How hard is it to find a reasonably priced apartment? (Chicago: transplants, cheap apartments)

[beaniemac]

Originally Posted by sukoshi

1. I consider $500-600 reasonable for a studio, $625-700 for a one bedroom.
2.I'd like to stay near any of these neighborhoods: near north side, noble square, wicker park, Humboldt park, or Hyde park.

you're not getting a "reasonably" priced apartment in ANY of those neighborhoods except maybe humboldt park for that price. and if it's in humboldt park, it will be in a sketchy part of the neighborhood.

[beaniemac]

Originally Posted by chicagobear

There's a new Whole Foods going in there at Halsted and 63rd, plus great el access.

say what you want about the area, but englewood is VERY well served by the CTA. you have the green line on 63rd at both halsted and ashland. plus redline stops at 69th and 63rd and numerous buses to boot.

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by beaniemac

say what you want about the area, but englewood is VERY well served by the CTA. you have the green line on 63rd at both halsted and ashland. plus redline stops at 69th and 63rd and numerous buses to boot.

I hope you're not seriously pushing Englewood..

I'm a little curious as to where the OP is coming from, but he/she needs to come back and make a statement about likes/dislikes, finances, etc .

[via chicago]

FWIW, you can still find apartments within these price ranges, but not in the areas youre mentioning. you are going to have to be willing to go to seedier and/or ungentrified areas (Austin, Garfield Park, Lawndale, Little Village etc...maybe some parts of Rogers Park?). and even for Hyde Park, realistically youre probably going to be looking closer to South Shore for those prices

Sub $700 apartments do exist, but it sounds like your expectations are about 10 years outdated.

https://www.padmapper.com/listings/1...icago-il-60623

https://www.padmapper.com/listings/1...icago-il-60651

https://hotpads.com/2603-w-24th-pl-c...1t3/garden/pad

http://www.apartmentsearch.com/apart...26-North-Clark



either that, or be willing to get roommates.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by sukoshi

1. I consider $500-600 reasonable for a studio, $625-700 for a one bedroom.
2.I'd like to stay near any of these neighborhoods: near north side, noble square, wicker park, Humboldt park, or Hyde park.

What you consider to be "reasonable" for rent has zero bearing on what is actually, objectively reasonable for rent in a given area.

Those rents are not even plausible except in Humboldt Park, and even then probably not in the more popular eastern portion of Humboldt Park, and even in the dangerous western portion those prices would constitute a better-than-average deal.

The *average* rent in Chicago for a 1-bedroom is about $1,100, and 4 of the 5 places you've listed are not just above average in popularity, but probably in the top 10-20% in neighborhood popularity so a "reasonable" estimation of their rental costs would be that they will cost more than the average Chicago price paid, not less.

If you have realistic expectation, it's not hard to find places. But you don't. The past two weekends, the guests in my Airbnb guestroom were in town for 2-3 days specifically to find housing, and both signed leases in that timeframe. But one is moving here to be resident at UIC hospital (i.e. she's a physician), and one is moving here to take a job as an investment banker. So their price ranges were, shall we say, a bit higher than yours. I think the IB took a one-bedroom place that rents for about $3,200 per month. That was in the Near North area. There are cheaper places than that in the Near North area, but not as cheap as you're looking for.

The other issue is that studios are not common in many of the less expensive neighborhoods, just because of the nature of the neighborhoods.

All that said, you may have some luck looking in Edgewater or Rogers Park, at least if you're willing to make your 1-bedroom budget apply toward a studio. Otherwise, start looking for roommates.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by chicagobear

There's a new Whole Foods going in there at Halsted and 63rd, plus great el access.

Originally Posted by beaniemac

say what you want about the area, but englewood is VERY well served by the CTA. you have the green line on 63rd at both halsted and ashland. plus redline stops at 69th and 63rd and numerous buses to boot.

Most of Englewood is not very well served by CTA rail. There are specific parts of Englewood with decent service, but overall I don't consider it especially well served. Of the approximately 3 square miles that constitute Englewood, only about 1 square mile is within a 10-minute walk of CTA rail stations. And the Green Line station at Halsted only runs trains every 20 minutes, not exactly the height of convenience compared to other CTA lines.

[beaniemac]

Originally Posted by MassVt

I hope you're not seriously pushing Englewood..

I'm a little curious as to where the OP is coming from, but he/she needs to come back and make a statement about likes/dislikes, finances, etc .

I'm not, but I am not lying about the public transporation system in that area.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by beaniemac

I'm not, but I am not lying about the public transporation system in that area.

I wouldn't say you're lying, but I think it's an overstatement, especially if you include West Englewood, which is what you'd be including if you're including the Ashland stop on the Green Line, which also has the 20-minute headway issue Halsted does. And if you include West Englewood, then you have 6 square miles of neighborhood with only 1.5 square miles within a 10 minute walk of a CTA rail station. So only 1/4 of Englewood has semi-decent CTA rail access. It's also worth noting that Red Line Dan Ryan headways are less frequent than Red Line Howard headways because of turnbacks south of Cermak. So, yes, you could find housing in Englewood convenient to CTA rail stations, but a) only 1/4 of Englewood/West Englewood is actually convenient to rail, and b) even those areas that are do not have frequency of service comparable to north side neighborhoods with similar proximity.

In contrast, nearly 2/3rds of Lakeview is within a 10 minute walk of CTA rail stations and the rush hour headways for all of those stations is about 3 minutes. Logan Square might be closer as a comparison. It's a little over 3 square miles, and only about 20% of it is within a 10-minute walk of the Blue Line, although the Blue Line has about 5-minute headways at rush hour to partially make up for that sparse coverage. Englewood east/west buses also run about half as frequently as the east/west buses that serve Logan Square.

[MSWTEBO]

Lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Larry Siegel]

Originally Posted by NOLA101

$975 is roughly twice that of $500. "Between Anderson and Lincoln Square" is nowhere near the Near North Side. So not sure what you're arguing.

You're in a relatively cheap, undesirable neighborhood, and yet still paying twice what the OP wants.

Actually, that's a nice area (when was the last time you were there?) but it would be hard for a newcomer to the area to find a two bedroom for $1150. Some landlords don't raise the rent much because they hate turnover and value a particular tenant.