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Defining downtown as the Stevenson Expressway north to North Ave and the lake west to Ashland, you'll be hard-pressed to find a one-bedroom under $1,500 in managed apartment buildings.
The South Loop is the most affordable downtown neighborhood and 1-bedrooms typically range from $1,600 to $2,000 - although some are above that. In pricier areas like Streeterville and River North you can expect to pay $2K and up for a 1-bedroom, although there are some below that.
Defining downtown as the Stevenson Expressway north to North Ave and the lake west to Ashland, you'll be hard-pressed to find a one-bedroom under $1,500 in managed apartment buildings.
If we are strictly using the boundaries you laid out (and not commute times to the Loop as someone else mentioned) there are places you can find for less than $1,500 for sure, just don't limit yourself to new buildings and be open to non managed walk up apartments. For that matter I have always thought there is little difference between living in a one bedroom and a decent sized studio apartment with an efficient floorplan.
For instance look at this listing: 175 East Delaware Place #4904, CHICAGO Property Listing: MLS® #08661673 This is on the 49th floor of the John Hancock Center, a 660 square foot studio for $1,550. Now rental prices have gone up, something like this would have rented for $1,000-$1,250 in 2006-2008 but still this is one of the most famous buildings in the city in a top location and it is barely above the $1,500 threshold. Technically not a one bedroom, but when people talk about wanting to avoid studios I assume they mean shoebox studios of less than 500 square feet, at 660 square feet that is about the size of many actual "one bedroom" apartments in pre-1950 buildings. Heck in places like Pilsen you can find 100 year old two or even three "bedroom" apartments only 700 or so square feet in size and on the other extreme you have new luxury apartments that have 900 square foot one bedroom apartments, so a "bedroom" does not mean the same thing everywhere. The Hancock can be a bit cheaper than other buildings nearby because it is a bit older (1970) and some of the units are un-updated but you would be surprised and the nice thing about renting from condo owners (as opposed to managed rental buildings) is that you might be able to negotiate down the price.
So if you can get 660 square feet in the Hancock for $1,550 a month then surely you can get something east of Ashland, south of north and north of the Stevenson for less than that. I mentioned Little Italy which is at a bit of an odd southwesterly angle from downtown that makes commuting from some of it's more outer blocks a bit difficult but at the same time parts of it are close to the Blue line near UIC. Then there is east Wicker Park and Noble square which has many older buildings that have walk up apartments above storefronts and the like, also near the Blue Line. Also even if you aren't right next to a CTA line there are also things called buses that travel on all the major streets near downtown, at that distance from the Loop it would be a short (albeit maybe crowded) rush hour commute. I am just saying if one is less picky about other things and your top priority is just being as close to downtown as possible large studio and one bedroom apartments cheaper than $1,500 can be found with relative ease.
Studios and one bedrooms in Marina City (another famous building in River North literally across the River from the Loop, easy walking distance to most downtown office buildings) in the $1,250-$1,700 range: http://www.marina-city.com/sales/ren...rina-city.html One cool thing about Chicago IMO is that you can live in a number of architecturally famous buildings for relatively affordable prices (albeit in part due to newer signature skyscrapers like Trump and Aqua making the older ones cheaper), something I am sure you couldn't do in LA or NYC.
Last edited by chicago103; 08-12-2014 at 01:12 PM..
"In recent years, local officials and real estate developers have touted a resurgence in young tech workers and affluent empty-nesters revitalizing the city's core. Yet those trends are seemingly being overshadowed by more powerful factors, as other parts of the city and close-in suburbs send even larger numbers of prosperous, college-educated people to DuPage County and beyond."
Regardless, as the advancement of technology marches on more and more workers, especially those in the tech sector, will undoubtedly have the ability to work remotely. My prediction is brick and mortar corporate office space will eventually go the way of brick and mortar retail and the dodo bird.
