Humboldt Park/West Ukrainian Village (Chicago, Oak Park: for sale, house, living in)

[F0rEverYoung]

Originally Posted by nikitakolata

I've had the same experience. Maybe I'm just totally oblivious, but I have been living on Campbell between Hirsh and Potomac for 3 years now and haven't had any experiences like what many people have posted here. I haven't noticed any gunshots and I have no trouble getting sleep due to neighborhood noise. The only exception to the noise is the first 4th of July I lived on that block (in 2008) there were a TON of fireworks and they kept me up.

The worst we have experienced has been petty property crime. Some idiot broke one of our basement windows, which set off the alarm, and he/she/they ran off. Nothing was stolen. The only other incident was someone breaking into our garage. He was clearly high at the time. He did it at 9:00 on a Saturday and was caught by the police in the act. He got away with my husband's MP3 player, but that's it. Both of those things happened over a year ago now.

As for no one with a degree living in HP, well, that's just not true. My husband and I have the means to live wherever we want to in Chicago or the suburbs. We found a house we loved in HP and we're content where we are. We could sell it and move, but we're not doing that. We had just as many crime incidents living in the nice part of Evanston as we have in HP anyway.

wow thats amazing.. Humboldt Park can't be that nice.. i mean i live here and i grew up in the 100z neigborhoods on Chicago's south side.. i went to Harlem High.. and in my opinion from what I seen.. living here almost 2 years .. HP is alot more louder, populated, dangerous, and more ghetto than where im from.. and im not the type of guy to get startle that easily.. im trying to find a house in Pilsen which is also near the city and is alot calmer than HP..

[nikitakolata]

Originally Posted by F0rEverYoung

wow thats amazing.. Humboldt Park can't be that nice.. i mean i live here and i grew up in the 100z neigborhoods on Chicago's south side.. i went to Harlem High.. and in my opinion from what I seen.. living here almost 2 years .. HP is alot more louder, populated, dangerous, and more ghetto than where im from.. and im not the type of guy to get startle that easily.. im trying to find a house in Pilsen which is also near the city and is alot calmer than HP..

Well, maybe it's like many areas of Chicago and HP differs block by block. The block I live on has a lot of families and the people I've talked to have been nice. The kids that came to the house trick or treating on Sunday were all polite enough and thanked us for the candy and all that... so I just don't know what to tell ya.

I don't think the few blocks just west of Western are as rough as many people think. Either I just had very bad luck when I was in Evanston or I've had very good luck here, but like I said, I had just as many crime problems up there living in the "nice" area of Evanston.

[Oliver Twist]

Originally Posted by nikitakolata

I've had the same experience. Maybe I'm just totally oblivious, but I have been living on Campbell between Hirsh and Potomac for 3 years now and haven't had any experiences like what many people have posted here. I haven't noticed any gunshots and I have no trouble getting sleep due to neighborhood noise.

The worst we have experienced has been petty property crime.

As for no one with a degree living in HP, well, that's just not true. My husband and I have the means to live wherever we want to in Chicago or the suburbs. We found a house we loved in HP and we're content where we are. We could sell it and move, but we're not doing that. We had just as many crime incidents living in the nice part of Evanston as we have in HP anyway.

I'm confused

Originally Posted by nikitakolata

I live pretty close to where you're looking right now. I bought on Campbell a few blocks north of where you mentioned. If I had the chance to do it again, I definitely would not buy here. In the past 6 months I have filed so many police reports that it makes me sick. Not to mention the disgusting littering problem in Humboldt Park that I posted about previously.

I bought about a year and a half ago, so I feel I've given the area a chance. It is definitely not for me. I'm staying now only because I cannot possibly sell without taking a loss given current market conditions. The second someone wants my house for about what I've invested in it, they can have it and I will happily leave.

Originally Posted by nikitakolata

It actually wasn't until this April that we've starting having a ton of problems with crime. Had I known how much crime we'd encounter when we were buying, I would have gone elsewhere.

But, my husband and I have excellent credit, and we're not going to destroy it just to get away from a few thugs. Instead I've added bars and bullet proof panes to my windows, and added tons of motion sensors and security cameras. I guess I hope it is just a few bad apples that are temporarily ruining things and I'm praying they leave. Regardless though, my opinion of the area has been tainted and I'm ready to move the second we find a buyer for the house.

Originally Posted by nikitakolata

Personally, if I didn't have my husband in our house with me 99% of the time I'm there, I don't think I'd feel very comfortable. We have just had such a bad streak with crime this year that Humboldt Park makes me uneasy still. I live north of Division, east of the park, in what some consider the best part of Humboldt Park (barely west of Western Ave.).

