Lyons, IL: 118 apartments available for rent

The best time to move to Lyons is in the spring or early summer, as you avoid both Chicagoland's brutal winters and the rush of families moving in time for the start of school during the late summer / early fall months. With cost of living about average in the United States, you don't need to jump through many hoops to secure a place -- a basic credit check and proof of income should do the trick.

Mafia members enjoyed the suburban feel of Lyons along with its access to great schools, and its proximity to Chicago, and so will you. The mob element has been gone for the last two decades, and the village has become extremely friendly to law-abiding citizens.

You don't have to have the revenue of Al Capone to be able to live comfortably in Lyons, as apartments in town, whether they are 1 bedroom apartments, 2 bedroom apartments for rent or home rentals (which is a popular option) are more affordable than trying to live in the Chicago Loop or any of the other stylish North Side apartments in the city. The properties are generally larger than you'd find in the city as well and include parking. The accessibility to the city via car, train (there are five Metra stops within 10 minutes of the city to catch the Burlington Northern rail line into the city) and bus (there are three bus stops in the city) allow one to get the city experience from Lyons without paying the city prices.

Apartments for rent in Lyons can be found alongside Ogden Avenue, which formerly was populated by mobster-friendly restaurants and clubs.

South of Ogden Avenue District (the main neighborhood of Lyons) are 16 parks, with Cermak Park and Smith Park being two of the bigger ones. Most home rental properties are found in close proximity to a park. Lyons is mostly filled with chain restaurants, but Zupa's Restaurant and Deli on Ogden Avenue provides a tasty, unique Serbian dining experience.

Lyons' great asset is its location, as many of the best perks of the Windy City are a short drive away. The village is roughly 15 miles southwest of the Chicago Loop and its variety of restaurants, stores, piers, and night-time entertainment options. If you like sports, it's not hard to get from Lyons to see your favorite teams. Both US Cellular Field (home of the White Sox) and Soldier Field (home of the Bears) are a short, easy drive from the city. Going to the United Center to see the Blackhawks and Cubs, or going to Wrigley Field on the North Side to see the Cubs is a bit more complicated of a hike, but definitely doable.

Of course, one doesn't need to necessarily navigate Chicago traffic -- which, while not nearly as bad as Los Angeles or New York, can be annoying -- to find fun around Lyons. The Brookfield Zoo is located in Brookfield, which is just north of Lyons and is accessible without having to go on the highway, which is always awesome. Less than 10 minutes from downtown Lyons, the Brookfield Zoo is one of the more extravagant zoos in the Midwest and is a great place to entertain kids, for a creative date, or just to kill time on a lazy day.

But you don't have to necessarily leave town to be entertained, as Lyons is the home of the Chicago Portage National Historic Site, located in the Chicago Portage Forest Preserve on the West Side of Harlem Avenue on line with 48th Street. Situated at the meeting place of Portage Creek and the Des Plaines River -- the features which convinced French explorers to settle the area in the first place -- one can hike, canoe, and enjoy the commemorative statue at the site.

Lyons is also the home of the Hofmann Tower Museum, a large, castle-like building that was the tallest building west of the Chicago Loop. It's still tall and is now on the National Register of Historic Places, complete with a second-floor museum and the reconstructed interior of the old Lyons post office on the fourth floor. Who says suburbs don't have history?