Oak Park vs. Evanston? A gay couple moving to Chicago area (Cicero: to rent, condos)

[jared&ben]

Look the pissing match over with place is better is not helpful. We are looking for people to offer hands on experience in area around chicago. WE ARE LOOKING FOR GAY FRIENDLY, NOT OPEN HOLDING HANDS STUFF LIKE BOYSTOWN, BUT FRIENDLY WERE THE TEACHERS OF OUR KIDS WILL NOT TRY TO BRAIN WASH THEM INTO THINKING WE ARE A SIN. Leading down this path means areas that are not majority conservative with a church on every corner. Good schools are important to. Oak park and evanston are obviously good for this aspect of our search. But some on here have suggested suburbs might offer this environment at a better price. Commuting to ohare is part of the selection but suggest areas and let us decide if the commute is right for us. We are hoping some people can offer information about the type of people in these areas.

[chet everett]

I amm not sure about "a better price" becuase you have not mentioned what range you are looking for, but the stats on towns that are on the edge of 294 from Western Springs/Indian Head Park/Hinsdale on the south about Glenview on the north do offer a good commute to O'Hare, schools with more uniform / consistent achievement and housing values that are at least no worse than Oak Park.

The schools north of Evanston are also excellent, with a number of them having specific clubs and such for LGBT students (I'm sure kids from a non-traditional household who themselves identify as straight would also be well served...), however commute distance to O'Hare is not great and value in a relative sense is probably at best on par with Evanston.

The very small number of households in the entire state that parallel your situation only highlight the fact that if what is important to you is how the schools will serve your children / respect you as their parents AND not being part of some big "buddy club" then the decision about where you children will best be educated is much broader than two towns...

[jared&ben]

Two answers to your questions. Budget is around 200k. Second, once you live in the shoes of a family like us and what we have been through you will understand why the importance of finding a community that is not bigoted towards us. Good schools are important but most suburb communities are good. Living in AZ you would have learned that it competes for the bottom spot on the school list. Anything would be better, a school with pencils would be an improvement. LOL

[Aleking]

200k will be an issue and limit you to a 3 bdrm and probably not in a prime suburb

[smkz]

Originally Posted by Aleking

200k will be an issue and limit you to a 3 bdrm and probably not in a prime suburb

2 bedrooms will be ok.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by smkz

2 bedrooms will be ok.

How about a townhouse or condo?

[smkz]

Originally Posted by oakparkdude

how about a townhouse or condo?

Perfect!!!
Foreclosures will be even more perfect!!

[oakparkdude]

Is there any particular reason to buy immediately, instead of renting to make sure you like the town? Especially since you're relocating from out of state, it might be prudent to move here and scout out potential suburbs before locking yourselves into a long-term ownership commitment.

[smkz]

Originally Posted by oakparkdude

Is there any particular reason to buy immediately, instead of renting to make sure you like the town? Especially since you're relocating from out of state, it might be prudent to move here and scout out potential suburbs before locking yourselves into a long-term ownership commitment.

What you said does make sense, but under the current economy and housing market, our mortgage payment will be much less than the rent. My husband is tired of the commute from Chicago to Phoenix. We are planning to move in August, latest by September next year.

[chet everett]

A budget of $200k in Oak Park, Evanston or frankly any desirable town or neighborhood is going to be EXTREMELY limiting. I would strongly recommend giving serious consideration to renting. Even a very rough foreclosure needing quite a bit of work is unlikely to pop out in a top tier section of any desirable area. Unfortunately for folks from Phoenix or Las Vegas the downdrafts in real estate have been much more severe out there than anything in our region.

Completely trashed sites that are only good for "land value" routinely change hands for well above $200k...

Sadly the situation is not much better even MUCH further away -- I know with pilots the ability to "hop" from Madison or Ann Arbor can make those an option for folks willing to rely on commuter jet rides for a trip to the hub but even in those gay friendly towns $200k is genereally well below the "entry level" home buyer -- high concentrations of well paid academic type drive up prices....

There is a little enclave of same sex families in the resort areas of SW Michigan around New Buffalo, but again due to the proximity of well healed Chicagoans $200k is unlikely to fetch anything other than a place that has been so lacking in maintenance as to be uninhabitable ...

In a large number of the over built condo dense areas of the South Loop a family sized unit can be rented for less than it would cost to buy. My suggestion would be to focus on such a situation given the modest housing budget...

Realistically if the OP were to double their housing budget I would feel OK suggesting Elmhurst or Downers Grove, perhaps even the portion of Naperville closest to Edwards Hosptial. To get into the desirable parts of nicer suburbs / those with a traditional appeal to academic type residents like Evanston or Oak Park, I would peg the realistic entry price higher by at least another twenty-five to fifty grand, and even then you are going to need a very sharp real estate agent to legally disclose the actual crime stats and school performance numbers so that your kids are not living in the roughest blocks....


The "retreat" in housing prices does remind me that just as when prices were driven too high in Oak Park some folks of alternative lifestyle did venture into lower priced areas of Riverside or the attractive Hollywood section of Brookfield and I suspect there are some decent deals there again, but a $200k ceiling is limiting even in those areas. The tiny unexpqnded two bedroom homes are now scarer than before the boom and the places that need maintenance now may even an extra decade or so of roof leaks to contend with. The upside is the RB does have a much safer and far more academically successful environment than any of the schools to the east... For the truly adventuresome I suppose it does not have the urban pioneer quality of a Berwyn, but it ought to much more gay-friendly than the hardened Morton schools... (and I won't even venture a guess as to how hostile things might be in Forest Park with the Proviso schools -- there is still a very bad correlation between low income / macho displays among minorities and hostility toward alternative lifestyles...)