Aurora? (Chicago, Naperville, Crystal Lake: lofts, condos, townhouses)

[tahoeman101]

What can you tell me about Aurora? I see the Metra offers "express" service which gets you into the city within 45-50 minutes. That's a plus! I also see taxes are lower than some other burbs I've looked at. Are there areas of Aurora to stay away from? Any suggestions where to look in this area?

Thanks

[jamaicabound60565]

Originally Posted by tahoeman101

What can you tell me about Aurora? I see the Metra offers "express" service which gets you into the city within 45-50 minutes. That's a plus! I also see taxes are lower than some other burbs I've looked at. Are there areas of Aurora to stay away from? Any suggestions where to look in this area?

Thanks

If you have kids you definately want to be in either district 204 or the district that encompasses west aurora high school, you do not want to be in the east aurora district if you have kids and for resale reasons as well.

I think Aurora gets a bad rap b/c of problems they had years ago. Its a big city so it does have some less desirable areas but it has some great areas too.

If your between Rt 59 and Eola its pretty much all decent area for the most part, this area for the most part also falls into district 204. You got some th/duplexes near like Montgomery in this area, you also got white Eagle and some really nice neighbhorhoods. Closer to the mall you have some condos and more neighborhoods of townhouses. If you get out near North Aurora Rd you got stonebridge and some other really nice areas. most all of these areas will go to Waubonsie which is 204.

The other area I would consider living would be out near Orchard and Galena, that general area. Good schools out that way, near the expressway and they have a train station dt aurora.

If your on the younger side and dont have kids maybe look in downtown Aurora. Dt aurora still has a way to go but its getting pretty nice. Waubonsie has a brand new campus going up, theres a lot of really nice new bars and restaurants popping up. You got the downer lofts which look pretty nice and those riverfront condos as well. If your younger and dont gotta worry about kids this could be a cool area to live and probably good for resale in the long run if you stay a few years if dt continues to get nicer.

I'm sure some people will chime in and say steer clear of Aurora look at Naperville or Plainfield. Obviously if you have the means and like Naperville Naperville would be a better choice but there is nothing wrong with Aurora as long as your in the right part, lots of areas in Aurora you cant tell where Naperville ends and Aurora begins.

One thing I would mention is about taxes like you mentioned. I dont really know that much about taxes in surrounding cities and how they compare but Aurora doesn't seem to have low taxes to me. Like I said I dont know how they compare to surrounding areas but mine seem high to me and I've heard other people on these boards say they are high.

[tahoeman101]

Great info! Thank you! Here's the scoop, my wife and I are 32 and 28 respectively and plan to have kids in a few years. We'd like to purchase a 3-4BR home and notice that we can do so in Aurora for under $200k. Not sure if this would be in the areas you mentioned, but we'll take a look. I guess for lower taxes, I mean $4-6k average vs. $7-8k that I've seen in other burbs. It also seems that there are many more options for homes in our price range and that could simply be due to the size of Aurora vs. Crystal Lake for example.

Thanks again, we'll bring this info to Chicago when we visit in 2 weeks and take a look out in the West Aurora area.

[Chicago0304]

I would honestly stay with Oswego over Aurora . My neighborhood is still building single family houses starting at 199,000. My Dad is a Naperville cop, he says never buy in Aurora. My friend did, and paid in the 250,000 range and pays 9,000.00 in taxes and can't sell it because it's Aurora.

[urza216]

My 22 year old friend who has lived in south suburban Park Forest his whole life recently landed a job in Aurora. I asked him if he plans on moving there and he said "No, it's too white and ritzy. I'd probably get the cops called on me for listening to Ill Bill [a rapper] in my car."

Personally, I've never been to Aurora so I can't say anything. I have been to Naperville more than a few times though. And what my friend said about Aurora pretty well sums up how I feel about that town.

[chet everett]

Schools make a HUGE difference is Aurora for resale. As Jamicabound hinted, the areas that feed into East Aurora High School (which a completely separate district) are far less desirable than either those that are covered by Unit District 204 OR those that feed into West Aurora. It can be VERY confusing! Fortunately the boundaries are well known, and even when they cut right through a subdivision it hs n impact. The most desrirble areas tend to have a combination of access to the better schools, as well s oth qualities that go along with more family oriented lifestyle. That said, I would strongly discourage making assumptions about the taxes, as you DO NOT really get more for paying more -- the lower tax rates often come about because of variety of factors, including which County the home is in, how the overall neighborhood gets treated for assessment (those built out during boom times tend to be far closer to "peak pricing" than those older OR newer..). Some of the same things can be said for Naperville, or really any town in Illinois, but I have noted that due to the large area that Aurora covers the spread seems larger than average ...

[urza216]

Originally Posted by urza216

My 22 year old friend who has lived in south suburban Park Forest his whole life recently landed a job in Aurora. I asked him if he plans on moving there and he said "No, it's too white and ritzy. I'd probably get the cops called on me for listening to Ill Bill [a rapper] in my car."

Personally, I've never been to Aurora so I can't say anything. I have been to Naperville more than a few times though. And what my friend said about Aurora pretty well sums up how I feel about that town.

Both me and my friend are white ourselves, btw.. But there always seems to be something a littly fishy when I'm in a CHICAGO area location that appears to have no black people for miles and miles as far as the eye can see. I can't help but wonder why and how this is..

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by urza216

Both me and my friend are white ourselves, btw.. But there always seems to be something a littly fishy when I'm in a CHICAGO area location that appears to have no black people for miles and miles as far as the eye can see. I can't help but wonder why and how this is..

Aurora is not white, and not ritzy. It likely has a Hispanic majority (it was just under 50% Hispanic in 2000, but has certainly added many more in the last ten years). It has some well-known gang problems, and the schools are not typically that great.

[mas23]

^Yeah Aurora is definitely not a white ritzy town. lmao. Along with the hispanic majority it has some black people in the mix also. (about 20%). The gang poroblem use to be serious and there are still some there today but not as serious.

and park forest got more white people than aurora % wise

[sgresident]

You definitely want to stay away from the east side. the far west side(school district 129) or the far east which is in naperville school districts..are good too. you just really, really have to check things out.