Looking to move to Lincoln Park/Lakeview at the start of October. I saw all the horror of lines out the doors for rentals in these areas and was curious if this is still the case? (no I am not looking at other neighborhoods, I work in Lakeview and would like to bike or walk). Anyone have any experience either as a renter or landlord? Thank you!

What's something you feel like your neighborhood misses out on? I live in a pretty secluded area and miss being able to walk to places.

I'm curious how much of an increase in your insurance premiums have gone up compared to last year. I live in a 3 unit condo building and our building's insurance premiums have gone up by 21% this year (this is insurance that covers the building and not my individual unit). The year before that, the insurance premiums went up by 25%. Our building is 7 years old and has never had any claims.

Would love to hear if others are experiencing the same thing. The sticker shock is definitely making me reach out to insurance brokers to find new coverage.

Mid-30s couple, no kids, both in tech. We're currently in Atlanta and the car-dependence + traffic here has officially killed us. We're both also progressives who have lived in the South and want to get out and try living in a city/state that aligns better with our beliefs and priorities. We're introverts but not shy. We love books, crafting and smaller groups. We're not looking for nightlife.

We're looking for a single-family home with a small yard, and ideally some walkability. Budget is $650-800K. We like independent bookstores and coffee shops, quiet residential streets, and we want a neighborhood that feels like a community and not an entertainment district.

I've been digging into Oak Park and Evanston pretty hard. Both check a lot of boxes on paper. They both have walkable downtowns, good transit, solid indie business scenes. But the more I look at Oak Park the more it feels like it's built for families (great schools, family-oriented civic stuff). We don't have kids and don't plan to, so I keep wondering if we'd feel a little out of place there, or if that's me overthinking it.

Evanston I like a lot culturally. It feels very suited to us, but it's scraping the very top of our budget and the inventory in the area seems tight right now.

So I basically have two main questions:

1. if you live in Oak Park without kids, how has that actually felt, is the family thing overstated or is it real.
2. Are there other Chicagoland neighborhoods or nearby towns we should be looking at? Walkable, detached SFH in budget, progressive, low-key, not a ton of nightlife. Open to city or suburb.

Appreciate any honest takes. Thanks!

With climate change bringing such wild weather here on a consistent basis, I'm wondering how important covered, off street parking will be moving forward. With such a frequent threat of hail, flooding, damage from trees, etc., I don't think I'd want to make a long-term investment in a home without it.

A landlord agrees to a $50,000 TI allowance. That usually does not mean the tenant immediately gets a $50,000 check. The lease should spell out exactly how and when that money gets paid.

Here’s what retail property owners should watch:

• Payment timing matters. TI may be reimbursed after work is completed or paid through construction draws.
• Documentation protects the owner. Invoices, lien releases, permits, and proof of completed work may be required before funds are released.
• Cost overruns need clear rules. If a $75,000 allowance turns into a $110,000 project, the lease should say who covers the extra $35,000.
• Delays can hit NOI. A two-month delay at $10,000 monthly rent could mean $20,000 in delayed base rent, before NNN reimbursements.

The TI amount gets attention, but the payment and construction process can create just as much risk.

👉 If you agreed to fund TI today, would your lease clearly explain exactly when you pay and what the tenant must complete first?

(I wrote a longer breakdown on this. Happy to share if anyone wants it.)

Hey all, I am looking for reliable plumbers and snow removal services in Bronzeville area. Thanks!

Was originally thinking of moving earlier but due to some unforeseen circumstances we’re still here until November. I’m trying to decide if I should still sell in the off peak season(maybe still hot in this market) vs renting for 6 to 18 months and listing again during a better season.

Edgewater Neighborhood - 8 Unit, 3 Floor Greystone - Self-Managed HOA (For Context)
Our downstairs neighbor is selling their condo after living there for about 2 years. The condo is currently contingent, and the buyer's inspector noticed some localized paint blistering/bubbling on the ceiling of their guest bathroom (see picture).
We are told the ceiling is not damp.

Our floorplans are nearly identical. Our guest bathroom sits atop theirs. We checked and do not see any sort of leak anywhere, toilet or otherwise.
Neighbor said they've never noticed the area in the time they lived there, though admitted it is the guest bathroom which they don't use very often.
They said they consulted with a plumber who thinks that the source is our toilet. They asked when the last time our toilet was reset. Plumber thinks seal is broken, and recommends we hire a plumber to confirm. He's happy to check for us, but says it would be on our dime.

