Questions about moving to Chicago from Dallas

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I doubt you can find a decent apartment really close to Wrigley in your price range. You are probably going to be a decent little CTA ride away from the core of Lakeview on you budget. You might get lucky and find a spot in Andersonville which is quite safe and walkable or maybe something that is in one of the more promising parts of Uptown.

For a 1 bedroom? What are you talking about? They aren't going to get a big, huge place like they have in Dallas but $1200-$1300/month in Lakeview for a one bedroom? You're out of your mind if you think you can't find that in a number of places in Lakeview with that budget. I have friends who rent out 1 bedrooms near Southport that pay less than that and they're decently nice places. Not 1300 sq feet, you aren't going to find that for the budget, but a nice 1 bedroom is EASILY doable in that rent range.

[marothisu]

$1195/month 1 bedroom right near Southport Brown Line. 2 parking spaces available Yeah it's half the sq footage as your Dallas place, but still. Great location and close to the brown line.

3313 North Southport - Unit 2B Overview | Chicago, IL Apartments

[kthom12]

Yeah, I realize we are going to lose square footage. Looks like it will have to be a 1br, which will give us an opportunity to get rid of some stuff and scale down a bit.

Thanks for the help. Now we will just see if this all goes through.

[DoneWithDallas]

A fellow Texan! Good luck with the process. We're currently in the middle of our search and it can be quite daunting but just keep after it.

[ctactual]

My family and I literally just moved here from the Dallas/Fort Worth area (mid-cities) about two months ago; I'll echo what a lot of the other posters have said. We went down from two cars to one (we do have young kids) and really haven't felt the loss of the 2nd car at all. I've been able to commute into work in the Loop using transit with ease, even with working a job that requires me to work overnights, and wherever the transit doesn't take us that we need, we can then still get by car. The bus system within the city is extensive and pretty efficient and with a little practice you'll be able to move about on the buses and trains across the city areas with ease. I would recommend certainly keeping the one car just to be able to get around to places and things out in the suburbs that you might want to go see/do where transit access is poor or non-existant.

If one of you is going to be commuting using the Red/Brown Line or any of the other subway/elevated lines or using the buses on a five-day-a-week basis, look into the CTA Chicago Card monthly pass. For $86 a month it gives an individual unlimited rides on the CTA buses, the CTA trains (the subway/elevated lines, not the Metra "heavy commuter rail" trains) and (I think) the PACE suburban bus system. As bus/train rides are $2.25 or so each way, the monthly pass works out if you're commuting or using the bus/train at least 20 days in a given month.

As far as neighborhoods, from what I've seen and learned about those areas, the previous posters are steering you in the right direction for what you're looking for (we're farther out in a little more "sleepy" of an area than what you're seeking)

[hindukid]

When we first moved to the city a few years ago we lived at 739 Irving Park. 2 blocks from the lake and 5 blocks from Wrigley. Rent was $1195 in 2006. When we left in 2009 it was 1295. Probably around 1400-1500 today. That was a 2 bed with about 900 sq. feet. Nothing fancy and no parking.

But it would be an easy commute to your job as you can just take the 80 bus about 10 minutes or so. Also its a 2 block walk to the red line and 2 blocks to lots of express buses. Close to much of the activity in lakeview and really close to the lake.

[chet everett]

I agree with the $1400 or so as a floor price for a decent / "nothing fancy" spot in Lakeview with good access to transportation. If you don't mind being a mile or so from Wrigley $1200 seems fair for a place right on Southport, which has a fair amount of traffic and nightspots.

Back when anybody with a pulse could get a nothing down mortgage it really drove down rents. The situation is six years later is now reversed and on top of the demand that usually happens as folks get jobs and such there is pressure from people leaving areas like Michigan where their economic prospects are worse than ours.

I don't know that I would ever want to rely on buses, as I routinely see folks on bicycles make better time through the traffic, but inside the popular Northside neighborhoods it rare that some combination of buses won't get you to within half a mile or so of pretty much any commercial establishment. The efforts the CTA has made to tie GPS and cellphone data helps predict the arrival times. Of course the actual speeds are still constrained by stop lights, traffic congestion and collisions...

[adrock9000]

I'm about the same age as you guys and also did the move from Dallas to Chicago, and I'll second the advice about living in Lincoln Square (or really anywhere along the Brown Line from Western to Southport). LS is usually my recommendation for people moving to the "city" for the first time, especially from somewhere like Dallas where even the urban areas are still pretty suburban. Lincoln Square is fairly quiet and almost suburban in some areas (the neighborhood seems especially popular with young, upwardly mobile families), but is 10 minutes from neighborhoods like Andersonville, Lakeview, and the Southport corridor which all have a lot of things to do. Based on where you would both be working I'd recommend looking around the Damen Brown Line stop. The advantage to that area is that you have easy access to the Brown Line for your husbands commute and also a Metra commuter train stop that can get you to the Wacker Dr. stretch of downtown in 15 mins. The area is very safe by city standards and offers easy access to a lot of amenities. Good luck with your search!