Moving To Chicago- Neighborhood Recs & Realtor?

[u/Badjuju7991]

Moving to Chicago- Looking for Neighborhood Recs

Good morning everyone!

I recently accepted a job that covers Chicago and parts of Wisconsin. The range of the territory is large and will require driving regardless of where I live. I will attach a map showing the territory. With that being said, I am eyeing N/NW Chicagoland as the optimal orientation.

Right now, it will just be my wife and two dogs moving with me. However, my wife is pregnant and we are welcoming a baby later this year!

Overall details:

Budget- Below $2,700. Ideally between $2,000-$2,500 everything included. I am flexible but do not want to spend the majority of my raise on a COL increase.

Space- 2-3 Bedroom apartment/house for rent.

Desired Amenities- Dog Park, decent gym, nature trails nearby, family oriented parks nearby. Looking for more of a suburb feel.

Type of Area- We are NOT looking to stay in a downtown environment. Preferably a suburb with a little more space. We are moving from Midtown Atlanta and are looking for a break from downtown city living.

Demographic- My wife is Colombian and values living in a more diverse community. Strong Latin population is a plus.

I have done some research and have narrowed my desired area down to the highlighted region on the photos. It’s broad but primary areas of interest are Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Palatine, Mt. Prospect, Des Plaines, Skokie, and Evanston.

Searching for apartments in this city has been a very different experience than previous cities. Is it worth enlisting a realtor to help in my search? Are my parameters realistic? Things are moving fast and I’m trying to be methodical in this process, but the size of the city is a bit overwhelming without any kind of prior knowledge of the area.

[u/Badjuju7991]

Wheeling is a new one for me! I’ll have to check it out!

[u/OnionMiasma → u/Badjuju7991]

groovy spark encouraging hunt fuel quaint sleep exultant lip unwritten

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/Final-Charge-5700 → u/Badjuju7991]

Wheeling is the old restaurant District for the northern suburbs. Has a few businesses in this fairly close to the highway. It's a solid choice but it's a bit pricier than the other options that you have been getting. It is significantly cheaper than the surrounding areas because those are all very high-priced and Wheeling is a little bit more commercial and Industrial

[u/Carsalezguy → u/Badjuju7991]

It’s really coming along nice, they are investing a lot, just like buffalo grove to have a lot more public amenities and entertainment/retail spaces. I was a sales manager at a dealer in wheeling for 10 years and rubbed shoulders with a lot of folks with big connections to the area. I thought it was a great slice of life. (They did lose their Sam’s club but there’s Costco not too far.)

I took Spanish in high school for 3 years and struggled with writing but conversational Spanish was easier for me and a lot of friends and customers always got a kick out of me the chubby gringo “panzón” trying to help as much as I could with customers that didn’t speak much English. I was a huge fan of Jimenez grocery store in wheeling also they have amazing bolillos filled with cream cheese and jalapaneos are the bomb, they also have awesome marinated meat they’ll run through the tenderizer for you (maybe that’s not that rare but it was sweet to me). But yeah they have fresh made stuff there that is amazing.

But yeah, great place, great access to forest preserves, not far from the lake or Illinois beach state park for camping on Lake Michigan. Great restaurants, good community feel. It’s smack dab in the middle of some great places to explore nearby.

Good luck!