What's the best way to find apartments in Chicago? (rental, how much)

[spokenword7]

I would like to move to Chicago in the next couple of years and would like to get an idea of the different neighborhoods Chicago has to offer and apartment prices. I'm an African American (does that matter lol?) female in my 20s, soon to be working in the health care field. Where should I start? I live fairly close, so visiting is not an issue.

[Lucky Clover]

Padmapper is what I use. Unfortunately Craigslist, the idiots that they are, recently just told Padmapper to stop including their listings on their map. It was a damn good way to look for an apartment. Craigslist is obviously another way. Besides that, I'd say try and look for a realtor or company. But you should definitely start with either Padmapper or Craigslist. I did that when I first moved to Chicago and it has worked out great for me.

[Drover]

The best way to find an apartment depends on how much time you have to look. If you can look at your own pace, the best way is to drive around the neighborhood(s) you want to live in and look for "For Rent" signs. Only look for the hand-written ones or the temporary ones put up in the window or on a yard sign. Many buildings have "For Rent" signs permanently attached to the building regardless of whether there are any actual vacancies in the building. That means the building is run by a large property management company and they're just using the sign for general marketing purposes. Second-best way is to use the Chicago Reader online classifieds; these are paid lisitings which makes the signal-to-noise ratio much stronger than craigslist where it takes some practice and patience to separate the legit listings from the piles of BS. Craigslist is something of a "last resort" and the problem I have with padmapper is they pull from usesless sites like apartments.com.

If you're pressed for time, the best way to find an apartment is to use a rental agent. They can get you access to half a dozen units or more in a single day. I've had pretty good luck with Apartment People each time I've used them but horror stories abound about them as well, so YMMV.