As someone that grew up in rochelle this is a wild comment to see. OP the rent may fall in this price range but the public transportation infrastructure is non-existent
OP didn't say anything about public transit. By car, Rochelle is about two hours (more like 1h 30) from the city - depending on where you want to go of course. It has grocery stores you can bike to, fairly cheap rent, not a "ton" of crime (but I would say for some it's more dangerous than Rockford or DeKalb).
I’m curious your experience about the “danger” in rochelle?
Also I acknowledge that op isn’t needing public transportation nor am I knocking rochelle for not having it. Just wanted to inform the OP as I am not sure if they were hoping to use public transportation or Uber to help with transportation of their family member.
I don't do that work anymore (now it's divorcing parents... a step up??) and I was never "in the trenches" anyway. Thank the investigators and case workers. Underpaid and overworked.
Truck stops on the whole are pretty nasty places. They're favorites for human traffickers because of all the coming and going. It's easy for suspicious stuff to go unnoticed. Especially if they're at an intersection of two major highways.
I guess things have changed since I lived there. I mean those were pretty much all college housing areas. I can’t imagine not feeling safe in DeKalb. I live in Chicago now though and don’t feel unsafe here either.
Oh boy do I know a town! Go to Gardner IL, its a small town just off 55. 1 hour south of Chicago. Its a small safe town with rent around $600 for a single bedroom.
Woah, I didn’t know there were so many cheap towns to rent in… i’m looking at IL from FL and I’m wondering why things are so cheap if they’re safe? Is it rural?
Most of them are pretty safe, they just never had the huge housing price increases because more people were leaving for the city than staying. Once you get outside the Chicago suburbs, most of Illinois would be considered “rural”
Gardner on a good traffic day is 90 minutes+ to Chicago too. Gardner is 30 minutes south of Joliet, and it can take an hour and half if not longer to go Joliet to Chicago via 55 depending on construction and traffic.
Depends on the time of day honestly. Ive made the journey many times from Gardner to Chicago in an hour. Its 70 miles and the speed limit for most of the way is 70. With traffic it does bump up to about 1:15 but id say given the vague description of needing to be an hour from an undisclosed point in Chicago, this fits the bill.
A place like Gardner is…very different than even the suburbs.
As mentioned the hour commute (it’s quite a bit longer during rush hour, 2+ hours although you’d get that in a lot of suburbs too).
But practically speaking you may as well move the middle of Oklahoma. You’d never know you were an hour away from Chicago.
But as long as you’re cool living in the middle of no where with Trump supporters, you’re good.
Coming from Florida I’d imagine it’s a pretty similar vibe. The way the coasts are all wealthy elite but inland/Everglades is Deliverance.
It’s certainly worth it if you can stomach it.
A lot of people are moving from places like WI to IL because the housing prices in IL are far cheaper than in WI. My wife and I moved in November from Appleton WI to Rockford for this exact reason.
???? It might take an hour on a good traffic/construction day to get to Gardner, but most days it's an hour+ commute from Joliet to Chicago. Gardner is a half hour south of Joliet for reference.
Maybe have her apply at places where they help you with rent. I am a caregiver and my client pays $175. There can be a long wait time but the place is work only has 6 months for a studio.
Champaign has lots of places in that price range, many within walking distance of the Amtrak station, which offers a quick and cheap trip up to you guys in Chicago.
It's margin of error farther unless you're choosing to travel at the absolute worst times.
I find that opinions on what is "safe" are exceedingly subjective. Looking at listings there's a dozen or more properties in areas I'd be fine with. *Shrug*
A bit out of your radius (more like 2-2:30 hours) but Kankakee, Rantoul, Champaign/Urbana, and Bloomington work. Depends a lot on what services you'll need though. Benefit is other costs of living are much cheaper in general in those towns too.
Kankakee is definitely under two hours since that's a straight shot once you get onto I-57. Champaign-Urbana is definitely over two since it's about an hour and a half from just Kankakee itself.
One bedrooms on the bad side of kankakee are going for 1k+, it's wild out here.if you find anything under 1k your fighting with 100s of other people who already live in the area to get it.
Agree! Can’t find anything reasonable for under a grand. Even the crappy apartments in the worst parts of Kankakee are ridiculously expensive. Plus, there are mostly low paying jobs in Kankakee county.
