Working in Aurora, in our 20's, where to live?? (Chicago: apartments, rent)

[Coopermurphy]

We are just out of college. Moving to Chicago. Originally hoped to live in the city, but accepted job opportunity in Aurora which changed things. Any suggestions on where to live? Help!

[jamaicabound60565]

if you plan on going into the city alot maybe pick someplace between aurora and the city or at the very least closer to the city than aurora or naperville. villa park, lombard, even westmont and woodridge will be closer to the city.

one important thing in my mind is being close to an expressway. if your near an expressway even in naperville you can make it to the city in like 30 min in good traffic, my problem however is it takes me 30 min just to get to 88 meaning at least 45 min if not an hour to the city.

lots of people will say stay in a burb near bnsf which is good for resale and for a number of reaons especially if you will go into the city during the daytime no weekends to take advantage of the lake or something however if your looking at the city for nightlife train is kind of pointless as on weekends it doesn't run very frequently and stops running at 1230 when bars are really just getting started.

as for burbs if you choose to live near work which i would personally do. id gladly take a short commute to work early mornings over the convenience of being 20 minutes closer to the city on weekends when i wanna go to a bar. aurora is nice naperville is nice in that tons of restaurants, shopping, actual nightlife for a suburb dt naperville has tons of bars and you can actually walk around and bar hop as opposed to nightlife being a tgifridays or something like many suburbs.

downtown aurora has gotten much nicer, some cool loft apartments, nice condos on the river you can rent from owners, bars, restaurants, casino, etc.

if you wanna share what your looking for in terms of how close to work you want to be, if you want walkability or if you want bars, sfh vs apt, price range, etc we can probably help you narrow down your area a little bit better.

[prairiestate]

Downtown Aurora of course. It's urban, diverse, gentrifying and you can walk to the Metra station to go into Chicago.

[Coopermurphy]

Thanks for the input. Just unsure what to do. We could live in Aurora or Naperville, but would like to be somewhere there are people our age. Would love to be able to walk to a downtown that has night life and morning life! Can do apartment or part of sfh. Like to stay under $1200. One bedroom ok to get lower rent. If we move further east toward Chicago, is there another neighborhood that would be interesting to 20 somethings that has a downtown similar to the size of Naperville? I would think it should be on a train line to get into city when desired.

[knitgirl]

Live in Aurora or Naperville. I don't know why people think that there are no 20-somethings in the suburbs - there are tons of them! It's a bummer that you're moving from out of the area and didn't land a job in Chicago or somewhere close enough to live in the city, but when you're just starting out in a new job/career, it's really important to do well. Living close to work makes the most sense. Go down to the city on weekends and have fun, during the week there's definitely enough to do after work in Naperville and the surrounding area.

[chet everett]

There are, despite biases to contrary on these boards, a LOT of people your age that live very nice lives in the suburbs. With a budget of $1200 you should have no problem finding a nice 1+ bedroom apartment in safe part of Aurora. If you want to stick close you could also look in Batavia, North Aurora or Geneva. Most parts of Naperville will also have some smaller apartments in your price range. I would also look to Lisle and even the southern / western parts of Glen Ellyn. The draw of College of DuPage pulls a lot of younger people to those parts of Glen Ellyn.

Honestly it makes a lot more sense to have a short commute to work than to be stuck in traffic. On the evenings when you want to get into Chicago it is easy enough to drive in AFTER rush hour. Weekend trips into Chicago from basically even Dekalb are pretty easy in a car...

[Coopermurphy]

Thanks again. I think we have come to agree with you. Living closer to work is best since Aurora is so far out.
As we were apartment hunting yesterday we are finding we seem to prefer a place with some charm, close to a downtown area vs. the large box complexes located on the outskirts of town, even though they offer more amenities and more square footage for our dollar. Can't seem to find that in Naperville. We will look at the other towns you all have suggested. Any of those towns you would put at the top of the list? I think we need to have easy access to train and interstate, to visit friends in the city. Or maybe we live in temporary housing for a few months until we get a better feel for the area, but that can get expensive!

[jamaicabound60565]

Originally Posted by Coopermurphy

Thanks again. I think we have come to agree with you. Living closer to work is best since Aurora is so far out.
As we were apartment hunting yesterday we are finding we seem to prefer a place with some charm, close to a downtown area vs. the large box complexes located on the outskirts of town, even though they offer more amenities and more square footage for our dollar. Can't seem to find that in Naperville. We will look at the other towns you all have suggested. Any of those towns you would put at the top of the list? I think we need to have easy access to train and interstate, to visit friends in the city. Or maybe we live in temporary housing for a few months until we get a better feel for the area, but that can get expensive!

surprisingly there's really no apartments walkable to downtown naperville or at leastnot super close walkable however there's a lot of duplexes and maybe even some smaller sfh's near dt naperville you can get from private landlords.

there's also some apartments more near dt naperville that would only be like a $5 cab ride home from the bars.

not really quant or charming but near rt 59 and n aurora theres a apt called railway apts thats actually in the parking lot of the train station has a bar and a starbucks in the same parking lot also some cheaper ones acrsos the st so still walkable to the train.

naperville is gonna be your best bet for nightlife, dt aurora is a bit further out but but more charm, more unique places with some character could live above a bar or bakery or something. downers grove is a decent burb dt not as big or as many bars as naperville but still cool. with traffic however even downers to aurora tho not far in reality could be a bit of a commute.

there's some apts in lisle right near the train lisle has a small dt but a few bars, cheaper than naperville slightly closer than city

[chet everett]

Lisle is literally one town east of Naperville and tends to be considerably more affordable. If you want the convenience of a train the BNSF is pretty hard to beat. I would also suggest looking around the next stop(s) east of Lisle -- Downers Grove's Belmont St area has some relatively affordable if "boxy" apartments and the DG Main St area has more of the "vintage charm" type units withing walking distance of the train, though the price difference may not be worth the "look" you are also going to have better access to things in downtown DG like Starbucks & Caribou and several resturants / brew stops. It really is a pretty nice area. The drive to Aurora on either expressway or surface streets is pretty manageable too.

[linicx]

It is always best to live in an area for a while before you make the decision to buy. Explore the areas and look at the houses for a year. By then you will know if you want to live in this area or not. Aurora is good hour from the Loop via the IKE.

Here are ten towns that are ten miles or less from Aurora. #2, 3, 4 are on the Fox River. The Aurora area is larger than the Naperville area. Naperville has a higher per capita income than Aurora. Geneva is a bit of a tourist attraction. You should have some great fun exploring it. Touristy areas are a fun place to live. IF there are streets away from tourist areas you can use to get to your destination with little difficultly. .

1- NORTH AURORA IL: 3.2 miles N
2- BATAVIA IL: 6.2 miles N
3- GENEVA IL: 8.8 miles N
4- ST CHARLES IL: 10.6 miles N

5- WEST CHICAGO IL: 10.5 miles NE
6- WINFIELD IL: 10.8 miles NE

7- NAPERVILLE IL: 9.1 miles E

8- PLAINFIELD IL: 11.0 miles SE

9- SUGAR GROVE IL: 6.4 miles W

0- MONTGOMERY IL: 2.5 miles SW