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The North Shore is most similar to Westchester county. There are many transferees from that area on the NS. I suggest checking out the entire area. One of the biggest draws to the NS, not mentioned in the posts above, is the lake. Good luck!
You have picked some of the best towns in the Chicagoland area, but are you sure you're ready for suburban life if you're used to city life? You may be in for some culture shock. Probably half if not 2/3 of families in desirable suburbs spent at least some time living in desirable part of Chicago until the difficulties of raising kids in the City (which is not just schools, but they are a big part of the mess) made suburbs a better choice. Not much room for "culture shock", rather a nice transition to a different stage of life. Anyways, to answer your question, I'm assuming that you have a pretty decent price range to work with if you're considering these towns. They are all pricey, but with that, have excellent school systems. I'm most familiar with the Western towns (I live in one of the ones you're considering for the majority of my life). Here's my 'objective' assessment of them: Hinsdale: Beautiful, quaint, picturesque, lots of historic homes and many tear-downs replaced with new homes. Very family friendly and walkable. Tree lined streets, some of which are cobblestone (not many, but a few are). Top notch schools. Mostly white, leans fairly conservative. Awesome downtown area. Superb access to 294 (to get to Rosemont) and metra (to get downtown). Is in DuPage County. About 20% of Hinsdale is on the Cook Co side of the county line. Not much difference in quality of life, but some folks resent paying taxes to so openly corrupt a government layer. With new leadership that may change. Clarendon Hills: Also very nice, slightly more diverse housing stock. Still, a lot of teardowns occur here. Not quite as nice a downtown, and not quite as impressive as saying you live in Hinsdale but still shares their school district. Not all of CH is in the desirable D181, the portion that is not tends to far more affordable. CH downtown is very compact, but still has great amenities -- terrific train service on BNSF, a Starbucks and indie coffee shop, a fantastic bakery, a great locally ice cream shop with Little League pictures plastering the walls, penny candy and inexpensive hot dogs for lunch, three very nice sit down restaurants, all with with upscale cocktails, as well as great hardware store, a couple of cute shops that sell things from wine to household accessories, and convenient banks & post office. Yes I am biased, but this is all true and I have not even mentioned the great parks, business of 55th or Ogden, etc...Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there are some not-that-great apartments/section 8 on the Southern portion? So far as I know there are no significant numbers of non-market rate apartments in any part of CH, even the multi-family stuff that is not in D181 is still pretty costly and not particularly convenient for folks that don't drive so the quality of tenant is pretty good.Less expensive than Hinsdale. Your money will go a bit further in CH, but it is no bargain basement option. I rather like the fact that when I mention that I live in Clarendon Hills very few people even know where it is, if I am felling "downmarket" I say it is adjacent to Westmont, if I feel like going upmarket I say it is directly south of Oak Brook and shares schools with Hinsdsle Is in DuPage County. Western Springs: Quaint, family oriented, walkable, tree-lined streets. Many historic homes, many tear down/new homes, still some 1960's style homes as well. Top notch schools. Very white, moderate town. Might even lean slightly left politically.No, unless left means generous support of churches and private schools and frustration with tax and spend policies.. There are no "bad sections".Large numbers of homes that face or back up to major roads sell for significantly less than those a few blocks in... Lots of parks, borders forest preserve with bike trail. Similar to Hinsdale but a little smaller and a little less expensive. Smaller downtown area with less stores than Hinsdale but the town itself is smaller too. Also has excellent access to 294 and metra. Is in Cook County. Burr Ridge: Newer housing stock of very large homes. Not as walkable, no real downtown. Seems more subdivision-y to me (think gated communities) since it's more recently been built up than the previous three listed. Conservative. Many doctors live here and you'll find more diversity because of that (lots of Indian and foreign docs). It's more secluded, has less of a family atmosphere since it isn't really walkable. You'll have major culture shock here if you're used to city living. Nice properties on bigger lots though. Oak Brook: You get a slight break on property taxes since you've got the mall to support your tax base, but it doesn't really have a quintessential downtown like the first three do. Not as walkable, but excellent schools. Due to quirks in how Oak Brook was carved out of major land holdings relatively late in the "surburbization cycle" it is served by several school districts. One is quite awful (tiny portion in Proviso township), but the others range from stellar to quite good. With kids and schools being important it is paramount you decide what you want.There are different subdivisions, so it feels more spread out/less cohesive. Lots of doctors from India here as well, otherwise very white.Patently false. With it's small population and high degree of privacy Oak Brook is attractive to high income folks of all races and ethinic backgrounds. Has largest percentage of wealthy African Americans in the region, many folks from Europe that work for McDonalds, folks from every Asian country as well. Closest to Oak Brook Mall. Is in DuPage Co.
