The first rental sign was zip-tied to a wrought iron fence on a side street off Main Street in Evanston. "Studio available, inquire within," with a phone number and nothing else. I took a picture of it, then of the building, then felt a little silly standing on the sidewalk photographing someone's front door at 9:30 on a Saturday morning.
I am not moving anytime soon. I'm still living at my parents' house in Wilmette, still sending most of my paycheck to my student loans, which were at $21,640 at the start of August. But "someday" is a bad number to save for. So I spent a Saturday putting real prices on it.
I parked near the Main Street Purple Line stop and walked. South Evanston first, then up toward Dempster, then I drove over to Skokie and did a loop near Old Orchard and along the streets closer to downtown Skokie. I stuck close to the Purple Line and Metra on the Evanston side because I'd love to take the train into the city on weekends without paying for parking downtown.
I wrote down every sign, then looked up the same buildings online that night. Between the walk and the listing sites I ended up with 23 places in a notes app list. Not scientific. But a lot better than guessing.
What things go for right now
Here's the rough picture, rounded, from what I saw in late August 2025:
- Evanston studios near the Purple Line: $1,150 to $1,425. The cheap end was usually older buildings, no laundry in the building, or a garden unit.
- Evanston one-bedrooms: $1,450 to $1,850. The newer buildings near downtown Evanston went well past that, so I stopped looking at them.
- Skokie one-bedrooms: $1,350 to $1,600, often with a parking spot included, but more often with heat not included.
- Skokie studios: honestly hard to find. I only saw three, all around $1,150 to $1,250.
The single most useful thing I learned was that the rent is only half the comparison. Every listing has a little line about what's included, and that line changes the math a lot.
The fine print that changes the price
A lot of the older Evanston courtyard buildings include heat and water in the rent. That matters in a place where January can sit below zero for a week. A one-bedroom in Skokie at $1,450 with heat on my own bill isn't really $1,450 in February.
Parking was the other big one. Some places had a spot in a back lot for $40 to $75 a month. Some had nothing, which in Evanston means figuring out street parking and permits. Since I drive to my office in Skokie, I can't skip this line.
Then there are the move-in costs. Almost every listing I looked at wanted an application fee, usually $40 to $60 per adult, and a security deposit, usually one month's rent. A few buildings advertised a non-refundable move-in fee instead of a deposit, in the $300 to $500 range. I'd rather have a deposit I can get back if I leave the place clean, but it's good to know both exist.
My "someday" number
After all of that, I picked a target I can actually plan around. A studio in south Evanston, heat included, walking distance to the train, with parking available. Based on my list, that's about $1,300 a month in rent. Add parking, electric, internet and renters insurance and I land somewhere around $1,475 to $1,500 a month for the apartment itself.
My monthly take-home right now is about $2,908. If I moved tomorrow, rent alone would be around 45% of it. That's high. I know the usual rule of thumb says 30%, and in this part of the Chicago area on my salary, 30% would be around $870, which buys me a room with roommates, not a studio near the lake.
So I'm not moving tomorrow. What this list gives me is a real target to save toward. Upfront costs alone would be roughly first month, deposit, application fee, movers and some furniture. Call it $4,000 to $4,500, which is a lot less scary when it has a name.
The plan for now is unchanged. Keep throwing money at the loans, finish the emergency fund, and check the list again next spring. I saved all 23 listings in a folder. I fully expect half of those signs will have new numbers by then, and I'd like to see which way they moved.
On the walk back to the car I passed the zip-tied sign again. Somebody had already taken it down.
