Confused about Chicago housing/ apartments. standard of living (Joliet, Plainfield: for sale, condominium)

[patrix542]

Hi.
I was searching for Chicago apartments and houses for sale in $180,000 - $250, 000 price range (because i can afford that) And the diversity of the city shocked me!

First i was looking at Chicago downtown properties and it WOWDED me!!

I could not believe that for as little as $250,000 i can afford such a nice apartments like that: (real photos taken from realtor.com)

1 bed, 1 bath Zipcode 60601









Another 1 bed 1 bath:





And another one:



I thought that Chicago must be a wonderful city! so i tried to search for houses and a big dissapointment there...

they all small, old, usually bricky and honestly nothing special at all! I mean compering to what you can get in some other American cities that size is nothing! (In Houston or Phoenix and many more cities i could get a newly built 3000 sq ft house for that price) So why is it like that? I really wanted to move to chicago but looks like only downtown is really nice and other parts are not...

I also have some pictures of single family homes in Chicago that i could afford and as you can probably see its far away from modern and chic downtown...

(I gonna post them in another post)

or maybe someone have some pictures of residencial single family homes neighborhoods in chicago that are nicer so it would change my opinion about chicago? ;P

I mean its not so horrible but nothing impressive compering to outer suburbs of chicago which have large homes as well!

[chet everett]

The pattern of development in Chicago was such that developers threw together masses of smaller homes for returning GIs in the late 40's / early 50's in a style that became known as "Chicago Bungalow" -- heavy on brick, light on charm. In some neighborhoods that developed well before this period, there are larger more, distinctive properties, but the price is much higher due to the relative uniqueness.

The recent over building has led to an abundance of values in the condo market, but these are typically located in a narrow band that run close to Lake Michigan.

[Lookout Kid]

Nice houses in nice Chicago neighborhoods are not in your price range. Houston and Phoenix are considerably less expensive than Chicago.

[PokerPlayer1]

So, basically, what you're saying is- "I want to buy a brand new, high square-foot single family dwelling in the absolute best part of the City of Chicago for $250K.. I don't want anything "old". I want brand new, kinda like like Phoenix, Florida or Las Vegas- and I want it to cost as much as Houston, only be in the global Alpha city of Chicago."

That pretty much sum it up?
Because, it does pretty much sum it up and it positively boggles the mind that someone who is able to afford a quarter million dollars for a home doesn't have a mind adequately nimble to process the functional dynamics in play here...

[patrix542]

i never said i want a brand new high square foot home in the best part of chicago!
I just thought i could get a little bit more then that for my money...

Guess i just move to downtown because its much more nicer and all the shops are close.
Or maybe i should choose some outer suburbs? like aurora, Plainfield, Joliet?
How long would it take me to get to the Downtown from aurora or joliet if i let's say leave home at 6.00 o'clock morning? Oh and driving 2 hrs to work is not a big deal deal for me because im already driving for that long here (in UK)
and please don't blame me that im asking questions like that.
Oh and PokerPlayer, Houston and Vegas are also global cities

[long101]

well if driving 2 hours to work is not a big deal then you can just about live in Wisconsin or Indiana and get a huge place compared to Chicago. You really cant compare Houston and Vegas's housing markets to Chicago, you will always feel like your getting ripped off in Chicago. Take a look what you can get for 250k in NYC and then take a look at Chicagos

[Lookout Kid]

If you really don't see any difference between Houston/Phoenix and Chicago, then you would be wasting your money here.

[UnderTheLiveOaks]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

If you really don't see any difference between Houston/Phoenix and Chicago, then you would be wasting your money here.

Hear, hear.

Why not just live in Phoenix?

[patrix542]

im not moeaning at chicago or anything so i dont understand why some people have to be so mean. i said downtown chicago and downtown apartments are nice and affordable as well as Chicago suburbs im just talking about rest of the city... whats wrong with that?

[Intergalactic]

I think that the high rise apartments near the lake are generally more than $250k. Your listing might be for a unit that faces west; the glare is awful. Or the unit might be on a less desirable lower floor. And you have to watch out for the condominium assessments. In some cases, the seller is aware that a huge "special assessment" is in the offing for some major maintenance that has to be done. Or the regular assessments are more than in other buildings.

And I think it is unfortunate that most of the replies to your question did not simply explain that the detached housing stock in Chicago typically isn't very modern.