Places to live in Chicago - Page 4

Know of 2 or 3 now-34yo guys (Wharton undergrads) who chose to go to Chicago as first-yr IB M&A analysts back in '95, rather than Manhattan, precisely because of Chic's cheap costs/taxes, new apt towers and undgd garages at home/office and valet pkg at restaurants, allowing even a mere IB analyst to drive around town everywhere in some new, leased C300, impervious to Chic's ugly weather (no worse than NYC if in a climate-controlled Mercedes commuting from garage to garage)....this walking, mass transit, cab nonsense is best left to ThirdWorld towns like Manhattan or London where allegedly high-income folks live in a primitive cesspool w/o cars, garages or modern HVAC

Ironically, all of those young IBers from mid-'90s fled Chic after a year to do tech M&A...and then tech hedge funds...in MenloPk and SF, where performance car culture and nr-ideal weather/topography prevail...thankfully, in more recent yrs, kids don't need to "serve" for a few yrs in cold/slushy and/or hot/humid places like NYC or Chic and can move to CA M&A, HF or PE straight from college

BTW, would prioritize garages at home/office over any "views" at home; any office has great views of Lake/skyline; just sleep at home anyway....views get old after first few days...and will spend most of one's time staring at various computer screens to figure out how to make enough money to flee to more hedonic places in next yr or so...

Depends on where in river north.

Lots of places have parking available, but it is in addition to your lease. Gold Coast, streeterville, etc will be in the $300/mo range for parking.

Hell yeah. I'm farther north and got a covered spot thrown in, and that combined with the free parking at work make for convenient driving, and the trip is only 20 minutes each way if it isn't rush hour. The garage at work is something like $280/month if they didn't throw it in.

What seems to be emerging from all this is that you need to do a reconnasiance mission to Chicago, fly in, look around for yourself, head back - even a day trip would give you a feel for it.

Streeterville may not be walkable (what defines walkable? there is nothing actually stopping you from walking and its not that far)...but there are several bus routes that I can think of that will take you straight to work.

Definitely don't expect parking to be thrown in anywhere downtown...those spaces cost $$$. I used to work for a guy whose parking spot with room for 3 cars (4 if you squeeze) cost as much as the house I grew up in. Of course that was in a more expensive building and pre-crash...I noticed the building next to my office was advertising parking spaces for 24k

+1
With all the art galleries, Pilsen reminds me of what Wicker Park used to be, about 15 years ago.

Based on thread direction, feel you should consider a) Printers Row/South Loop or b) West Loop. Both walkable, nice city neighborhoods. Much more likely to find a reasonable place for your car there. I agree that Streeterville isn't so much a neighborhood, but a retail/hospital zone. I like River North alot but may not get same $value.

Do you have the ability to get here for a weekend before having to move? Just driving or walking around would give you a lot of help in narrowing down a choice.

You should have a great time in Chicago no matter where you live, something lost in this thread I think. People want you to have good time and are trying to match you to the neighborhood you'll like best. There aren't really any neighborhoods that have been seriously discussed that you won't like. Chicago in the summer is the greatest city in the world.

Views are subjective. If you're on the 3rd floor in Streeterville (or any of the others), you're going to have a nice view - of the street and the building across the way. These area's aren't that big and you should be able to hit most places you want to see on a Saturday morning.

Ok, you have a few neighborhoods in mind.

Now what you need to do is book a weekend trip (closer to when you plan to start working) and hook up with a broker to show you places in those areas.

Make it absolutely clear to them that you do not want to see shit places. My friend recently had a really good experience with these guys: http://www.chicagoapartmentfinders.com/.

You may end up paying more total when you go with a broker...but how else are you going to line up and see a bunch of places in a few different neighborhoods in a weekend? Trying to coordinate with landlords and craigslist postings takes time while a broker will just drive you around to places they already have the keys to.

I found my current Lincoln Park apartment on hotpads.com. Trulia.com is another good site.

I found mine by following the advice seen everywhere that the best places often never make it to an official listing...the landlord just puts a sign in the window and if the unit is good, it gets filled right away so you have to wander your target neighborhoods looking for signs.

Obviously the OP can't do this (and high-rise condo buildings like in those neighborhoods generally don't let their rental units post signs) so unless he finds something great online by stroke of luck (this hotpads site looks useful if I was interested in moving...), he would benefit greatly by having someone with a keychain full of units that match his preferences that can drag him around for a day.

It is how my similar-careered friends handled their move to new york (I think they even lined up a backup-broker so that if the first person didn't abide by their no-shit rule, they could walk away)