New to Chicago, Where to live? (Brookfield, Lincoln: apartment, to rent, condo)

[bubbagti]

Hi Everyone,

I know this is another "where to live" thread and there are a ton of them, but in my search a lot of the threads are several years old, so I thought I would ask in a new thread.

Moving to Chicago in a couple months. I will be working downtown. I'm looking for recommendations on where to live. I am not familiar with the city or suburbs outside of what google has provided, so I'm looking from advice from all of you to help me find a place to live for me and my family.

Some info about us and what we are looking for.

Family of 4 (2 kids under the age of 4)
2 cars (but I will probably be selling mine and we will consolidate to 1 car) a place with parking or availability of parking would be great.

What we are looking for

-Safe places to live. My primary concern is that we are in a very safe neighborhood. Being close to parks and things for the kids to do would be great as well. I know Chicago is well known for all of the parks in the area and this which is one of the many things we are excited about moving there. We are looking for the boring, quiet, no drama neighborhoods

-Ideally looking for a ~30min commute. I'm okay with a longer commute, but I will probably be working 50-60hr weeks so the more time I can spend with family and less sitting on a train/bus/car would be preferred.

-Areas near transit lines would be great also.

- Looking to spend ~$2250 a month in rent (2 or 3 bedroom if possible).


We are open to your suggestions, thanks in advanced for reading and contributing to another thread

[marothisu]

Which part of downtown would you be working in (i.e. western, central, etc)? For the city, my initial suggestion would be to check out an area like Lincoln Square and Ravenswood. Good number of families in that area and it's on a train line (Brown Line) which runs to the western part of the Loop. There's, however, two transfer points (easy in this case - just walk across the platform a few feet) to the Red Line which drops off more centrally in the Loop. There is also a Metra (commuter rail - drops off in the western part of the Loop right across the river) stop in the neighborhood. There's some sizable parks there like Welles Park, Winnemac Park, and Horner Park. Brown Line might take more like 35 minutes, but I believe the Metra is something like 20 minutes. Very safe area and quiet, but there's also things to do (whether it's some stores, some restaurants, movie theater, etc).

Further out and not that far away are other neighborhoods, safe and quiet (possibly more boring than the two I listed above in a way), such as Jefferson Park, Edison Park, Norwood Park, and Forest Glen which also have Metra stops and also city train lines (Blue Line) not far away. If your work is in the more western part of the Loop then these would become even more convenient

[chicagobear]

What is your intention with regard to school for the children? The suburbs are much easier to deal with in that regard and commuter train access (Metra) is excellent to downtown.

[bubbagti]

Thanks for the response Marothisu. I'll definitely look at Lincoln Square and Ravenswood

I'll be working around Adams and Clark. I'm not sure if that is classified as central or not. How bad is a walk from the west loop to central? Looks like its ~0.5 mile, so it doesn't seem too bad. I'd just imagine that it will be really congested with people

[chet everett]

What is your price range? What sort of home would you prefer? Single family detached with a nice yard? Condo?

What are your goals in terms of value of your investment?

What is your preference for things like a well regarded neighborhood school that your kids can walk to vs other options?

How much of a priority is safety?

There are lots of nice options for folks that want an easy commute to the Loop via transit.

[bubbagti]

Originally Posted by chicagobear

What is your intention with regard to school for the children? The suburbs are much easier to deal with in that regard and commuter train access (Metra) is excellent to downtown.

We are not too sure yet. We would like good schools, but luckily the kids are still young enough that we would have 2-3 years to figure that out. We would like to send them to a good school system but we wouldn't be opposed to having to move to a good system in 2-3 years once we become more acclimated to the area.

[bubbagti]

Originally Posted by chet everett

What is your price range? What sort of home would you prefer? Single family detached with a nice yard? Condo? - Would love a single family but not opposed to a condo. We would probably need a ground floor condo. our kids like to play. (we are on a second floor apartment now and have had a couple complaints with noise, even though we try our best to have them be as quiet as possible.

What are your goals in terms of value of your investment? - Looking to rent for the first year, but we would certainly be open to purchase something after that. Once again we would be open to purchasing a SFR or a condo/townhome

What is your preference for things like a well regarded neighborhood school that your kids can walk to vs other options? We would love to have good schools, but the kids are 2-3 years out from that and we wouldn't be opposed to moving to an area with better schools later if needed.

How much of a priority is safety? - Our top priority. I'm willing to sacrifice commute time to ensure that my family is in one of the safest neighborhoods possible.

There are lots of nice options for folks that want an easy commute to the Loop via transit.

Thanks for the questions Chet. My responses are in the Quote

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by bubbagti

Thanks for the response Marothisu. I'll definitely look at Lincoln Square and Ravenswood

I'll be working around Adams and Clark. I'm not sure if that is classified as central or not. How bad is a walk from the west loop to central? Looks like its ~0.5 mile, so it doesn't seem too bad. I'd just imagine that it will be really congested with people

Adams and Clark is good because it's pretty much equidistant from both the Red and Brown/Purple line trains. Union Station is on Adams Street, across the river so maybe a 10 minute walk from there. However, the Metra train that runs through Lincoln Square/Ravenswood drops off at Ogilvie Train Station which is a few streets north of there, so the walk would be even more. You could do the Brown Line and it would be around what you want each way for a commute (maybe 5 minutes more).

I guess it depends on what you're used to for pedestrian stuff. If you are used to NYC and around Penn Station, you won't think Chicago is terribly congested. If you are coming from elsewhere, you might think there's a lot of people out and there are - there's around 600,000 people who work in the Loop on an average weekday. It's usually not so congested though that you can't walk I find at least.

I personally like the area as it has enough to do but the side streets are quiet, and it's a safe area. Here's a short video about it if you're interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh7_Zm48Ius

[chet everett]

My sister lives in Lincoln Square. She does not have kids. She enjoys the wide range of spots to eat and such. Among neighborhoods in Chicago there are only a few with less reported crimes than Lincoln Square -- Lincoln Square -- Crime in Chicagoland -- chicagotribune.com

In contrast, a nice affordable suburb like Brookfield, which is a shorter commute via Metra, is far safer -- Crime in Chicagoland -- chicagotribune.com

https://metrarail.com/metra/en/home/.../schedule.html

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Linc...471600!3e3!5i4

Brookfield has many lovely neighborhood parks, the world renowned Brookfield Zoo, a wide range of great dining options for families and may be a good place to consider for a much more affordable start than Lincoln Square --
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Brookfield.../home/13293030
about $300K less vs
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/26.../home/13490600

And Brookfield also has many more homes even more affordable -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrzi-iu8UNY

[UrbanCheetah]

Lincon Sqaure, Ravenswood and Irving Park (specifically west of Elston) are all what you are looking for. There is more north of that but you are looking at longer commutes than what you are hoping.