Chicago, Illinois - Ratings of cities/neighborhoods

[David Friedman]

Hello BP members,

I am currently residing and native to California, but I would like to invest in Chicago.

First of all, I would like to know what it would take to invest in Chicago? I'm looking for long-term buy and hold properties that I can add value to by increasing rents, reducing vacancy, or renovating to get higher class tenants.

Second of all, can people who are familiar with Chicago and all of its neighborhoods give me a brief list of which neighborhoods are A, B or C neighborhoods?

Thank you!

David Friedman

[Joshua Burke]

Hi Dave,

As another Chicago investor, I agree that you really need to learn about the different areas of the city. Many 'great deals' are in really dangerous areas. Chicago has 228 neighborhoods, and 56 community areas.

I'm a data and map nerd, so I always use the NY Times Census map to quickly learn about areas. You can view demographics, income, education, rental %, etc, etc - a really great tool.

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/map?ref=us

Good luck,

JB