Canada are willing to hire foreigners without "Canadian work experience"?

Obviously some of the utilities at homes are worse than in middle size cities in America. For example, cable service there is served by Rogers with low monthly caps and high overages (smaller cable internet plans have caps as low as 15GB no kidding, like cell phone plans compared to Comcast's 250GB). I believe they can choose competition like Tekssavy for cheaper but last mile is still provided by Rogers and how this works out I dunno.
This is somehow similar to how we can chose electric providers but infrastructure still belongs to Comed (obviously it wouldn't make sense to overbuild electric lines).

Dont even get me started on cell phone plans with local LD, roaming charges and 3 year contracts. This Canadian consumer life makes somewhat comparable city of Toronto less similar to American life in Chicago.

[PurpleRain_1]

Originally Posted by Davis Street

Chicago is cheap because it's in the Midwest. The Midwest is the least desirable part of the U.S., and Chicago is smack-dab in the middle. The Rust Belt isn't exactly glamorous.

Chicago also has a declining population. If your population is shrinking, you aren't likely to have strong demand for housing.

Chicago isn't really super-cheap, though. Taxes are high, parking costs are super-high, and groceries seem to cost more than in other cities. Really only housing costs are cheap.

The political corruption has always driven up the property and sales taxes. Now that the gangs are in full swing corporations are leaving downtown and residents are fleeing due to the outrageous sales and property taxes, I seriously believe that downtown Chicago will look like it did in the 70's for at least a decade.

[mayhem_223]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

Well I guess so.

Yes I was comparing to quick ok locations. Galena is around 3-4 hours and Wilmot 1.5 hours from Chicago. Obviously if you fly you wanna go to Utah, Colorado or California. I still think mountain ski resorts in Vermont are bigger than in Midwest.

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by PurpleRain_1

The political corruption has always driven up the property and sales taxes. Now that the gangs are in full swing corporations are leaving downtown and residents are fleeing due to the outrageous sales and property taxes, I seriously believe that downtown Chicago will look like it did in the 70's for at least a decade.

Inaccuracies/lies are bolded.

[Bluefox]

I don't really get why people are so hung up on how isolated Chicago is. It's called an airplane. You can be in NYC from Chicago in what, an hour and a half? Florida in 2 hours. Southern CA in 4 hours.

Do you think that the millions of people who live in NYC or Boston or DC without a car really care that Vermont is a few hour drive away if they want to go skiing? No. They could hop on a plane and fly to Aspen and it probably wouldn't be that much more expensive than renting a car and driving to Vermont and back.

[aragx6]

^Are you suggesting New Yorkers don't rent cars and drive out to Vermont for the weekend? Because there's a whole industry of B&Bs that would laughingly disagree with you.

[mayhem_223]

Originally Posted by aragx6

Inaccuracies/lies are bolded.

last time I checked, United moved its headquarters from Elk Grove village to Sears (Willis) Tower in Chicago.

Cook county still has more open positions, at least in IT sector, than Dupage or Kane. Sales taxes in suburbs are lower too, comparable to rest of the US. Owning a car is for sure cheaper with flat registration fees in IL than based on retail value, weight system in Iowa, which probably the same is used in Wisconsin or Indiana.

If you're high income earner, you pay more in state taxes in Iowa or Wisconsin than Illinois.

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by aragx6

^Are you suggesting New Yorkers don't rent cars and drive out to Vermont for the weekend? Because there's a whole industry of B&Bs that would laughingly disagree with you.

Nope, not suggesting that in the slightest. Just saying that having a skiing or any other travel destination within a reasonable driving distance is not this determinative factor the way some posters seem to think. Some people like the driving experience and that's fine. I just know that if I had the choice between VT and CO and it wasn't exorbitantly more expensive to fly to CO, I'd go with CO. Just my personal preference.

More broadly, the whole idea that Chicago is this place in the middle of nowhere fails to consider the fact that Chicago is a major transportation hub and you can literally be anywhere in the US within a few hours.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by aragx6

^Are you suggesting New Yorkers don't rent cars and drive out to Vermont for the weekend? Because there's a whole industry of B&Bs that would laughingly disagree with you.

Are you suggesting that millions of people don't fly out of both NYC and Chicago every year?

[mayhem_223]

Originally Posted by Bluefoxwarrior

I don't really get why people are so hung up on how isolated Chicago is. It's called an airplane. You can be in NYC from Chicago in what, an hour and a half? Florida in 2 hours. Southern CA in 4 hours.

Do you think that the millions of people who live in NYC or Boston or DC without a car really care that Vermont is a few hour drive away if they want to go skiing? No. They could hop on a plane and fly to Aspen and it probably wouldn't be that much more expensive than renting a car and driving to Vermont and back.

You're right, not too mention Ohare is big central transportation hub in this country. Its very big airport and it has many airlines. And if you go to Midway, you only need there to be 1h before flight, if you don't have anything to check in

However, don't forget many people live in suburbs and own car, even in the city. And its cheaper just to drive than take flight. It depends. If u can get $70 plane ticket one way to Minneapolis, u probably wanna fly, otherwise its just cheaper to drive and you'll be there in 7 hours. In addition, the driving experience in NE Ohio and Pennsylvania was quite a nice refreshing change from Midwest.

Last time I drove from Chicago to Pittsburgh, for cubs vs pirates game and it took me only 8.5 hours with a few stops. The round trip cost me around $120 in gas (+ $40 in tollways). Im sure I would have to pay more for plane, especially since I decided to go there in last week, plus pay taxi or rental. Plus driving through NE Ohio and Pennsylvania was a quite nice refresh from Midwest.