Looking for opinions on living near United Center / Union Park (Ashland: rent, condos)

[trax]

I'm in the market for a 2-bedroom condo somewhere in the Near West Side. Preferably something where I could quickly get to Ogilvie. I found a few condos selling in the ~$200k range, like this one, just east of the United Center. Just how bad is that area? What direction is the neighborhood heading? I'm still very early in my condo search, so if this place is a bad choice, I'm fine with moving on.

Thanks!

[Drover]

I wouldn't venture much further west than Ashland. I know there's a lot of development going on west of there, but that was mostly driven by speculation rather than by changing neighborhood conditions. I also believe a lot of that is CHA redevelopment, so it looks all shiny but a few of the tenants may not be so shiny. It' not as bad as it used to be but the quality of the neighborhood does fall off pretty rapidly west of Ashland, or at the most, west of Damen. The condo in your link is just to the west of Ashland. I wouldn't wander too far west of there at night. Probably not during the day either if I had no reason to.

[long101]

I rent out a parking space around there (closer to Damen) for my car and I dont like to drop it off or pick it up at night. I do think that the area will become nice within time, but these days who knows how long you can be looking at... I was actually thinking about buying a place around there but with the current market conditions it scared me away from thinking that it will get better. That being said I think that exact area would be fine for you but I wouldnt stray to far away from there. If you would be walking to and from places at night I would prolly shy away but if you mostly drive or dont go out to much that might be the right place. Either way I think it deserves some consideration.