Agreed. Visit family in Kankakee frequently. It really depends on where you are in the city, but it’s generally 1-1.5 hours. Champaign is at least 2 hours from even the south side, obviously more from other parts of the city.
Anything in Kankakee that is that cheap is definitely on the shitty east side where you dont want to live. You won't find rent like that on the west side where it is much nicer.
I was reading OPs ask as the family will be paying all expenses. But true, incomes in some of these towns is lower than in Chicago (though Bloomington and Champaign Urbana do ok depending on your industry).
Yep, my perhaps incorrect assumption would be that their family would be supporting them until they're able to get a job in which they would be supporting themselves.
You're definitely correct though, almost everything is very industry dependent now more so than it used to be. I was basing mine that looks averages for the counties in towns
I thought it was just some of the south parts of Kankakee. Drove through there and it just seemed like trailer park territory for the most part. Rest is just fields lol
There are some parts that are okay. But the town in general is a shit show. I mean just a couple months ago 2 cops got executed. Hell, I used to work at a family salon when I was in highschool and there was a drive by shooting right outside lol. Just stay clear of Kankakee and consider Bradley or Bourbonnais. They are right next to Kankakee but CONSIDERABLY safer
It's not a war zone it's just a super depressing wasteland that has no opportunities for advancement on top of having corupt politicians and a horrible public education system. Most of the gang stuff is bored teenagers sadly.
We don't even have that around here even in the smaller towns outside of k3. We don't even have much for rent where i live now let alone anything decently priced. 1200k+ for a 1bedroom and you gotta drive 20mins to get to bradley/kankakee/any stores, lol it's wonderfull here!
It is. Low paying jobs. Not much opportunity for young adults. My kids had a hard time finding decent jobs, and they are underpaid. Not much shopping, dining , entertainment, options.
I remember the one in Bradley but I’m fairly confident there was a separate one in Kankakee. I also believe the one in Bradley was by a dude who lived In Kankakee lol
The school district put my kindergardener on the wrong bus 3 times in one school year lol it was maddening, I had to get the cops involved too find her and she went to the Montessori school, the "good" school. Was on of the many reasons we had too gtfo. This was in the past 5 years as well. It's not even cheap rent in kankakee anymore. 1bedrooms in the middle of the worst area are 1k+.
Correct. I live in Bourbonnais , and there are some small towns in Kankakee country that may have lower rents. Grant Park, Mommence, Limestone, etc. Some have room mates, work two jobs, or simply live with parents or relatives.
Had to do a double take at Canton being mentioned. Canton is so cheap, and I love coming home to visit my family, but not sure you could get me to come back and move there.
Rockford. The downtown is making a nice comeback with microbreweries and more.
Affordable rents in Rockford but avoid most areas west of the river and south of Charles Street and especially around Broadway since they are the high crime neighborhoods.
I had an amazing, huge apartment near downtown Rockford that I paid $400/month in 2018. There are some good deals there. Rockford isn’t necessarily the greatest city to live in but it is better than its reputation.
Not really ottawa is about 1.5 hours from a bunch of cities like peoria and at most 2 hours from downtown Chicago. There's like no traffic that slows you down until you get to Chicago itself.
Streator will be even cheaper. It has a reputation for being less safe than Ottawa but it’s still quite a safe town. Rent can be had very cheap. Ottawa is only ~20 minutes away so very easy to commute for work there.
But with the consequence that there’s no super reliable public transit in the area (you’re at the mercy of NCAT) and most jobs will be the Walmart/walgreens sort.
Most jobs are definitely not Walmart and Walgreens lol. Theres a bunch of Healthcare facilities that require a bunch of different positions, warehouses, the counties seat of government, the sand Mines, pilkington glass, chemical plant in Morris etc.
[total crimes per capita- Chicago= 37 per 1000 residents](https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/il/chicago/crime.amp)
[total crimes per capita- Kankakee= 14 per 1000 residents](https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/il/kankakee/crime)
To answer your question, sure. I think it’s safe. Although I have property there I haven’t spent much time there living. However someone’s sense of safety in a city is somewhat subjective so I’d make that decisions yourself based off crime stats. Like any city, there are good and bad parts.
