What You Need to Know Before Moving to Chicago

1. Finding a Home can be Tricky

While Chicago offers more affordable options than most major cities, you will need to be diligent if you want to find the right home. Attend an open house in a hot neighborhood and you'll meet the competition: droves of locals and aspiring Chicagoans, making small talk with agents, and giving each other sideways glances.

Each neighborhood contains a unique culture that may or may not fit your lifestyle. Logan Square is packed with galleries and cafes, while Irving Park offers a slower pace of life but is not without their lifestyle options. Close proximity to public transportation is important in the city, so you will typically find higher property values along the CTA routes. Lakeside neighborhoods also tend to be more competitive. There are exceptions to the rule, including Rogers Park and Bronzeville.

If you're on a tight budget and don't mind getting to know someone new, look for a roommate who is already living in the city. A cheap one-bedroom condominium is rare, but it's common for a group of three or four people to advertise a room in order to stay at an affordable place. The prospect of a stranger moving in with you may be daunting, but it's a great way to meet new people and learn about the city.

2. Finding Fun is Easy

Summertime Chi is one festival after another. Each neighborhood hosts its own celebration to showcase local music, art, and restaurants. Do Division Street Fest, Logan Square Arts Festival, and Wicker Park Fest draw residents from throughout the city and suburbs with free concerts from big-name bands. In addition to live music, Taste of Chicago and Taste of Randolph host some of the city's finest culinary institutions in an all-out smorgasbord.

You'll have to pay for entry into the city's best music festivals, but you'll get your money's worth: Lollapalooza, Pitchfork Music Festival, and Riot Fest offer the chance to see all of your favorite artists in just a few days. For blues fans, there's the Chicago Blues Festival, while reggae fans flock to Reggae Fest Chicago. Spring Awakening and North Coast bring the best DJs to town, while Chance the Rapper's Magnificent Coloring Day and Common's AAHH! Fest give hip-hop heads the highlight of Chicago's very active summer lineup.

The city doesn't shut down in the colder months, however. Ice rinks in Millennium Park and Maggie Daley Park open just before Thanksgiving, giving residents a magical night gliding beneath the glow of the city's unparalleled skyline. Christkindlmarket turns Daley Plaza into a German marketplace, with handmade ornaments, sausages, and mulled wine for sale. The Lincoln Park Zoo hangs a dazzling display of lights and hosts live ice carving during its annual ZooLights celebration. That said...

3. You Don't Need a Car, but it Helps

A car can become a burden in Chicago. Many streets require parking permits and drivers must stay vigilant to avoid tickets during monthly street cleanings. Many destinations are more easily traveled to via train or taxi, so many Chicagoans opt to live without a car and do so fairly easily. The Blue and Red Lines run 24/7 and apps like Uber and Lyft have made it easier and cheaper to catch a ride.

That said, having your own vehicle can save you a lot of time. Traveling east to west by public transportation usually means taking the bus, which can only move as fast as traffic and has to stop frequently to pick up and drop off passengers. Add the time you spend waiting at the stop and it may be an hour or more to travel just a few miles. With a car, you can drive to the grocery store, pick up furniture, or leave the city entirely at your convenience. Try to live in a neighborhood with good walkability if you don't want a car.

If you're brave, biking is often the most efficient way to travel short distances. You'll zip by rows of cars stuck in traffic and save a lot of money. Just make sure to consult Google Maps for the safest bike routes, bring a U-lock, and, of course, wear a helmet.

4. Winter is Coming

The polar vortex of 2014 earned the city its Chiberia nickname and, while not every winter will be that brutal, you will still need to be prepared for a long, cold winter. Have a sturdy coat and boots picked out by October so that you're ready to face the months-long winter.

Driving is actually pretty manageable in the winter as the city knows how to keep the streets clear. Parking is the hard part: keep a small shovel in your vehicle to dig yourself out after the plows come through and know the unwritten law of dibs. Your neighbors will claim parking spots they dug out with chairs or lawn ornaments -- move them at your own risk.

Finally, expect a significantly higher gas bill throughout the winter. Newer developments are tightly sealed, but many of Chicago's buildings are dated and breathe quite a bit. Weatherproofing can only do so much.

5. Get Involved

While Chicago is a fantastic place to live, the city does have a politically charged history that it is still coming to grips with and protests in the Loop are not uncommon. New residents should do their research and know the big issues that people are talking about if they hope to be a part of a more unified Chicago.