If I were going to live alone (or with a child), I would choose another part of the city knowing what I do now. My husband and I would leave HP in a heartbeat if we somehow found a buyer for our house, even though we made it through October completely crime free (first month that has happened since February

[nikitakolata]

Originally Posted by Oliver Twist

I'm confused

Yep, that was our year of crime... It wasn't great and I had a lot of second thoughts about living in the city of Chicago at all. I had gifts stolen from my wedding in the loop, my wallet stolen from a bar in Lincoln Park, I was hit by a drunk driver on the Edens who didn't even bother to stop, my car was broken into in Wicker Park, and my husband was rear ended in Old Town. Then there was our garage break in and broken window too... all of that in one year. I was very upset by all of that at the time, not just one incident.

But, given time, I've thought about all of those events a lot. Only 2 were tied to our neighborhood, the rest happened in supposedly good areas. The two things that happened in/to our house were the least costly to correct. So, I guess I'm just over it now. I had a garage break-in in Evanston too, and they broke the garage window and my car windows. That was a larger inconvenience.

[salata87]

Generally I have to agree with recent nikitalata posts. Currently I'm living in East Humboldt Park for past 2 years. In my opinion this area improving rapidly. Renting Ukrainian Village and Wicker Park is so expensive thats why many people moving to Humboldt Park. Same Streets are OK (Maplewood)same not (Talman).
Please take a walk during daytime and see how many "hipsters" you'll see walking, biking on streets. No yuppies right now but in 4-5 years they'll be here. Too close to Wicker Park, nice park,architecture,
I'm checking out everyblock daily and generally is not that bad. Same petty crime like everywhere else. Never heard any shooting, I own 2 flat, never had problem renting, had over 10 calls daily after ad on Craiglist. My previous and current tenatns had over 700 credit score. I know that area for over 14 years for me it is like Ukrainian Village in 1997.

[Oliver Twist]

Originally Posted by nikitakolata

Yep, that was our year of crime... It wasn't great and I had a lot of second thoughts about living in the city of Chicago at all. I had gifts stolen from my wedding in the loop, my wallet stolen from a bar in Lincoln Park, I was hit by a drunk driver on the Edens who didn't even bother to stop, my car was broken into in Wicker Park, and my husband was rear ended in Old Town. Then there was our garage break in and broken window too... all of that in one year. I was very upset by all of that at the time, not just one incident.

But, given time, I've thought about all of those events a lot. Only 2 were tied to our neighborhood, the rest happened in supposedly good areas. The two things that happened in/to our house were the least costly to correct. So, I guess I'm just over it now. I had a garage break-in in Evanston too, and they broke the garage window and my car windows. That was a larger inconvenience.

I don't understand how having your wallet stolen in Lincoln Park would taint your opinion of Humboldlt Park. Why would you regret buying in Humboldt Park and want to high tail it out of there the second you got an offer from a buyer. Why would you not recommend it for families?

I do agree with people who say that the area west of the park is much different than the area east of Park. There are stark differences between the eastern edge and the western edge. Almost like night and day.

[nikitakolata]

Originally Posted by Oliver Twist

I don't understand how having your wallet stolen in Lincoln Park would taint your opinion of Humboldlt Park. Why would you regret buying in Humboldt Park and want to high tail it out of there the second you got an offer from a buyer. Why would you not recommend it for families?

I do agree with people who say that the area west of the park is much different than the area east of Park. There are stark differences between the eastern edge and the western edge. Almost like night and day.

At that time I didn't just want to get out of HP, I wanted to get out of the city of Chicago entirely. I was beginning to feel like I made a huge mistake thinking I could live in Chicago after spending my entire life up to that point in the suburbs. Since we've been crime-free for a year now (knock on wood), I guess I'm attributing the events of 2009 to be a run of bad luck. Still, I think I probably belong in the suburbs and if someone were to offer me a great price for my house I'd leave Chicago. I definitely wouldn't be relocating to Lincoln Park or Lakeview or anything like that.

[F0rEverYoung]

it would be a nice place to live but puertoricans have trashed the place up.. hopefully the new development would change the nieborhood a bit.. take down the flag on western ave. and put up new monuments. if that happens i might think about staying

[quigboto]

I've done my fair share of complaining about HP on this board, but unless I want to take a bath on my house, I'm stuck here for better or worse. So instead of bellyaching about it, I am trying to focus on the positives, support local businesses (Hoping that their success with lead to more business growth in the area) keep my house/yard looking good and keep an eye on things in the neighborhood and be more active in the improvement of it. I find that I am a much happier person for that and while I am realistic enough to know that any positive impact I am having is negligible, if more people get on board with that philosophy then hopefully HP will continue to get better (Because it is getting better)

[Humboldt1]

Quigboto,

I still own my apartment building in Humboldt Park but have lived in Oak Park for almost 1 year now. I have not seen any improvement in the area and wonder if there is potential for the area to get worse. My building is a few blocks east of Pulaski and North.

I think the area is much better than say 5 years ago but improvement has stalled for the past couple of years. My block is a family block and pretty quiet and few vacant buildings (no empty lots).

I have yet to see a lot of hipsters more than a few blocks west of the park. I will be lucky to sell my building in 2015 for what I paid for it in 2006. For now, I like you hold on. I even make a few dollars per month but given the hassle I would gladly sell if not for the huge equity loss I would take.