"In recent years, local officials and real estate developers have touted a resurgence in young tech workers and affluent empty-nesters revitalizing the city's core. Yet those trends are seemingly being overshadowed by more powerful factors, as other parts of the city and close-in suburbs send even larger numbers of prosperous, college-educated people to DuPage County and beyond."
Regardless, as the advancement of technology marches on more and more workers, especially those in the tech sector, will undoubtedly have the ability to work remotely. My prediction is brick and mortar corporate office space will eventually go the way of brick and mortar retail and the dodo bird.
I always got the impression that people still leaving the outer neighborhoods and inner suburbs are more working class and middle class older whites and some immigrants seeking a more suburban lifestyle than what they currently have, as in it is remnants of the white flight mentality and those seeking the traditional suburban "American dream", if anything it is that mentality that is becoming obsolete. It also could be the more educated children of working and middle class whites and immigrants in the old school Chicago neighborhoods going to the suburbs because of the "grass is greener mentality". I find that some young Mexican immigrants and the children of immigrants seek suburbia at a much greater frequency than many young whites do these days. If you think it through it makes sense, recent immigrants often have certain expectations in coming to America and success to them is not smaller apartments or houses (even if they be in hip neighborhoods) that might remind them of the barrios they left in Mexico or inner city neighborhood they moved to when they first got to the USA. The same is true of "black flight", to many African Americans "the city" is a dangerous place (with reason) where they either grew up in poverty, near poverty or are seeing changes in their formerly stable neighborhood due to CHA displacement, etc. and to them success is escaping to the suburbs. Whereas many young whites were raised in the suburbs in big houses with large yards and are tired of them. It is the old "grass is greener on the other side of the fence" mentality.
It is also true that some people born and raised in the city take it for granted and thus the "pull" of the city is not as great as it is for some young people from the suburbs or rural areas, on the other hand many city natives I know love the city more than anyone. Furthermore I think that article in the link is also talking about educated people who left the Chicagoland area/Illinois all together and that is a whole other can of worms.
Also many companies are locating or moving offices downtown because it is well documented that millenials prefer urban living, the supposed death of brick and mortar retail and offices has been long predicted and greatly exadurated, it was the same people who said cities were going the way of the dodo in the 1960's and 1970's to be replaced by the corporate office park and the suburban subdivision.
I think the reality of the situation is much more nuanced than that and there are many push and pull factors going on, so some groups of people are moving to the city for one reason or another and others are moving out for different reasons.
Last edited by chicago103; 08-12-2014 at 09:49 PM..
A lot of assumptions in your response about racial groups and immigrants and what they all want. The article I linked to (hint: search Google for "Well-educated, highly paid residents leaving Cook County" to read the entire article) presents facts. You are right that a significant number of people are leaving Illinois altogether, but the highest percentage of wealthy, college educated people are leaving for suburban DuPage.
The fact is this: net-net Chicago is an exporter of wealthy, college educated people, young and old. The small number of young people moving into the city and doing there best to gentrify neighborhoods are being outpaced by more-successful folks who are throwing their arms up and calling it quits due to Chicago's many problems. Whether they are drawn to DuPage for its lower taxes, lower cost of living, better schools, better quality of life or even just the fresh air, I don't know -- I'm not gonna make any assumptions.
Last edited by holl1ngsworth; 08-13-2014 at 11:07 AM..
A lot of assumptions in your response about racial groups and immigrants and what they all want. The article I linked to (hint: search Google for "Well-educated, highly paid residents leaving Cook County" to read the entire article) presents facts. You are right that a significant number of people are leaving Illinois altogether, but the highest percentage of wealthy, college educated people are leaving for suburban DuPage.
The fact is this: net-net Chicago is an exporter of wealthy, college educated people, young and old. The small number of young people moving into the city and doing there best to gentrify neighborhoods are being outpaced by more-successful folks who are throwing there arms up and calling it quits due to Chicago's many problems. Whether they are drawn to DuPage for its lower taxes, lower cost of living, better schools, better quality of life or even just the fresh air, I don't know -- I'm not gonna make any assumptions.