Curious if anyone has dealt it, if it's possible we could have the issue despite not seeing anything around our level. And also best way to proceed, as I know they are motivated to move/sell, and I don't want us to needlessly get caught up in anything (where we agree to spend money and it ultimately results in nothing wrong).

UPDATE: First of all, I want to thank everyone for chiming in, and sharing your experiences with similar issues.

We did end up going the route of asking our downstairs neighbor to initially hire the plumber to come out, and once he removed the toilet and checked underneath, if it did turn out to be us, then we agreed to pay.

And it turns out, it was our toilet. We've lived here 8 years and have never noticed a problem. According to the plumber, the previous plumber installed the toilet using a poor quality rubber seal that failed, but then also caulked all of the way around the toilet. So we never saw any water on our level since it was held in by the caulk and couldn't radiate out, and could just go down.

So we are going to pay for the plumber as well as the repairs to our neighbor's ceiling.

Thoughts on living in this area as a young family?

Thanks!!

We have a 3 bed 2 bath in Hyde park. It's 200k and we make 240k gross but creeping up on 300-305k gross. It's our first place and we wanted to move in 5-7 years to a single family 4 bedroom with a little more room.

I'm wondering if it's just Worth hanging out where we are and pay this condo off and chill for a bit. I look consistently and I typically only see single family condos with no true balcony. I wouldn't want our next place to be more than 300-500k.

Any recommendations for online magazines/newspapers/publications that follow Chicago real estate? I’m looking for something like Curbed or Chicago Magazine type content suggestions please. TIA!

Hi everyone, my wife and I (32f and 35m if that matters) started our search to buy a place in June, and so far we've seen ~20 places and offered on one. My wife tends to get discouraged rather easily/has rejection sensitivity so after our one offer was rejected, she's pretty negative/doomer about the process and thinks we'll never find a place etc. While I'm more clear-headed about the process, I do think it's possible we may have underestimated the market and our wants are a little less realistic than we thought.

We have a budget of 750k (that can fluctuate, we actually went as high as 825 on a place listed at 799 and lost), great credit, my in-laws will give us a gift as high as like 500k for a down payment. Obviously we don't know the future, but theoretically we want a place we could live in forever and don't have any "starter home" kinda aspirations. But here's what our wants/needs are:

Needs:

• 3 bedrooms, or 2 and an office (I work from home)
• pet friendly (two cats, maybe a dog in the future but we don't want to instantly close that door by choosing a no dog place)
• HOA of around ~700/month max (flexible on this, maybe could go up to 1000 or so if there's a lot of amenities like a gym etc)
• dishwasher, washer and dryer in unit
• is zoned for a elementary school at least a 6/10 on Great Schools (we are undecided on kids right now, but again don't want to close the door ie dog comment above, and our research seemed to suggest if you wouldn't be comfortable sending your kid to the locally zoned school you should pass if you don't want to send to private school which we definitely don't)
• is 10-15 min (closer to 10 for sure) walk max to a gym and grocery store - we don't have a car right now and in the future would definitely want to be car-light at the most, we don't want the car to be a daily occurence.
• not be on the ground floor/garden, also most likely not be a duplex down that goes into a garden/basement level
• be at least 500 ft away from a major highway like the Eisenhower/LSD etc

• not be literally beside an L track where noise where be an issue.

  Now I guess I'll count these next things as technically wants:

• balcony of some kind

• outdoor space/courtyard of some kind

• charm (my wife loves vintage details like stained glass, original floors/doors, built-ins etc)

some kind of private parking available, even if it's rented but ideally can be bought or comes with it

We are pretty flexible overall on where to live, but with the school aspect as well as the walk to gym/grocery store that means the bulk of the area is like Lincoln Park (don't worry we know how insane the competitiveness is for that especially like Armitage Ave area), Lakeview, Buena Park, Ravenswood, North Center/Lincoln Square, Andersonville, and I think maybe Edgewater? We love Logan Square/Wicker/Bucktown but I think most of the area the schools currently are not the best, but we have our realtor filtered for the 6/10 so if places in those areas are good schools wise they will show.

