Moving to Chicago (advice please)

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by Psgibbons75

Most of my travel will be from 15-85 miles in any radiating direction from the city.

If you're truly not going to be driving in any one direction more or less than the others, I would just focus on being near any expressway close to the center of town, especially for those long commute days. 85 miles means as far away as Milwaukee, Rockford, or South Bend. You can expect those trips to be anywhere from 1.5 hours to 3 hours or more each way, depending on how you hit traffic and what part of the city you're leaving from. Even your 15 mile commutes (O'Hare or the near north suburbs, for example) can take over an hour, even reverse commuting.) You don't want to have to add a significant drive from your place to the highway on top of that.

I realize that's the approach you're generally taking, and that you're used to bad traffic being from Atlanta, but I'm just putting that out there.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Psgibbons75

Excellent advice so far! Are the city views good in the streeterville and gold coast areas? I definitely want the into em experience of the views. I love where I live now and really enjoy the night lights.

I have a great view and so do my friends, but I'm sure some buildings it's possible to totally get caught with not a great view.

[marothisu]

For the record, my place in the GC is around 650 total square feet and I pay between $1300 and $1400 a month. My appliances are probably from the 90s. Not amazing, but not bad. I have a 24 hour door staff and a small gym too, with a great view. It's not an AMAZING place, but it's not a bad place by any means either.

For what you want, if you aren't talking about parking and $1700, then it's extremely do-able downtown. If you want to include parking, then I think it's still do-able but you'll probably be going for an older building. The new, great buildings are around $1700-$2000/month without parking for what you want. It depends on where you are of course for how much parking is.

[Isabali]

To OP

I just moved here 5 days ago from Atlanta. In fact, the last place I lived in was in Buckhead and I loved it. So when I was apartment hunting here, I was looking for similar amenities (washer/dryer, black appliances etc), large floorplan, convenience etc.

I say that the South Loop has great apartments and condos for rent between 1400 and 1600, excluding parking. I am paying 1500 including water, heat and cooking gas; additional 130 for monthly indoor parking. So far I am enjoying the South Loop, though I do not have the greatest view of the city, which does not matter to me. However, while looking at places, I found that some provided good views.

No matter what, I would say consider looking at places in the south loop because they provide the style of apartments you probably are used to in Atlanta. If you do not like it, I say all the others here provided great advice and I am just adding my thoughts as a recent mover from the ATL.

When you do come out here, be prepared to hustle and look at several places because the renting market here is way more competitive than in Atlanta and there is little time to reflect.

Good luck!

Isabali