Relocation to Chicago (Evanston, Normal, Lincoln: real estate market, 2013, apartment)

[Kellden]

I'm an occasional lurker, first-time poster on this site. My wife and I are planning to move to Chicago late in 2012. I have a job in the Roger's Park neighborhood, and she will likely be looking for work in a year or so. We want to buy a condo/townhouse/apartment, preferably something with character in an older building in a healthy, established urban area. We want to be close to shops and services in a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood; we want to be safe and not have to worry much about crime, but we don't want to live out in the suburbs. We don't want to spend much more than $350000. A 3-bedroom condo would be ideal, but we can probably settle for a spacious 2-bedroom. I'm not sure where we would place ourselves on the hipster/yuppie spectrum, but we are young, educated professionals in our early 30s and are really just looking for somewhere with character, shops, restaurants, etc. We don't have kids, but this might happen in the near future and we want to keep our options open in terms of good public schools (we value education above all else).

My question is, where should we live? My internet research suggests that Lincoln Park or Lakeview are prime candidates, but I'd love feedback from real people who know the city.

Also, when would be a good time to buy? Prices seem pretty low right now, but have they bottomed out yet? My job starts early in 2013 and we were thinking of moving late in 2012. It might be prudent to rent first for a while to get a feel for things, but we're sick and tired of moving and would really like to get something more permanent sooner rather than later. We are therefore thinking about taking a week long trip in the fall to purchase something, but maybe this is foolish.

Thank you so much for your help. I might have follow up questions depending on the response.

[Vlajos]

I would suggest renting for a year to learn what areas of the City you like. Good starting points are the mentioned Lincoln Park, Lake View, then add Lincoln Square, Edgewater, Bucktown, Wicker Park and Logan Square. There are very good attendance area CPS schools.

Be forewarned, a certain poster will soon tell you to move to the suburbs.

[chet everett]

The wild card is really the school angle. As you say you are early 30s the biggest factor I would be concerned about is that even should kids enter the picture very soon that would put at like 2017 or so for entering school. Knowing how wacky the politics of Chicago schools are I would feel very very uncertain about buying in even an area that currently has a neighborhood school of acceptable performance.

Truth be told it is folks in your "maybe yes / maybe no" situation that I have the hardest time making any recommendation to. I mean if you avoid Chicago and choose a nice spot in say Evanston but time passes and kids never enter the picture you really might be giving up some nice non-kid friendly neighborhood amenities and even some potential real estate appreciation.

Even if sort of shop with the "maybe yes / maybe no" thing in the back of your mind and maybe find a decent enough townhouse / condo in maybe someplace that sorta straddles the line between not overly family oriented / not overly nightlife oriented like Roscoe Village but you decide that at your price point off street parking means too many trade offs and then kids do enter the picture you are probably really going to hate having no place to store strollers and car seats...

Renting seems like a pretty smart idea in your situation and even if you do that for two years I just do not see any quick reversal of the low rates and good selection of units avalable for purchase...

[soulful]

OP. You are correct that East Lakeview and Lincoln Park both are excellent possibilities. I like the side streets in the extreme eastern parts of those neighborhoods due to their being right beside the park/lake. Very safe and many cool vintage condo buildings (3 flats, 6 flats, and larger courtyard styles). You won't have a problem in your price range. I imagine you have already checked realtor.com listings or comparable sites. For search purposes, the primary Lakeview zip is 60657 and Lincoln Park 60614.

Certainly we do have other cool safe neighborhoods such as Wicker Park, Lincoln Square, Bucktown, Andersonville, etc. Though a touch more inland, they are nice. Downtown Evanston and areas adjacent to Northwestern University also are great walkable areas and it is just a few el train stops to Rogers Park in terms of your job. I realize you didn't really want a suburb but honestly downtown Evanston is more like Chicago than a burb (especially since the Chicago CTA trains run on up to Evanston).

Who knows where this real estate market is headed. You will have a better idea by this fall if we have bottomed out. Hard to call the "rent vs buy" thingy. Normally I would suggest renting for a year in a new city and honestly even if prices do start to go up I would expect them to creep higher. Of course, mortgage rates are also near rock bottom and that must be taken in to consideration.

good luck with your move

Certainly, we have other

[Kellden]

Thanks so much for the quick and helpful replies. I guess I should say that somewhere down the road we can see ourselves moving into a house with a garden in a more suburban neighborhood, maybe in Evanston. But while we're still young, we really want to be in the city. We are thinking that our timeline is something like living in a condo in the city for 6 or 7 years before moving on to something bigger and perhaps more suburban (by then our finances should be a bit stronger, too). We certainly plan to have kids in the next few years, but the timing on this sort of thing obviously can't be planned too closely. It would be nice to have the option to send them to a public school for kindergarten and maybe the first couple grades, but as you say, this is a wild card. Incidentally, how does zoning and public schools work in Chicago? Do children have to be sent to the nearest public school, or is there a choice of several? We wouldn't mind driving our hypothetical children a mile or two to a better school, but I don't know if this would be allowed.

[chet everett]

Currently the byzantine system of selective admissisions does not only allow the sort of thing you suggest -- applying to a 'better' school that may be further away, it practically necesstates it.

If you have the time to devote to tracking down the best performing schools in CPS with the greatest liklihood of having a safe mix of students you can get a SIGNFICANT edge over the folks that just show up at the school that serves their neighborhood. Where things get really nutty is that the system designed to encourage racial diversity often excludes the kids who live closest to a school in favor of those whose parents are more saavvy. It also places some pretty stiff demands on ones time to deal with the inevitable hassles of not just getting kids to school daily, but also trying to be an involved parent and keeping in touch with others at the school.

There are some signs that perhaps this overly complex system may be breaking down, but the level of secrecy around how a different system might be restructured is extreme...

If you know what you are getting into and have friends with kids a little older than yours to help show you the ropes you can work the system to your advantage BUT it still puts tons of kids at extreme risk of ending up in a truly awful school and further complicates the already tough choices about where to live in a region that is facing unprecedented budgetary pressures due to years of neglectful law making...

[Vlajos]

There is nothing byzantine about living in attendance boundaries of good open enrollment schools. Blaine, bell, nettelhorst, burley are all good examples.

[chet everett]

I specifically responded to the OP's question about going outside one's designated local school attendance boundary.

[Kellden]

Thanks very much for the school info, it's good to know. So am I correct to say that one is guaranteed a place in the local school, but that it is possible to get a spot in a different school outside one's zone?

[It'sAutomatic]

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned Rogers Park itself. I'm not informed on the school quality there but despite being far from downtown, it is a very urban neighborhood (for good and for bad). If you go a little past the main area along the lakefront and redline you could even afford a home with 300k. There are also the two neighborhoods immediately south, which are Edgewater and Uptown. There are a few small areas to avoid, but generally, this part of the north side is nice, densely and diversely populated, and your money will go much further than it will in Lakeview or Lincoln Park.