Media coverage focuses on the negative, but there have been promising efforts in the last decade to bring grocery stores and other businesses to neighborhoods previously underserved. Get to know local news sources that give a more detailed picture of Chicagoans, such as the Chicago Reader, as Most Chicagoans are politically literate.

6. Get Cultured

A visit to Chicago's renowned museums should be a priority after you get settled in. The Art Institute houses an impressive collection of iconic works such as Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and Grant Wood's American Gothic. And make sure to visit the Field Museum to see Sue, the largest and most complete T-rex skeleton currently known.

Head to Jackson Park Highlands on the South Side to view the site of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. While most of the neoclassical buildings of the White City were temporary, the Palace of Fine Arts (now the Museum of Science and Industry) still looks out over the large pool constructed as the fair's center. A bronze replica of the Statue of the Republic also commemorates the event, which is credited for giving birth to modern city planning. While the original Phoenix Pavilion no longer stands, an impressive Japanese garden was restored with the help of Chicago's sister city, Osaka, and now offers a tranquil retreat from the urban hustle.

Pilsen is home to the National Museum of Mexican Art, one of the largest collections of Mexican art in the U.S. They also host the largest Day of the Dead celebration in the country and in 2016 they will host a festival of light and projection in Harrison Park.

7. Make Time to Relax

Urban life can keep you on the go and wear you out over time, so it's important make time for relaxation. There are plenty of great parks to visit within the city's limits. On the North Side, a path for jogging or biking extends from along the river from Lincolnwood Centennial Park to Ronan Park. To the west, Humboldt Park has a lagoon, a beach, and expansive fields for soccer and baseball. On the South Side, Washington Park offers green space as well as Lorado Taft's Fountain of Time, the world's earliest concrete-finished art work.

For more significant tree cover, head to one of Chicago's forest preserves. LaBagh Woods offers a respite from car horns and concrete with lush forest trails, flowers, and wildlife. On the outskirts of town lies Schiller Woods, an even larger preserve that includes hills for sledding and a model airplane field.

Many Chicagoans sit along Lake Michigan's shores to watch waves crash in from the huge blue expanse. The Lakefront Trail runs 18 miles along the water and takes you past beaches, nature sanctuaries, boat harbors, and skyscrapers. A bike ride through even part of the trail is a great way to unwind and see your fellow Chicagoans at play.

8. Escape Occasionally

Eventually, you'll need a change of scenery. When (not if) the need comes to get out of town, you can hop on the Blue or Orange Lines, which end at O'Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport, respectively. But you won't need to board a place in order to escape: the Indiana Dunes, Starved Rock State Park, and Lake Mills are popular destinations among Chicagoans for a quick weekend getaway.

The nearby suburbs are also full of attractions. You can appease your inner child (or your real child) with a day of roller coaster rides at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee. Frank Lloyd Wright once called Oak Park home and today you can tour the houses he designed. The Chicago Botanic Garden is actually in Glencoe -- head there to check out exotic habitats you can't grow in your backyard.

9. Learn How to Recycle

There's a rumor that the city doesn't actually recycle anything, but it's more likely that there are just too many greasy pizza boxes floating around. All it takes is one piece of contraband and the painstakingly sorted contents of your blue bin will all head to the landfill.

Chicago's rules for recycling can be a bit complicated, but if you stick to recycling the basics -- cans, newspapers, clean cardboard -- you should be fine. If you want to recycle everything you can, however, you'll need to spend some time on the internet. Consult Recycle By City if you're not sure whether to include the lid on your Prego jar.

10. Look, you can put Ketchup on Your Hot Dog if you Want to

A Chicago-style hot dog typically comes with tomato -- not ketchup -- but most locals aren't that snobby about it. If you really want some culinary cred, track down a jibarito, a sandwich that was invented in a Puerto Rican restaurant in Humboldt Park that substitutes fried plantains for bread.

The city's best Indian restaurants call Devon Avenue home. Very few places in the country have better curries or dosas. For more vegetarian options, check out The Chicago Diner -- you won't miss the meat.

For the opposite of vegetarian, go to Kuma's Corner, a Chicago institution that blasts heavy metal while customers devour their enormous burgers with creative toppings. The Slayer is a 10 oz. patty on a bed of fries, chili, cherry peppers, carmelized onions, andouille sausage, shredded Monterrey jack, and green onion. Please -- don't put ketchup on it.