Of the above 5 towns not taking into account price, I would rate them in this order: Hinsdale, Western Springs, Oak Brook/Clarendon Hills (tie), Burr Ridge. (I'm a big fan of walkability so that factor played into my rankings).
Park Ridge: I just don't see the draw to Park Ridge. It's really close to the airport, the lots are tiny, feels more congested, and the houses are smaller. I'm probably not the best to weigh in on PR.Lovely town. Shares many of the best qualities of Winnetka or Hinsdale. extremely convenient to Rosemont. Nice miix of housing. Great access to Chicago.
Wilmette, Winnetka, Glenview: All very affluent towns, but I'm not as familiar with them to give specifics on their differences. Hopefully someone else will.
Evanston has a small patch that isn't that great and the not so great schools to go along with it. It's like Chicago in that regard, in that you need to know where the bad spots are.
In general, if you stay east of Ridge Ave from Oakton to as far North as you desire it's fine. Otherwise stay west of McCormick from Howard all the way North until Green Bay Rd.
Church and Dodge is the epicenter of all that is bad in Evanston.
Ummm, if you stay west of McCormick from Howard to Church you will be living in Skokie, not Evanston.
OP, if you are looking for a less expensive option that still has good schools, consider Arlington Heights. Elementary District 25 and Prospect & Hersey HS are very good. An older, but renovated house within walking distance of downtown, the library and the Metra station would be very appealing and should come in at a price point less than the towns previously mentioned.
20-30 minute drive to Rosemont and 45 minute express Metra trains to downtown.
In the western suburbs, I would also consider Glen Ellyn.
Ummm, if you stay west of McCormick from Howard to Church you will be living in Skokie, not Evanston.
OP, if you are looking for a less expensive option that still has good schools, consider Arlington Heights. Elementary District 25 and Prospect & Hersey HS are very good. An older, but renovated house within walking distance of downtown, the library and the Metra station would be very appealing and should come in at a price point less than the towns previously mentioned.
20-30 minute drive to Rosemont and 45 minute express Metra trains to downtown.
In the western suburbs, I would also consider Glen Ellyn.
In a general sense I strongly agree that there is a {depressingly} high correlation between the strength of the schools in the region and the average income of the residents that live in a particular district. The trade off of accepting a longer commute and perhaps having your housing dollar go a bit farther is NOT the only compromise you'll have to make. The "top tier" schools in larger towns have very few homes that are not considerably smaller and, in the view of some, not particularly well priced...
Towns along the various train lines have a "pecking order" with the smaller more uniformly developed towns with the best train service commanding considerably more than larger less attractively laid out options. Not sure if the high performing schools are the "chicken" or the egg in such cases...
While it is true that the North Shore towns are closer to waters of Lake Michigan (which is more or less an inland sea...) the character of the affluent towns of Cook, DuPage or Lake Co is pretty similar to that of suburbs of NYC, save for the the rare urban grittiness or historic fishing village of some spots right on Long Island Sound. No commercial fishing or industrial uses of the Lakefront really happened in any modern time frame excepting the unfortunate situations in and around Waukegan, a town that lags it inland neighbors of Lake Co terribly...