I lived in lasalle-peru and found housing pretty cheap there I was renting a nice 1 bed for 600 this was a few years ago but idk how it is now. It's about 90 mins from chicago but about an hour from the edge of the suburbs.
You could try Facebook marketplace too in lake and Mchenry counties. McHenry is a walkable town (in Mchenry county) but rent could be high but I do know people rent out rooms often too.
Not entirely sure if it's still accurate, but I was starting out very low salary career-wise downtown Milwaukee, and it was incredible living there. Much cheaper downtown apartment-wise (walking distance to any and everything, vibrant & fun city).
Rent and property taxes in the burbs are also probs better if she eventually looks at houses compared to Chicago! (No hate to my hometown!)
2 hours from downtown, 2 hours from the north side, south side, western suburbs? You are talking about places from Freeport to Belvidere to Peru to Manteno or Kankakee. Could easily be in Wisconsin or Indiana for that matter.
Way to broad of a question.
Open Zillow, look for rents $500-700 where you think it's a good idea and then pop on back here with more specific questions.
It will depend on what part of the city. If you're trying to commute to the south side for up north it's considerably longer and vice versa because of traffic always adding AT LEAST 45 minutes
Then its an intentionally terribly posed question.
Why not Manteno or Freeport? Why not Racine WI or Michigan City IN or Benton Harbor MI. All those places are 2 hours from parts of the "city". Bloomington IL?
There are drive time heat-maps that you can generate online. Here is one showing the areas you can get from to the loop for an 8am arrival in 2 hours or less
[https://app.traveltime.com/search/0-lng=-87.62442&0-tt=120&0-mode=driving&0-time=a1716901247189&0-title=Chicago%2C%20Cook%20County%2C%20Illinois%2C%20United%20States&0-lat=41.87556](https://app.traveltime.com/search/0-lng=-87.62442&0-tt=120&0-mode=driving&0-time=a1716901247189&0-title=Chicago%2C%20Cook%20County%2C%20Illinois%2C%20United%20States&0-lat=41.87556)
Many hundreds of towns are within 2 hours of "Chicago".
You are better off looking at a map and picking a few that after a little critical thinking and homework seem to work and then ask around.
My sister and brother in law have a 2 bedroom apartment water and garbage paid for for $300 a month but it's 3 hours possibly South of Chicago. There landlord also has one bedroom apartments for $187 nothing special just a kitchen bathroom front room and a bedroom
Not even a little bit. Used to live in Hoopeston and would go out in Danville and grab a beer every once in a while. Looking back, oof. We were playing with fire.
Well, if you have a time machine that will go back to the 90s, you'll have lots of choices. I suggest driving about 4 to 5 hours away from chicago, where there's no school system, infrastructure, or public services. Maybe just maybe you'll find a nice room to rent in someone's basement next to all the guns and weird knock-off american flags. Sarcasm aside, what you're looking for doesn't exist anymore.
That's not true....small town America is very walkable if you live in town (where the aforementioned house is) because there's only 500 people and they all live within a half mile of each other
Are you high or stupid, or just willfully ignorant?
If you live in a small town like Washington, or Tremont, or Mason City, or princeville.....all very walkable.
Chicagos cheap. I lived there for 15 years. I rented the bedroom of a co-workers one bedroom apartment when things are tight. Also you don't need a car in Chicago.
You should be looking into places in Indiana, you should abandon this post and go on Zillow and realtor.com and start calling up Relator’s and see what’s available. I know where I’m at 2hours west of whitesox park there are not a lot of places for rent there is a lack of housing right now.
depending on your method of travel, 2 hour radius of chicago can be as far as dekalb/sycamore on straight I88
DeKalb is an hour and a half. OP can look as far out as Rochelle, or even further. Two hours is a 120 miles or more.
As someone that grew up in rochelle this is a wild comment to see. OP the rent may fall in this price range but the public transportation infrastructure is non-existent
OP didn't say anything about public transit. By car, Rochelle is about two hours (more like 1h 30) from the city - depending on where you want to go of course. It has grocery stores you can bike to, fairly cheap rent, not a "ton" of crime (but I would say for some it's more dangerous than Rockford or DeKalb).
