The 10 Cheapest Chicago, IL Neighborhoods To Live In For 2025


The cheapest Chicago neighborhoods are East Side and Clearing for 2025 based on Saturday Night Science.

By: Chris Kolmar | About HomeSnacks
Last Updated: October 22, 2025
Worst Neighborhoods In Chicago
Source: Flickr User ::RodrixParedes:: | CC BY 2.0

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in Chicago might be more expensive than living in rural Illinois, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Chicago neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Chicago are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Chicago For 2025

  1. East Side
  2. Clearing
  3. Mount Greenwood
  4. Garfield Ridge
  5. South Chicago
  6. West Elsdon
  7. Calumet Heights
  8. Burnside
  9. Ashburn
  10. Beverly

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Chicago for 2025? According to the most recent census data, East Side looks to be the cheapest Chicago neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Chicago. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around Chicago that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Chicago.

For more Illinois reading, check out:

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Chicago For 2025

1. East Side

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 20,439
Cost Of Living Index: 97 (14th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.2 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (29th cheapest)
More on East Side:

2. Clearing

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 24,934
Cost Of Living Index: 102 (34th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.8 (11th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.011 (5th cheapest)
More on Clearing:

3. Mount Greenwood

Overall SnackAbility

9.5
/10

Population: 16,972
Cost Of Living Index: 105 (42nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.5 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.012 (6th cheapest)
More on Mount Greenwood:

4. Garfield Ridge

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 29,267
Cost Of Living Index: 104 (40th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.8 (10th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.012 (7th cheapest)
More on Garfield Ridge:

5. South Chicago

South Chicago Chicago, IL

Source: Wikipedia User FlickreviewR | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 28,988
Cost Of Living Index: 94 (4th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.2 (15th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (42nd cheapest)
More on South Chicago:

6. West Elsdon

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 18,486
Cost Of Living Index: 102 (34th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.1 (14th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (14th cheapest)
More on West Elsdon:

7. Calumet Heights

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 10,401
Cost Of Living Index: 100 (27th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.4 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (32nd cheapest)
More on Calumet Heights:

8. Burnside

Burnside Chicago, IL

Source: Wikipedia User Flickr upload bot | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 8,750
Cost Of Living Index: 94 (4th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.1 (13th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.021 (47th cheapest)
More on Burnside:

9. Ashburn

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 14,277
Cost Of Living Index: 98 (18th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.3 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (44th cheapest)
More on Ashburn:

10. Beverly

Beverly Chicago, IL

Source: Wikipedia User Burnhamandroot | CC BY-SA 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 13,407
Cost Of Living Index: 114 (57th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.5 (7th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.008 (2nd cheapest)
More on Beverly:

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Chicago Hoods In 2025

To rank the cheapest places to live in Chicago, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 77 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Chicago.” We’re lookin’ at you, East Side.

We updated this article for 2025. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Chicago. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Chicago

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Chicago where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in Chicago are East Side, Clearing, Mount Greenwood, Garfield Ridge, South Chicago, West Elsdon, Calumet Heights, Burnside, Ashburn, and Beverly.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Chicago aren’t all cheap. Armour Square takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Chicago.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Chicago are Armour Square, Hyde Park, East Garfield Park, Near West Side, and Archer Heights.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more Illinois reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Chicago For 2025

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 East Side 97
2 Clearing 102
3 Mount Greenwood 105
4 Garfield Ridge 104
5 South Chicago 94
6 West Elsdon 102
7 Calumet Heights 100
8 Burnside 94
9 Ashburn 98
10 Beverly 114
11 Chatham 95
12 Washington Heights 99
13 West Lawn 100
14 West Pullman 96
15 Pullman 95
16 Hegewisch 98
17 Dunning 111
18 Norwood Park 114
19 Gage Park 98
20 Edison Park 121
21 South Deering 94
22 New City 96
23 Roseland 98
24 West Englewood 95
25 Douglas 100
26 Mckinley Park 107
27 Morgan Park 105
28 Jefferson Park 116
29 Auburn Gresham 97
30 Chicago Lawn 98
31 Forest Glen 128
32 Montclare 105
33 O’hare 103
34 Brighton Park 103
35 Pottage Park 113
36 Englewood 91
37 Avalon Park 101
38 Loop 130
39 North Park 116
40 South Lawndale 99
41 Austin 101
42 Hermosa 111
43 Avondale 118
44 Riverdale 84
45 Lake View 131
46 West Ridge 112
47 Edgewater 113
48 Fuller Park 94
49 Oakland 100
50 Grand Crossing 97
51 North Center 151
52 Belmont Cragin 108
53 Near North Side 140
54 Near South Side 126
55 South Shore 103
56 Albany Park 116
57 Grand Boulevard 102
58 Lincoln Square 130
59 Humboldt Park 102
60 Rogers Park 107
61 Irving Park 118
62 West Town 135
63 Lincoln Park 148
64 North Lawndale 99
65 Logan Square 125
66 Washington Park 95
67 Lower West Side 108
68 Woodlawn 99
69 Bridgeport 115
70 West Garfield Park 100
71 Uptown 107
72 Kenwood 114
73 Archer Heights 105
74 Near West Side 116
75 East Garfield Park 101
76 Hyde Park 117
77 Armour Square 108
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.

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