chicago (along with that vast useless expanse of land between the east and west coasts known as "America") is in an entirely different universe of real estate affordability compared against manhattan or anywhere in california.
my wife and i were living in a 825 SF 1-bedroom condo in a downtown chicago highrise that will hopefully fetch around $290,000 when we go to sell it.
Our new place that's ~8 miles north of downtown in the edgewater neighborhood is a 1,650 SF 2-bedroom condo in a 6-flat building that we paid $279,000 for.
we doubled our living space in anticipation of our new daughter and we'll still be in a similar ballpark mortgage-wise. the reason my commute got so much shorter is because my job is in the burbs.
Last edited by Steely Dan; 07-24-14 at 01:53 PM.