Good, Affordable and Good School District Suburbs around Chicago (Elmhurst: sale, foreclosed)

[cesar_moreno]

Hello all,
My wife and I currently live in Forest Park but we are thinking of selling and moving somewhere else, mainly because of high taxes (around 9K/year). We have a 3 year old and we hope to have another child soon, but we want my wife to become a stay home mother once we have a second child, so we need to find a single family home in a suburb, we cannot afford to live in the city, with a good school district. I am a software engineer my wife has a bachelor in psychology. So this is what we are looking for:

Single Family Home
Up to 250K
Preferably not cook (taxes are astronomical in cook county)
Good school district
We are Mexican-American, and I feel weird saying this, but we would like to live somewhere where neither us nor our children will be looked at differently.

If you know of such place, I would really appreciate it if you can reply, thank you all...

[ToriaT]

Wouldn't you lose money on the sale of your current house? It seems that taxes are high everywhere. Not trying to steer you but there is a thriving Mexican community in West Chicago but that is in dupage county and taxes are high there too probably.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by cesar_moreno

Hello all,
My wife and I currently live in Forest Park but we are thinking of selling and moving somewhere else, mainly because of high taxes (around 9K/year). We have a 3 year old and we hope to have another child soon, but we want my wife to become a stay home mother once we have a second child, so we need to find a single family home in a suburb, we cannot afford to live in the city, with a good school district. I am a software engineer my wife has a bachelor in psychology. So this is what we are looking for:

Single Family Home
Up to 250K
Preferably not cook (taxes are astronomical in cook county)
Good school district
We are Mexican-American, and I feel weird saying this, but we would like to live somewhere where neither us nor our children will be looked at differently.

If you know of such place, I would really appreciate it if you can reply, thank you all...

Re taxes are higher in a lot of suburbs outside of cook.

[chet everett]

Vlajos is correct. In fact, due to the way that Cook Co places a heavier tax burden on non-residential properties theoretically Cook Co residents ought to get a little break. Of course in practice the massive disparity in how commercial building owners that hire connected law firms like those of speaker Madigan to finagle down their tax bills results in the burden being shifted onto the backs of the little guy...

If is going to be a real "needle in a hay stack" to find really top notch schools AND a purchase price under $250k AND low taxes. Maybe a smaller older in house in a "location challenged" part of a nicer town like Elmhurst or Wilmette. Personally I don't know that I would trade off being on a big street or next to a water treatment facility, but that seems like a good starting point...

[cesar_moreno]

thank you all for your responses...

We would not lose money on the house sale, we bought it foreclosed and made some repairs and remodeling. We had someone appraise the house and based on the house and the comparables we should make at least 70K on it, of course if it sells, the value could be whatever but if people are not buying, then they are just not buying

I am not exactly looking for a Mexican community, I mostly just want to find a house in a place where people are open to other cultures, even if there is a not a single Mexican in an area, as long as we are treated the same I don't care.

I also checked the taxes in Elmhurst which is supposed to have a great school system and the taxes were much lower in average, just to give you guys an idea, I would be willing to pay up to 5.5K

thank you all, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to my question.