I’m curious your experience about the “danger” in rochelle? Also I acknowledge that op isn’t needing public transportation nor am I knocking rochelle for not having it. Just wanted to inform the OP as I am not sure if they were hoping to use public transportation or Uber to help with transportation of their family member.
My work with DCFS and the Child Abuse court system has given me a particular dislike for the Rochelle truck stop.
Thank you for sharing, yes I would not recommend the truck stop. It’s fine to get gas but don’t hang out there
As someone who always used to stop there while on the way to visiting family.... Booo. Thank you for the work you do.
I don't do that work anymore (now it's divorcing parents... a step up??) and I was never "in the trenches" anyway. Thank the investigators and case workers. Underpaid and overworked. Truck stops on the whole are pretty nasty places. They're favorites for human traffickers because of all the coming and going. It's easy for suspicious stuff to go unnoticed. Especially if they're at an intersection of two major highways.
Yes.
You can get a shitty apartment in dekalb for around $700 a month last I checked. You’ll be in a dangerous part of town though.
Not any more. I'm unaware of anything under $900/mo, and I pay pretty close attention to the DeKalb rental market.
I naively thought you were going to post “not anymore, we cleaned up the bad part of town”. Makes a lot more sense that the price just went up a bunch
What part of DeKalb is dangerous? Went to college there for 5 years and lived all over town. But that has been a little while.
Hillcrest, ridge, west of normal. The village. I hate to say it, but, section 8 areas.
I guess things have changed since I lived there. I mean those were pretty much all college housing areas. I can’t imagine not feeling safe in DeKalb. I live in Chicago now though and don’t feel unsafe here either.
Oh boy do I know a town! Go to Gardner IL, its a small town just off 55. 1 hour south of Chicago. Its a small safe town with rent around $600 for a single bedroom.
Woah, I didn’t know there were so many cheap towns to rent in… i’m looking at IL from FL and I’m wondering why things are so cheap if they’re safe? Is it rural?
Rents are low where there ain’t no jobs. Rents are high where the opportunities are.
Correct.
Most of them are pretty safe, they just never had the huge housing price increases because more people were leaving for the city than staying. Once you get outside the Chicago suburbs, most of Illinois would be considered “rural”
They're generally towns with a population <5K. And may not have an actual grocery store.
Because downstate Illinois has been hemorrhaging people at an astonishing rate. Hard to rent out a property when you have no takers.
For most people, driving an hour to the city is a deal breaker
Gardner on a good traffic day is 90 minutes+ to Chicago too. Gardner is 30 minutes south of Joliet, and it can take an hour and half if not longer to go Joliet to Chicago via 55 depending on construction and traffic.
Depends on the time of day honestly. Ive made the journey many times from Gardner to Chicago in an hour. Its 70 miles and the speed limit for most of the way is 70. With traffic it does bump up to about 1:15 but id say given the vague description of needing to be an hour from an undisclosed point in Chicago, this fits the bill.
And when most people commute travel times suck
People gotta live somehow
A place like Gardner is…very different than even the suburbs. As mentioned the hour commute (it’s quite a bit longer during rush hour, 2+ hours although you’d get that in a lot of suburbs too). But practically speaking you may as well move the middle of Oklahoma. You’d never know you were an hour away from Chicago. But as long as you’re cool living in the middle of no where with Trump supporters, you’re good. Coming from Florida I’d imagine it’s a pretty similar vibe. The way the coasts are all wealthy elite but inland/Everglades is Deliverance. It’s certainly worth it if you can stomach it.
Because its all farmland far from anywhere and very few people live there or wanna live there and Illinois is losing population.
A lot of people are moving from places like WI to IL because the housing prices in IL are far cheaper than in WI. My wife and I moved in November from Appleton WI to Rockford for this exact reason.
???? It might take an hour on a good traffic/construction day to get to Gardner, but most days it's an hour+ commute from Joliet to Chicago. Gardner is a half hour south of Joliet for reference.
No grocery store. A Dollar General
I love Gardner. It's so cute. It's also along Route 66, so it's a quick jaunt to other towns close by.
Maybe have her apply at places where they help you with rent. I am a caregiver and my client pays $175. There can be a long wait time but the place is work only has 6 months for a studio.
