I'd probably be down for soccer or football depending on the day of the week as well

What area of the City are you living/working in?

I'll be working in the northeast part of the loop, but I have no clue where I'm living. basically all I know about neighborhoods are what I've read in this thread, which have me leaning towards lincoln park or wicker park. thinking about flying out in the next week or so to find an apartment (currently living in dc), because the current plan is to drive a uhaul there in a couple weeks, and it would sure be nice to have an apartment to drop all my **** at. not even sure what the alternative is.

Whatever you do don't sign at the first place you see...this is a renter's market and you should look at several different places in different neighborhoods.

Tide is changing from renters back to landlords as more people chose renting over buying..The building I live in supposedly is raising rents on people 15% as their leases come up.

Call a leasing agent in advance, as I suggested to someone else ITT, to search their database and Craigslist and rent.com for you. In a couple of days, they can pack an entire afternoon with appointments for you and drive you around, picking up applications along the way. You can simply fax them the application and mail a deposit check when you're back in DC, so you're not pressured to find something within the short window of when you're actually here.

This.

Depends. Those are situations where landlords already have equity problems and are compensating for property tax rises. Management companies don't really have that problem, unless they're also developers. Planned Properties and Jerome Meyer are a couple of examples where rent's been fairly frozen over the last 4-5 years.

thanks for the advice. forgot to mention I have a friend who works at the same job who's been there for a couple months and is currently living in temporary housing, so I'm hoping to get a 2BR with him and have him do all the work. not sure how likely that is in 2 weeks though.

NH,

A well motivated person can see 20 apartments in a weekend. The neighborhoods of Chicago you're looking at are not so spread out that commuting around them to see places adds significant time to the schedule. I'd recommend, if you're letting your friend do the majority of the house shopping, that you try to select the neighborhood before sending him out. If you're going to fly out, I strongly suggest spending a few hours each or even a full day hanging out in the top contending neighborhoods. But once you've picked a neighborhood it's pretty easy to zero in on location and style of housing you're looking for, and there's a lot of similarity between the offerings that are out there. So your buddy should be able to find "the place" in 48 hours if he is really motivated.

my friend just emailed me back:
any thoughts on those neighborhoods? havent seen any of them discussed much on here

NHFunkii just curious how old are you?

Those are both solid recommendations. River North is where most of my friends live, lots of nightlife mostly mid/late 20s professional/corporate type crowd...I just ended my year lease in the West Loop and I'd say more late 20s and older population with a bit more of an artsy vibe. You'll get more for your $$$ on the west-side than R. North or Gold Coast but River North would be a good time if you can find a nice building. Then again not sure what your price range is and what amenities you're looking for.

Gold Coast I don't have much experience with but depending on where you rent you'll be taking lots of cabs around to the rest of the city. I personally wouldn't live on the north side of the city (LP/Wrigleyville/etc...) just because of the weekend riff raff.

Based on where you're working I would 100% choose River North or North Loop/Wacker Area.

River north is by far the best area to go out with the best restaurants. Plenty of public transport. Streeterville is ok (basically east of River North), but you pretty much have to cab everywhere.

I live on michigan and lake and thats pretty much the furthest east and south you would want to be.

Agreed. I work in the CBOT and live in the South Loop(22yrs old). After being here for a bit I'll definitely be moving to North Loop or River North, depending on commute times to work as well as to bars and such

Also, feel free to PM me if you need a leasing agent to show you around. I can put you in touch with my good buddy who shows a lot of places in the River North/Gold Coast/Streeterville area.

for those neighborhoods that are best for mid to late 20's young corporate ... which are most expensive to least expensive ... i live in Lakeview in a 1BR, and im thinking of moving somewhere else when my lease is up but don't want to go broke as Lakeview seems pretty expensive to me as it is

cool, thanks guys. I'm 24 fwiw. last two girls I dated were both 2 years older than me but I'm not necessarily looking for that. I'm all about artsy though, so whatever. not looking for dumb 21 year olds either.

Then Lincoln Park isn't your thing.

You'd much prefer Wicker Park, Bucktown, or Lakeview.

Streeterville's nice, but everything's overpriced. West Loop gives you the convenience with comparable spaces at better prices with less touristy congestion, if you want to be right by the Loop.

was a bit drunk when I made that post, not sure why I bothered to mention that... lol oh well.

question - if my friend spends all of next weekend looking for a place, would he definitely be able to find a good place to move into immediately (i.e. within 5 days), or do a lot of places not have openings for a while?

All the smart chicks are in Hyde Park ldo.

Also, for south loop. I was on Wabash just below Roosevelt, and it was disgustingly convenient. A little older crowd and not so artsy though. BUT, they put up like 2,000 condo units in a year when I was there, so they are likely dirt cheap to rent. Bonus: walk to Soldier Field to taunt Bears fans.

I was a big Lakeview fan as well (gf lived at Melrose right off Lakeshore), with the one drawback that unless you like buses, meh. Walking to the red line was more trouble than it was worth.

funkii,

what job are you doing?

i'm not a fan of streeterville at all and think there are better options than river north too. river north is touristy and i think the other neighborhoods are more distinctive.

also old town hasn't come up yet, that's another option. a quick google public trans search looks like the times aren't terribly different across the neighborhood options. esp if you're going to be working in the loop i'd rather live in a neighborhood with lots of trees and non-mainstream restaurants (west loop is prob the best for restaurants but not as good for trees).

Good call. Old Town's real cool, IMO. I grew up in LP, so had a lot of friends there my whole life, and always enjoyed that hood.

The streets are less grid-y, they're more narrow and have dead ends, so tourists are deterred from adding to the density. Very convenient; good places to party with a lot of locals; Second City/Pipers Alley; the park and the lake along Clark as you get toward that LP border; chill faux-dives; sweet cigar shop; easy access to the Gold Coast, Lakeview and WP too.

then all the areas your friend is looking at is pretty much the opposite of what will suit you. Three Two One nailed the areas you want to look at. I will say about lakeview, you should stay away from the wrigleyville area. It can be filled with bros even when the cubs aren't playing. Chis is also spot on about old town for you as well

working for the obama campaign, so I'll be spending a ton of time at the office, which is why an easy commute is a top priority. I'll check out all these options - I think getting a place within a couple blocks of an el station in any of the neighborhoods mentioned would be ideal, hopefully that works out.

thanks for all the advice peeps

If someone said they were artsy I would automatically recommend wicker park. Tons of good bars and restaurants, but definitely more of the hipster/artist/non-corporate vibe. Thats where I used to live and certainly recommend checking it out.

also very close to the blue line

Oldtown artsy? lol.
Oldtown douchebaggery? ldo.

\oldtown hate

where downtown is the office where you are working at? A lot of places in the loop are very easy to get to and you can base yourself off of the brown, blue, or red lines. Lots of areas will be open for you doing that (including all of the areas that have been noted)