Lansing & Calumet City

Lansing and Calumet City are the border towns on the Indiana state line, southeast of Chicago along I-80/94 and I-94, where the south suburbs meet Northwest Indiana. Calumet City has River Oaks Center, one of the first enclosed malls in the region, the Torrence Avenue retail corridor and a history that includes the Sibley Boulevard strip; Lansing has a downtown on Ridge Road, a municipal airport and a mix of brick ranches on quiet streets. Both are working-class, diverse and cheaper than almost anywhere closer to the city, with the Indiana casinos ten minutes away.

Where it is

On the map, Lansing sits at the Indiana line along Ridge Road and Torrence Avenue, south of I-80/94 and east of Lynwood; Calumet City is north of it, between Lansing and Burnham, along Sibley Boulevard and Torrence with the Little Calumet River on its west side. Metra Electric stops at Hegewisch on the South Shore Line in the city and at Homewood and Hazel Crest to the west; neither town has its own station. I-80/94 has exits at Torrence Avenue and Calumet Avenue, I-94 runs along the west edge, and the Bishop Ford connects north to the city. The Loop is 35 to 50 minutes by car.

What to know if you’re moving here

Cheap houses, highway access and a state line that matters for shopping and taxes.

• Housing is brick ranches and bungalows built mostly from the 1940s to the 1970s, with typical prices of roughly $120,000 to $300,000 as a broad editorial estimate as of September 2026.
• Parking is driveways and garages; street parking is easy.
• Public schools are Lansing District 158 and Sunnybrook District 171 feeding Thornton Fractional Township High School District 215, and Calumet City’s Districts 155 and 156 feeding the same high schools.
• South Cook County property tax rates are high, and many residents cross into Indiana for gas, groceries and lower sales tax.
• No Metra station means a drive to Homewood, Hegewisch or the South Shore Line in Hammond.
• The drawback is truck traffic on Torrence and the expressways, and retail corridors with high vacancy, especially around River Oaks.

What to do if you’re visiting

Most visits are for shopping on Torrence or a stop on the way to Indiana, and everything is a drive.

• Southern cooking with gumbo, fried catfish and pecan pie has been on Torrence Avenue since 2002 at Dixie Kitchen & Bait Shop, which seats first come, first served and takes no reservations.
• Pizza in Lansing goes back to December 1975 at Rico’s Pizza, which opened in the basement of the old Party Tap at Stateline Avenue and Ridge Road before moving to 3651 Ridge Road.
• A few doors down Ridge Road, Bulldog Ale House is downtown Lansing’s sports bar, with wings, pizzas and burgers and a beer list that runs until midnight on weekends.
• Charbroiled oysters, smoked wings and a whiskey list are on Roy Street at Cork + Oak, where the dining room is 18 and up and the lounge is 21 and up.
• Slow-smoked baby back ribs, brisket and a bottled 2AM BBQ sauce come from Bill’s Grill Smokehouse at 1050 Sibley Boulevard in Calumet City, opened in 2014 by Bill and Jorie.
• The Lansing Municipal Airport hosts the Lansing Airport Air Show and a Ford Hangar museum listed on the National Register.