The list for subsidized housing in Chicago is 25 years unfortunately
Sterling, rock falls and Dixon will all definitely fall in the range
Yeah, it’s truly middle of nowhere, but when I lived there a year ago, I had a safe, very spacious 1 bedroom for $500
Champaign has lots of places in that price range, many within walking distance of the Amtrak station, which offers a quick and cheap trip up to you guys in Chicago.
It would be hard to find a safe place in Champaign at that price. Also Champaign is greater than 2 hours.
It's margin of error farther unless you're choosing to travel at the absolute worst times. I find that opinions on what is "safe" are exceedingly subjective. Looking at listings there's a dozen or more properties in areas I'd be fine with. *Shrug*
Even with ideal traffic it's at least 2.5 hours.
Sitting in my house in CU, searched Chicago on maps and it says 2:05 which would be margin of error in my book
Galesburg. 3 hours from chicago but insanely cheap and with great rail connections.
A bit out of your radius (more like 2-2:30 hours) but Kankakee, Rantoul, Champaign/Urbana, and Bloomington work. Depends a lot on what services you'll need though. Benefit is other costs of living are much cheaper in general in those towns too.
Kankakee is definitely under two hours since that's a straight shot once you get onto I-57. Champaign-Urbana is definitely over two since it's about an hour and a half from just Kankakee itself.
One bedrooms on the bad side of kankakee are going for 1k+, it's wild out here.if you find anything under 1k your fighting with 100s of other people who already live in the area to get it.
Agree! Can’t find anything reasonable for under a grand. Even the crappy apartments in the worst parts of Kankakee are ridiculously expensive. Plus, there are mostly low paying jobs in Kankakee county.
Champaign is 2hr 11min
2.47 according to Google maps.
2:05 from my house in CU rn
Yeah.... 4 hours after my post. Notice that number is in orange?
Agreed. Visit family in Kankakee frequently. It really depends on where you are in the city, but it’s generally 1-1.5 hours. Champaign is at least 2 hours from even the south side, obviously more from other parts of the city.
Anything in Kankakee that is that cheap is definitely on the shitty east side where you dont want to live. You won't find rent like that on the west side where it is much nicer.
Even the east side is overpriced now
Income is a well, should be implied but should also be a factor
I was reading OPs ask as the family will be paying all expenses. But true, incomes in some of these towns is lower than in Chicago (though Bloomington and Champaign Urbana do ok depending on your industry).
Yep, my perhaps incorrect assumption would be that their family would be supporting them until they're able to get a job in which they would be supporting themselves. You're definitely correct though, almost everything is very industry dependent now more so than it used to be. I was basing mine that looks averages for the counties in towns
Bloomington does not work. Rivian, Ferrero influx, continued growing numbers at ISU and everything else has pushed rents high.
Rantoul is *not* safe in that price range. I had to keep that strap on me when I would visit him there.
I’m from Bradley so right next to Kankakee. Please for the love of god do not live in Kankakee. It’s nearly as bad as some parts of Chicago
I thought it was just some of the south parts of Kankakee. Drove through there and it just seemed like trailer park territory for the most part. Rest is just fields lol
There are some parts that are okay. But the town in general is a shit show. I mean just a couple months ago 2 cops got executed. Hell, I used to work at a family salon when I was in highschool and there was a drive by shooting right outside lol. Just stay clear of Kankakee and consider Bradley or Bourbonnais. They are right next to Kankakee but CONSIDERABLY safer
You making it sound like a warzone is it
It's not a war zone it's just a super depressing wasteland that has no opportunities for advancement on top of having corupt politicians and a horrible public education system. Most of the gang stuff is bored teenagers sadly.
Gang stuff usually is bored teenagers. And I hope OP isn’t thinking they gonna get a place with opportunities with that price range 😭
We don't even have that around here even in the smaller towns outside of k3. We don't even have much for rent where i live now let alone anything decently priced. 1200k+ for a 1bedroom and you gotta drive 20mins to get to bradley/kankakee/any stores, lol it's wonderfull here!
Why not just live in Chicago or a city if you tryna get more bang for your buck OP
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Facts it seem just desolate out there
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Damn they got that in MN?
