Yet another "I'm moving to Chicago" thread... but advice sorely needed! (Berwyn: movers, how much)

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by berniekosar19

How does the rental market work in Chicago for this time of the year? In NYC, from now until September is the hottest time of the year for rentals, with prices through the roof. I read in another thread on here that the hot season is fro May 1st leasing; is that accurate? Is there less inventory during the summer?

Hm here the time of year is about the same..maybe May until September/October. I wouldn't say though that prices are raised too much (or at all) though for the time of year..

A good thing to do is if anyone has any online listings (i.e. from Rent.com), just call them and see when they have availability.

[Aleking]

All these 2bdrms aren't created equal. So many here have a habit of finding rock bottom priced 2bdrms for a given neighborhood that are tiny, dated and frankly dumps. $1,500 is going to cut is close in many of the neighborhoods listed here.

[prelude91]

Originally Posted by berniekosar19

Thanks for the links & advice.
I'm aware that most of what I see online right now won't be available when we can actually look but would love to get a sense of what's out there on the marketplace.
How does the rental market work in Chicago for this time of the year? In NYC, from now until September is the hottest time of the year for rentals, with prices through the roof. I read in another thread on here that the hot season is fro May 1st leasing; is that accurate? Is there less inventory during the summer?

There will definitely be more rentals on the market in the warmer months, but you will not see the demand that there is in NYC to drive up the rents.

When I subleased my apartment in NYC (upper west side) in 2006, I had over 100 people walk through my place in a 12 hour span, resulting in a bidding war where I received 25% more than I had initially asked for.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Aleking

All these 2bdrms aren't created equal. So many here have a habit of finding rock bottom priced 2bdrms for a given neighborhood that are tiny, dated and frankly dumps. $1,500 is going to cut is close in many of the neighborhoods listed here.

I partially agree, although for areas like Ravenswood, I disagree. If you said $1000-$1200, then yes. $1500 for Ravenswood will get you a decent (not amazing) one still. I have seen them first hand in real life and not that long ago. However, $1700 is a much better price for the neighborhood for a 2 bdrm.

[berniekosar19]

So, we're trying to figure out moving costs. Starting to get quotes and I was looking to see if anyone had any insight as to what it cost them to move to Chicago with a moving company?
$3000 seem like a reasonable estimate?

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by berniekosar19

So, we're trying to figure out moving costs. Starting to get quotes and I was looking to see if anyone had any insight as to what it cost them to move to Chicago with a moving company?
$3000 seem like a reasonable estimate?

If you have nothing especially fragile / bulky most moving companies will cram your stuff onto a truck with at least one or two other two bedroom type mover. Should be cheaper. Now if you do have lots of fragile / costly items the question of whether you can more safely move yourself with a ent-a-truck is a legitmate option...

[deefeste]

My daughter (mid-20's), her bf, and 2 dogs live on Lawrence, close to the Aragon. Their 2bd apartment is $1400 plus utilities. It's recently remodeled, with a fabulous high-end kitchen. That area might seem 'gritty' to some people; I guess that's a matter of perspective. She feels safe there, no concerns even when walking the dogs at night. The dogs are a large breed, maybe that keeps people at a distance. Parking hasn't been an issue.

Originally Posted by berniekosar19

So, neighborhood safety question: have come across several listings in, I guess, Uptown.
One by the Argyle stop on Winnemac and N broadway and a couple more by the Lawrence stop on the Red line. They're all on Lawrence Ave, east of N Broadway.
I've read that the Wilson stop area is pretty sketchy but are those specific areas just as bad?

[berniekosar19]

Thanks; that's good to know!
We'll be out in a couple of weeks to look at places in person; hopefully we can find some thing nice.

Switching gears, what are the best cable options out there for both tv and interwebs?
We're currently Directv for, well, tv and a local ISP for internet.
From what I've seen, Comcast, RCN & AT&T U-Verse are the biggest options.
What are people's opinions on them, especially when it comes to the internet service portion?

Originally Posted by deefeste

My daughter (mid-20's), her bf, and 2 dogs live on Lawrence, close to the Aragon. Their 2bd apartment is $1400 plus utilities. It's recently remodeled, with a fabulous high-end kitchen. That area might seem 'gritty' to some people; I guess that's a matter of perspective. She feels safe there, no concerns even when walking the dogs at night. The dogs are a large breed, maybe that keeps people at a distance. Parking hasn't been an issue.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by berniekosar19

Switching gears, what are the best cable options out there for both tv and interwebs?
We're currently Directv for, well, tv and a local ISP for internet.
From what I've seen, Comcast, RCN & AT&T U-Verse are the biggest options.
What are people's opinions on them, especially when it comes to the internet service portion?

Cable/interwebs will depend on what your "building" has options for...you might not be able to choose from anything you want..just from what they have offered type of thing there. Some really cheap places might not even offer anything for TV, so that's something to check into definitely (although if you're in some areas, you can pick up a lot of stations through an antenna...but they're basic channels).

At my place for TV for awhile, it was only DirecTV and they added RCN less than a year ago. DirecTV you know about already. My girlfriend has RCN and a pretty basic package, but it's not bad. I don't know enough about their service or anything to tell you. For internet I have AT&T DSL service which has been pretty good really...not sure about RCN (which is also now offered in my building).


A lot of my coworkers in the burbs seem to curse out Comcast. I think you'll see that a lot of people have DirecTV/Dish Network too.

[berniekosar19]

Ugh; no to Dish. I'd rather have rabbit ears than that.
And I'm hoping we have other options than Comcast; we were stuck with their service at one apartment and it was just awful.
I hear mixed things about AT&T; I know nothing about RCN.
Ideally I'd like to be able to just transfer Directv over but I understand it's going to be whatever the building offers.

Originally Posted by marothisu

Cable/interwebs will depend on what your "building" has options for...you might not be able to choose from anything you want..just from what they have offered type of thing there. Some really cheap places might not even offer anything for TV, so that's something to check into definitely (although if you're in some areas, you can pick up a lot of stations through an antenna...but they're basic channels).

At my place for TV for awhile, it was only DirecTV and they added RCN less than a year ago. DirecTV you know about already. My girlfriend has RCN and a pretty basic package, but it's not bad. I don't know enough about their service or anything to tell you. For internet I have AT&T DSL service which has been pretty good really...not sure about RCN (which is also now offered in my building).


A lot of my coworkers in the burbs seem to curse out Comcast. I think you'll see that a lot of people have DirecTV/Dish Network too.