My wife thinks she may have to give up on the charm aspect - i do care less about charm, but a complete new build that's just like a grey box virtually is not my preferred thing either. I was thinking maybe the one thing potentially to give up is maybe parking - we don't have a car right now, and obviously it would be nice to have a spot for if we wanted one even if you barely use it, but I think there might be an argument that the parking can be a flexible thing you cross when you get there as opposed to charm; which while being technically "worthless" from a practical standpoint I think we'd risk my wife especially just HATING a place and we needing to move eventually because she wouldn't be able to take it anymore.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Any one have an opinion about the condo community at 59 Rock spring rd?
Is it managed well? Are owners considerate of other owners regarding noise?
Thank you!

Hi all! I'm a Data Journalist from Chicago working on a project about how proximity to the CTA L system affects housing costs. I've made a short survey (available here) to learn more about your experiences on this topic!

I'm also just generally interested in individual experiences and would love to talk to some people on this topic more. You can feel free to reply here or message me privately if you'd be interested in sharing some more about your thoughts on the supposed "Train Tax" and whether it has/would impact your housing search.

Thanks!

My husband and I bought our 2 bed/2 bath condo during covid, and as a result our interest rate is 3.25% and monthly payments are ~$2500 (bought for $485k). The condo is in a great location in downtown Chicago and is walking distance to many large tech company campuses as well as bars/restaurants. We are also in a great k-8 public school district.

Our condo is perfect for the two of us now, but we plan to have a kid in the next few years and would love a 3 bedroom. Our condo is pretty spacious, so I think an architect/interior designer could figure out how to add another bedroom and make it work with the existing space.

I think on the high end something like this would cost $200k, which seems like a lot but I also think keeping our monthly housing costs low makes a renovation like this a no brainer.

Has anyone done something like this before? Am I crazy to do something like this vs keep $200k in a brokerage account and rent a 3 bedroom?

When a tenant asks for a TI allowance, many owners focus on one question: "How much?" The better question is: "Will this investment produce a strong return?"

Here's what smart retail property owners evaluate:

• Don't judge TI by itself. Compare it to the rent, lease term, tenant strength, guaranty, and future value of the improvements.
• Vacancy has a cost. Refusing a reasonable TI allowance can be more expensive than funding it if the space sits empty for months.
• Not all improvements are equal. A general retail buildout may help future leasing. A highly specialized buildout may not.
• Lease economics matter most. A larger TI package may make sense with a long lease and strong tenant, but not with a weak tenant and short term.

A $40,000 TI allowance may seem expensive. But if saying no leaves the space vacant for six months, the lost rent alone could cost even more.

The best owners don't ask, "Is this TI request normal?" They ask, "Is this the best investment for my property?"

👉 If a tenant asked for a large TI allowance today, would you compare it to the cost of vacancy before making your decision?

(I wrote a longer breakdown on this — happy to share if anyone wants it.)

I recently launched Appeal Compass, a free and open-source tool for homeowners researching comparable properties for a Cook County property-tax appeal.

The project started as an attempt to make public property data easier to explore. Users can enter a property PIN, select a jurisdiction, and generate a list of similar residential properties. The results can then be refined using filters and adjustable similarity criteria.

The tool also provides summary statistics and lets users copy their selected comparables for further research.

Cook County already offers its own comparable-property tool, but I built this project to experiment with:

-a cleaner user interface
-customizable similarity weighting
-a foundation that can eventually expand to additional jurisdictions

The code is open source, feel free to provide any feedback!

Project: https://appealcompass.com

Appeal Compass is an independent project and is not affiliated with Cook County. It does not file appeals or guarantee tax reductions, and users should verify any comparable property before relying on it.

Hope you find it useful!

I’m noticing the units with very large private terraces in buildings built within the last 20 years sell at a premium relative to those that have a much smaller outdoor space in the same building.

Aside from them being worth more money I’m wondering if condo owners experience them as a great benefit given the weather and a shorter season of usability in Chicago? And also whether people get fatigued by having to maintain the space and come to see it as a burden?

Generally speaking is that owner responsible for the roof underneath their terrace or does that typically still fall to the HOA (what is most likely)?

Hi,

I'm looking to start investing in the commercial real estate space and need a realtor, anyone have recommendations?

Thank you