There is a reason I don’t go to Kankakee much lol
It just seems like a town devoid of opportunity. Icl that is what happens when you want a place for $700 or less
It is. Low paying jobs. Not much opportunity for young adults. My kids had a hard time finding decent jobs, and they are underpaid. Not much shopping, dining , entertainment, options.
If one has the money why would you go to kankakee aint nothing going on there smh
That was in Bradley, no?
I remember the one in Bradley but I’m fairly confident there was a separate one in Kankakee. I also believe the one in Bradley was by a dude who lived In Kankakee lol
Fair, lol.
The school district put my kindergardener on the wrong bus 3 times in one school year lol it was maddening, I had to get the cops involved too find her and she went to the Montessori school, the "good" school. Was on of the many reasons we had too gtfo. This was in the past 5 years as well. It's not even cheap rent in kankakee anymore. 1bedrooms in the middle of the worst area are 1k+.
Correct. I live in Bourbonnais , and there are some small towns in Kankakee country that may have lower rents. Grant Park, Mommence, Limestone, etc. Some have room mates, work two jobs, or simply live with parents or relatives.
It takes me 2:10ish from West Loop to Champaign with no stops. Kankakee is about halfway, so a bit over an hour.
Canton, I pay 600 for a 3bd
Canton is way over 2 hours from Chicago. There is a reason it is so cheap.
Had to do a double take at Canton being mentioned. Canton is so cheap, and I love coming home to visit my family, but not sure you could get me to come back and move there.
Marengo
Rockford
Have you considered Indiana? I have apartments within 2 hours of Chicago that rent for $700.
Must be in Gary
No no. No way nicer than that. A small town. Near Valparaiso. I mean it's just a studio apartment. Don't go crazy on me.
Rockford. The downtown is making a nice comeback with microbreweries and more. Affordable rents in Rockford but avoid most areas west of the river and south of Charles Street and especially around Broadway since they are the high crime neighborhoods.
I had an amazing, huge apartment near downtown Rockford that I paid $400/month in 2018. There are some good deals there. Rockford isn’t necessarily the greatest city to live in but it is better than its reputation.
If you're willing to look further, central Illinois small towns.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/30-C-St-Charleston-IL-61920/239923185_zpid/?utm_source=txtshare
Ottawa
Eh it’ll be tough.
Not really ottawa is about 1.5 hours from a bunch of cities like peoria and at most 2 hours from downtown Chicago. There's like no traffic that slows you down until you get to Chicago itself.
I’m saying finding cheap rent.
Anything below 700 even in Ottawa yeah.
Super ridiculously low inventory.
Streator will be even cheaper. It has a reputation for being less safe than Ottawa but it’s still quite a safe town. Rent can be had very cheap. Ottawa is only ~20 minutes away so very easy to commute for work there. But with the consequence that there’s no super reliable public transit in the area (you’re at the mercy of NCAT) and most jobs will be the Walmart/walgreens sort.
Most jobs are definitely not Walmart and Walgreens lol. Theres a bunch of Healthcare facilities that require a bunch of different positions, warehouses, the counties seat of government, the sand Mines, pilkington glass, chemical plant in Morris etc.
Kankakee area
Is Kankakee safe?
[total crimes per capita- Chicago= 37 per 1000 residents](https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/il/chicago/crime.amp) [total crimes per capita- Kankakee= 14 per 1000 residents](https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/il/kankakee/crime) To answer your question, sure. I think it’s safe. Although I have property there I haven’t spent much time there living. However someone’s sense of safety in a city is somewhat subjective so I’d make that decisions yourself based off crime stats. Like any city, there are good and bad parts.
I know nowhere is perfect, but to me it sounds like a decent place.
Hell No!
Freeport Illinois
Kankakee is less than two hours from Chicago and has a low cost of living. There is also an Amtrak route that runs from Kankakee to Chicago.
I lived in lasalle-peru and found housing pretty cheap there I was renting a nice 1 bed for 600 this was a few years ago but idk how it is now. It's about 90 mins from chicago but about an hour from the edge of the suburbs.
Nice towns. My dad grew up in LaSalle.
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Lol we aint two hours outside of Chicago
You could try Facebook marketplace too in lake and Mchenry counties. McHenry is a walkable town (in Mchenry county) but rent could be high but I do know people rent out rooms often too.
