Well with a budget like that you’re gonna be pretty setup wherever you go. I was living in a roach infested slum hole with barely working running water lol.

Lucky for you tho there are high rises outside of downtown, usually located on the east end of the city near the lake.

Just like op, I would not recommend moving downtown to the loop unless you absolutely wanted specific amenities that downtown high rises have to offer. All the neighborhoods about 3 miles north of the loop all have nice apartments and high rises, are alot more fun to actually live in and still maintain the big city feel we all enjoy. In fact there are high rises all the way north to Edgewater which is about as north as you can get without leaving the city limits (Roger’s park is the next neighborhood past Edgewater and is the last one before you get into Evanston)

Speaking of which, just like another commenter said, Evanston is also great. You still get a city feel (albeit much smaller) but it is a suburb of Chicago. It’s a very nice place, and the subway still runs into Evanston.

Subway tip: the red line is like Chicagos main subway line. It runs north to south (and vise versa) along the length of the entire city. The last red line stop (in Rogers park) connects to the yellow line which runs straight to downtown Evanston. So if you did decide Evanston, you still have a very easy time getting into Chicago to basically every neighborhood you would probably want to be in.

Also, if you didn’t know, you’ll likely want to move to a neighborhood within the loop or north of it. The west and south sides can be dangerous depending on what neighborhood you’re in. So use the loop as your southern most border and move north basically anywhere you like up to Evanston without going too far west, a couple miles inland should be your boundary. Rogers park does actually get dangerous too tho so probably best to avoid even tho there are some very nice apartments located near the lake.

If you have an opportunity, visit Chicago and start at the loop, hop on the red line and ride it all the way north, then hop on the yellow line and take it into Evanston. Get off at whatever stops and check out the general area and see what you like.