That's actually not what your article said. It said persons in their 30s and 40s were the ones moving from Cook County to DuPage. I would hardly call that the "young." The study noted that the young were the ones moving into the city, even though their study didn't look at anyone under the age of 25. They just assumed the net gains versus losses for persons under 25 was awash.
Also, the city is only about half of Cook County's population. The article doesn't tell you who's leaving one suburb for another versus who is leaving the city for further out suburbs.
"In recent years, local officials and real estate developers have touted a resurgence in young tech workers and affluent empty-nesters revitalizing the city's core. Yet those trends are seemingly being overshadowed by more powerful factors, as other parts of the city and close-in suburbs send even larger numbers of prosperous, college-educated people to DuPage County and beyond."
Regardless, as the advancement of technology marches on more and more workers, especially those in the tech sector, will undoubtedly have the ability to work remotely. My prediction is brick and mortar corporate office space will eventually go the way of brick and mortar retail and the dodo bird.
The article admits that we're talking small numbers (8,400 out of 5.2 million), It points out that a lot of the movement was due to "churning" caused by one of the worst recessions in history between 2007-11. The article does not tell us how many left DuPage County for Cook County or what education and income level those people were.
The article notes that of those 8,400 DuPage gained, only 1,200 had a college education. That's 7,200 non-college educated Cook County residents who moved to DuPage County. This I believe. I can tell you from living in the inner ring suburbs over the past 10 years that families from the west and south side of Chicago are moving in large numbers to the suburbs for better schools. Austin lost 19,000 people between 2000 and 2010. South Lawndale lost 12,000 people. The Lower West Side lost 8,000.
But most of those individuals are not college educated and are fleeing violent neighborhoods with deplorable school situations (and, more recently, situations where their schools simply closed). They likely are not moving there for tech jobs, in other words.
Putting all of that together, I just don't see how you can jump to the conclusion that the professional class is fleeing Chicago for some sort of DuPage Valley tech boom.
The article admits that we're talking small numbers (8,400 out of 5.2 million), It points out that a lot of the movement was due to "churning" caused by one of the worst recessions in history between 2007-11. The article does not tell us how many left DuPage County for Cook County or what education and income level those people were.
The article notes that of those 8,400 DuPage gained, only 1,200 had a college education. That's 7,200 non-college educated Cook County residents who moved to DuPage County. This I believe. I can tell you from living in the inner ring suburbs over the past 10 years that families from the west and south side of Chicago are moving in large numbers to the suburbs for better schools. Austin lost 19,000 people between 2000 and 2010. South Lawndale lost 12,000 people. The Lower West Side lost 8,000.
But most of those individuals are not college educated and are fleeing violent neighborhoods with deplorable school situations (and, more recently, situations where their schools simply closed). They likely are not moving there for tech jobs, in other words.
Putting all of that together, I just don't see how you can jump to the conclusion that the professional class is fleeing Chicago for some sort of DuPage Valley tech boom.
The numbers we know:
-8,400 out of a city of millions might seem like an insignificant amount, but when you understand that these are net numbers and Chicago needs to see positive population growth many times greater than this figure in order to finance debt, attract investment, etc. the -8,400 becomes quite troubling.
16.8% of the people that left Cook for DuPage earn $150,000/year or more while only 9.6% and 11% of residents in Chicago and Cook, respectively, earn $150,000/year or more. That is a large disparity. Proportionally speaking, the high-income demographic of Chicago/Cook is leaving at an alarming pace.
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The article I linked to (hint: search Google for "Well-educated, highly paid residents leaving Cook County" to read the entire article) presents facts. You are right that a significant number of people are leaving Illinois altogether, but the highest percentage of wealthy, college educated people are leaving for suburban DuPage. 
