North Center
$2K median rent
Roscoe Village strollers and high home values. Quiet streets with a short hop to the river.
Chicago/Irving Park
Official community area: Irving Park
Data vintage. ACS 2024 5-year · CPD Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · OSM Aug 2026 · updated Sep 2026
Bungalows, the Blue Line, and a calmer northwest. Less scene than Logan, more yard.
Best in Chicago for familiesWalkable ChicagoUnder $2,500 rent
126 violent · 820 property · 17.8 per 1k (Sep 2025 – Aug 2026)+45 vs city set
Rating 7.3 / 10 nearby+2 vs city set
OSM: 15 groceries · 5 cafes · 122 transit · 26 parks-21 vs city set
$1,406 ACS median vs your rent budget+1 vs city set
OSM: 5 cafes · 46 restaurants · 20 bars · 26 parks-19 vs city set
From Irving Park, a typical weekday is 63 min to The Loop, 53 min to North Side, 46 min to West Loop. Not live traffic.
West Loop is the fastest of these three job centers from here.
Offices, Grant Park · +26 min vs the city-set median
Lincoln Park, hospitals · +17 min vs the city-set median
Fulton Market · +9 min vs the city-set median · fastest of these three
Minutes are baked from neighborhood geography to three job centers — not Google, not this hour’s traffic.
The ACS median rent is $1,406 — every occupied rental mixed together, not the 1-bed in the window.
That is 18% of median household income — under the 30% HUD line. A household at this area’s median income ($93K) could “afford” about $2,325 a month at 30% of pay.
49% of households rent. Median home value is $481,485.
ACS 5-year median gross rent for Chicago city. Up 50% since 2014. Irving Park is 2% below the 2024 city median.
Overlapping 5-year ACS windows (B25064), not asking rent. Census does not publish a rent series for each official neighborhood, so the line is the city place. The dashed mark is this area’s ACS 2024 median.
HUD treats 30% of income as the cost-burden line. We do not split ACS rent into 1-bed vs 2-bed. Method.
Within a short walk of this official community area: 15 groceries, 5 cafes, 26 parks, and 122 transit stops.
Daily errands and coffee are realistic on foot. Parks are close — 26 mapped parks in that radius. Transit is dense (122 stops or stations).
5 cafes and 46 restaurants make this one of the busier food pockets in the Chicago set.
OpenStreetMap, 800 meters. Not a Walk Score license. More groceries than 5 of the other 19 areas in this city.
ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024) · 15 census tracts · CPD Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · OSM 2026-08-31
Crime is CPD Part I reports per 1,000 ACS residents — not a judgment of who lives here. Home and rent figures are ACS medians, not live MLS. Read the method.
What it is like to live here, beyond the scores.
Irving Park is bungalows, the Blue Line, and a calmer northwest. Less scene than Logan, more yard. Milwaukee Avenue still feeds you restaurants; the residential grid does not try to be a boulevard park.
You are on the way to O’Hare, which is useful and noisy at the edges. Weight cost and transit. Compare to Avondale if you want the next-stop energy, or to Lincoln Square if you want a plaza.
Compiled from Zillow neighborhood guides, 5280 Magazine, Chicago and San Francisco resident guides, Mpls With Love, Eastside LA reporting, Seattle Times coverage, and local writing, 2025–2026. Editorial — not part of the fit score.
City 311 service requests in this official unit, last 14 days. This is what neighbors filed with the city — not a chat thread, and not part of the fit score.
379 reports
City of Chicago 311, last 14 days, by official community area number. Method.
Public posts from r/chicago that mention this neighborhood. Not Nextdoor, not people on this block, and not part of the fit score.
No r/chicago posts in this snapshot mentioned Irving Park.
Last 90 days, snapshot 2026-09-01. Method.
Straight answers from the numbers on this page.
Irving Park sits on the quieter side of this Chicago map (safety 95 vs city 50). CPD logged 2.4 violent and 15.4 property incidents per 1,000 residents — 17.8 combined. Visitors count in those numbers. This is not a judgment of who lives here.
ACS median rent is $1,406 — studios through large apartments mixed together. About 49% of households rent. Median home value is $481,485. Survey medians, not a listing you can message tonight.
Walk is 0 here vs 21 for the Chicago set — you will likely drive or ride for a weekly shop. Inside 800 meters: 15 groceries, 5 cafes, 122 transit stops, 26 parks. Not a Walk Score license.
The scores lean family relative to this city set. Nearby school rating is 7.3 / 10. Median age is 37. That rating is not your assigned campus.
63 typical weekday minutes to The Loop. Not the app on your phone this hour. Other job centers are further down this page.
About 53,332 people. Median income $93K. 52% have a bachelor's or higher.
Avondale, Lincoln Square, Logan Square sit closest on this map. If you are choosing between two official community areas, start with Irving Park vs Avondale.
Adjacent on the map, ranked with your weights.
Irving Park vs AvondaleIrving Park vs Lincoln SquareIrving Park vs Logan Square
$2K median rent
Roscoe Village strollers and high home values. Quiet streets with a short hop to the river.
$2K median rent
Ravenswood porches and a German plaza. The family read of the North Side without giving up a Brown Line stop.
$2K median rent
The boulevard, the farmers market, and Bucktown on the eastern edge. North-west Chicago's walkable default.
$2K median rent
The next stop past Logan. Still industrial edges, still cheaper, still a Belmont bus.
$1K median rent
The park is enormous; the streets around it are still working-class. Safety scores tell you to weight it honestly.