Any opinions on Villa Park, Oakbrook Terrace, Westmont, Bensenville, Berwyn? :) (Chicago: for sale, condos)

[Chancelynn2002]

Hey, everyone! I am still searching for a good suburban town to relocate to. I'd like to get a list of areas and then take a weekend to check them out.

I'm pretty much just clicking on surburbs west of Chicago on google.com/maps, then finding their demographics at Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed, but I'd like real and honest opinions on these towns.

My other thread is "Welcoming suggestions about outdoorsy, old-school suburban towns," and I have it narrowed down to Lombard and Wheaton, I think, from what I've seen on other threads, but I'm interested in the below towns if anyone has experience with these:

Villa Park, Oakbrook Terrace, Westmont, Bensenville, Berwyn, Downers Grove

Thanks for looking and your advice!

[gardener34]

Downers grove - can be expensive. Nice.

Villa park - mostly nice a few pockets of "not nice" but on the whole good. Not much of a downtown which is most people's major complaint with it. Good location and location to shopping though. Definitely reasonable. And is on the prairie path for bicycling.

Westmont - many friends live here and love it. Lots of condos. (have a friend selling one if you are interested.

Bensenville - lots of airport traffic and getting up to the NW burban area around the airport, things start to get congested traffic-wise.

Just my 2 cents.

[BRU67]

I'll make that $.03...

Oakbrook Terrace -- great overall area with second to none shopping and bars and restaurants. The town of Oakbrook Terrace is tiny though (2,200 people or so) so I don't know anyone who has lived there.

Berwyn -- I moved here from Oak Park a few years ago and can recommend it. Great location and housing stock and should have a bright future. Use the "search" feature and type in Berwyn, to prevent me from sounding like a broken record

[JHughes]

Oakbrook Terrace is aging OR expensive (maybe a great place to remodel).

Villa Park has a bad rap b/c Mexican gangs.

Westmont - nice, but many, many condos.

Bensenville- some of the same problems of Villa Park, plus too near OHare.

Berwyn - Currently in flux. Perhaps the 'new Oak Park,' but who knows. Used to be moslty Italian community, now more residents with questionable immigration status.

So many NICE towns around there though: LaGrange, LaGrange Park, Western Springs, Oak Brook, Lisle, Willowbrook, Burr Ridge, Hinsdale, Wheaton, Glen, Ellyn, parts of Lombard.

Good Luck!

[gardener34]

As for VP: that is only in the way far north area all along north avenue. And stay out of brandywine development - although that may be Oakbrook terrace there.

I would recommend Lombard though. Everyone that got priced out of Elmhurst lives there now.

[punkerjim]

i seriously didn't think there were any homes in Oakbrook Terrace.

Bensenville is an airport, i'd stay away.

[jsagil]

How the heck is anyone ever going to sell a home in Bensenville if everyone keeps calling it a airport? Yes it borders Ohare, but so does Park Ridge and it's considered a great place to live. There are plenty of really nice homes and neighborhoods in Bensenville. It's affordable and a great location if you need to commute to the city or Ohare on a daily basis. Will you hear air traffic? Ya. But you'll hear it in Elmhurst, and any other nearby suburb as well. I would be carefull when stereotyping a certain ethnic group to a town. You never know who is asking the question.

Good luck to you in your search!

[Lookout Kid]

"One of these places is not like the other..."

I'm not sure how Berwyn got lumped in there with those other places, but I welcome it! I hear Berwyn is making some major strides toward revival.

Oh, by the way, half of Bensenville is being demolished for O'Hare runway expansion. Seriously. Bewared of "too good to be true" housing deals there!

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

"One of these places is not like the other..."

I'm not sure how Berwyn got lumped in there with those other places, but I welcome it! I hear Berwyn is making some major strides toward revival.

I think more and more people are getting sick of atrocious commutes, and it’s getting tough to find a good affordable house in a safe area close to the City. Not many people have the luxury of a $600-800k “starter home,” hehe. I still can’t get over that! Wow. And even if you’re willing to put up with the commute, you’re not going to have a house nearly as well built and with as much character, amenities and history as in the established neighborhoods of the inner ring and residential neighborhoods of Chicago. I welcome the movement back in too, and not only because I live where I do. To me, it represents a form of adaptive reuse. We’ve got too many “ex-burbs” which are taking their toll on the environment and increasing our dependence on foreign oil. These “safe havens” of garage mahals are forcing people to drive more and destroying valuable farmland as they, and the roads built to make them quasi-convenient, are built. Ok, off the soapbox. I expect and hope for the “back to the city” movement to continue.

[jsagil]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

"One of these places is not like the other..."

I'm not sure how Berwyn got lumped in there with those other places, but I welcome it! I hear Berwyn is making some major strides toward revival.

Oh, by the way, half of Bensenville is being demolished for O'Hare runway expansion. Seriously. Bewared of "too good to be true" housing deals there!

The expansion has already taken place and the homes that were demolished were not for sale, they were bought by the Ohare Expansion Project. All boarded up and or demolished by now. I really don't believe that 1/2 of Bensenville was demolished. Bensenville extends all the way to Rt. 83...the last time I was in that area I saw no runways.