The commute up 294 from Hinsdale or surrounding areas to Rosemont is by no means the worst in the region; many people would find it easy in comparison to heading out to the farther reaches of the region. Once work shifts to downtown Chicago train service via Metra is exceptionally good on the BNSF. Many express trains cover the distance in just a bit over 20 minutes. Speeds are possible becuase of the specific routing that also serves the main east-west Amtrak corridor instead of being part of the more windy routes that have ore shared freight movement. Similar, but not quite as speeedy, Metra service on the UP-W , NW and N lines adds to the appeal of towns on those lines. Of them the ease of commmute from Rosemont makes Park Ridge a standout.
The most desirable sections of Winnetka still exude a moneyed air that is much different than the more "I work hard to live here" feeling that one gets in most of Wilmette. Personally both subgroups are well represented in Hinsdale, with the most obvious signs of how affluence / longevity of wealth being fairly well hidden. Some towns, like Glen Ellyn, are relatively new to the ranks of high income households. As prices boomed in other parts of DuPage Co and the growth of medical practices and relative ease of commuting downtown via parallel trains so to did Glen Ellyn move much higher upscale... Similar things could be said for Glenview, coupled with the unique situation afforded by the closure of its oddly inland air station for the Navy. That massive redevelopment happened at a time when upscale housing of all kinds seemed a sure bet. Prices have retreated but no real collapse...
Interestingly there is a wee bit of the same kind of shifts / history at work even in much larger more affordable towns. One such example is the Chicago Bears owning Halas/McCaskey family. Their wealth is decades old, and at this point very much from their prominence in the NFL. While some of the family is ensconced in Lake Forest, a fair number live in Arlington Heights. Doesn't too much impact local flavor, but points out that few rules are hard and fast these days.
I don't know if the success of High Income school districts is so much the schools as the students, who are already prepared by the time they enter and all the educational opportunities outside of school and parents who value it highly. I have a feeling you could place them in the most rotten school district in the State and they would still have high test scores.
I don't know if the success of High Income school districts is so much the schools as the students, who are already prepared by the time they enter and all the educational opportunities outside of school and parents who value it highly. I have a feeling you could place them in the most rotten school district in the State and they would still have high test scores.
I agree that there is "chicken and egg" sort of dilemma about what comes first, but having taught in schools that had high standards and those that did not.
The atmosphere at schools that tolerate poor performance can even impact the mere ability to administer standardized test -- kids stay home, play hookey, openly disrespect the intent of the test by snoozing or being disruptive during the test period. These distraction harm even well prepared students...
Similarly the differences in "atmosphere" often drive parents in schools with a large difference in performance / expectations to for their kids to be in the most challenging / demanding classes for primarily differences in classroom decorum. This is a challenge in towns that have different schools serving slighty different populations -- whether it is D214 or Glenbard or Glenbrook or D86 there are hard to overcome historic patterns in performance...
Have to disagree, the worst may be closer to western/dodge to ridge on howard- its pretty sketchy on the evanston/rogers park border.
But don't forget there are beautiful places in evanston to go along with the crime
There have been 4 shooting this year all within 3 blocks of Dodge/Church this year. At least right now I think it's worse, but again like Chicago you go 5 blocks in either direction and it's nice.
The point I was trying to make about Evanston is the troubled, high-crime area and unfortunately the crime doesn't stay there, the criminals branch out into the good part of town. They know where the money is, the nice cars, etc. Go to the Skokie Courthouse sometime and find the Evanston call and you will see just how bad it is. A lot of the criminals come from Chicago, do a quick robbery and shoot back to the city.
If you choose the northshore just realize that he will have a bad commute for the two years until he moves downtown. Northshore to Rosemont is difficult. Once he is working downtown, I would say you can live just about anywhere in the burbs that has a metra station.
Can you rent a house for two years (like one poster said: Park Ridge or Morton Grove or thereabouts) until he does move downtown?
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Good start, but needs some tweaking...