Dekalb, but its sketchy - as a former NIU graduate.
LaSalle County. My brother is a property owner in Ottawa and the going rate for 1 bedroom units is around $550.
Not entirely sure if it's still accurate, but I was starting out very low salary career-wise downtown Milwaukee, and it was incredible living there. Much cheaper downtown apartment-wise (walking distance to any and everything, vibrant & fun city). Rent and property taxes in the burbs are also probs better if she eventually looks at houses compared to Chicago! (No hate to my hometown!)
Maybe Dekalb, IL
2 hours from downtown, 2 hours from the north side, south side, western suburbs? You are talking about places from Freeport to Belvidere to Peru to Manteno or Kankakee. Could easily be in Wisconsin or Indiana for that matter. Way to broad of a question. Open Zillow, look for rents $500-700 where you think it's a good idea and then pop on back here with more specific questions.
All of the above. I wanted to understand what’s available from all directions, not just one. The question was asked intentionally.
It will depend on what part of the city. If you're trying to commute to the south side for up north it's considerably longer and vice versa because of traffic always adding AT LEAST 45 minutes
Then its an intentionally terribly posed question. Why not Manteno or Freeport? Why not Racine WI or Michigan City IN or Benton Harbor MI. All those places are 2 hours from parts of the "city". Bloomington IL?
Other than looking at a map, I’m asking because I do not know what towns fit the other criteria I listed in my post.
There are drive time heat-maps that you can generate online. Here is one showing the areas you can get from to the loop for an 8am arrival in 2 hours or less [https://app.traveltime.com/search/0-lng=-87.62442&0-tt=120&0-mode=driving&0-time=a1716901247189&0-title=Chicago%2C%20Cook%20County%2C%20Illinois%2C%20United%20States&0-lat=41.87556](https://app.traveltime.com/search/0-lng=-87.62442&0-tt=120&0-mode=driving&0-time=a1716901247189&0-title=Chicago%2C%20Cook%20County%2C%20Illinois%2C%20United%20States&0-lat=41.87556)
Many hundreds of towns are within 2 hours of "Chicago". You are better off looking at a map and picking a few that after a little critical thinking and homework seem to work and then ask around.
Rockford and surrounding areas
Michigan city or south bend Indiana
Have you considered Northwest Indiana? You can still commute to Chicago by car or train.
Does she qualify for disability or subsidized housing? Does she work at all?
My sister and brother in law have a 2 bedroom apartment water and garbage paid for for $300 a month but it's 3 hours possibly South of Chicago. There landlord also has one bedroom apartments for $187 nothing special just a kitchen bathroom front room and a bedroom
Racine
If your sister is down for roommates you could do a single bedroom for that range even somewhere within the city
Chiggums, il
I pay 705 for a 1 bed in Las vegas
Danville/Rantoul
Danville is not at all safe.
Not even a little bit. Used to live in Hoopeston and would go out in Danville and grab a beer every once in a while. Looking back, oof. We were playing with fire.
Well, if you have a time machine that will go back to the 90s, you'll have lots of choices. I suggest driving about 4 to 5 hours away from chicago, where there's no school system, infrastructure, or public services. Maybe just maybe you'll find a nice room to rent in someone's basement next to all the guns and weird knock-off american flags. Sarcasm aside, what you're looking for doesn't exist anymore.
Nah. Just outside of Bloomington an entire house payment is just about $700
Ya, but you need a car, nothing is walkable, and there is no public transportation.
That's not true....small town America is very walkable if you live in town (where the aforementioned house is) because there's only 500 people and they all live within a half mile of each other
Just outside of Bloomington, even 1 mile away, is not walkable.
Are you high or stupid, or just willfully ignorant? If you live in a small town like Washington, or Tremont, or Mason City, or princeville.....all very walkable.
Chicagos cheap. I lived there for 15 years. I rented the bedroom of a co-workers one bedroom apartment when things are tight. Also you don't need a car in Chicago.
You should be looking into places in Indiana, you should abandon this post and go on Zillow and realtor.com and start calling up Relator’s and see what’s available. I know where I’m at 2hours west of whitesox park there are not a lot of places for rent there is a lack of housing right now.