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Looking at OP, love the unique character. Please help answer below questions:
1. Is it still safe? Getting better or worse?
2. Still a desirable location in Chicago? Home value increase in future? - Seems like many houses for sale.
3. Is downtown fun? Do they host many events/festivals?
4. Is downtown growing/improving? - Seems almost run down in areas.
5. Family/kid friendly? Can you take stroller around? Can kids play in neighborhood safely
6. Nearby good gyms? - lifetime fitness caliber
7. Lots of bars/restaurents downtown?
Sorry about the many questions - I'm a out of stater so don't know anything...
Looking at OP, love the unique character. Please help answer below questions:
1. Is it still safe? Getting better or worse?
2. Still a desirable location in Chicago? Home value increase in future? - Seems like many houses for sale.
3. Is downtown fun? Do they host many events/festivals?
4. Is downtown growing/improving? - Seems almost run down in areas.
5. Family/kid friendly? Can you take stroller around? Can kids play in neighborhood safely
6. Nearby good gyms? - lifetime fitness caliber
7. Lots of bars/restaurents downtown?
Sorry about the many questions - I'm a out of stater so don't know anything...
Jon
1.Yes it is safe. It has lower crime than Lincoln Park, so if you're fine with that, you'll be fine with O.P. Most crimes in the village are crimes of opportunity, someone leaving their garage door unlocked, leaving their Garmin in their car etc... Most of which is avoidable with a little awareness. Crime in O.P. is at a 40 year low, so it has consistently been dropping.
2. Yes, it's still a desirable location in Chicago. Everyone's home value dropped when that housing crash came, but O.P. is recovering pretty well. I have friend's in the market for a house in O.P. right now, and have been frustrated, because even though there is inventory, nothing stays on the market that long. Oak Park attracts many professionals, doctors, lawyers, academics etc... with plenty of options to move to other desirable towns, so there's a significant about of people that still find it desirable.
3. The downtown has a cinema, a variety of stores, an award winning library, parks with plays in the summer etc... they close off part of Marion st. downtown every Thursday night to host live music. There is a beer festival in October etc... There is stuff going on, just depends on what you consider "fun" to be.
4. As for downtown development, there always seems to be some kind of public project the village is working on, and new businesses arrive. The village is about the open the newly renovated Scoville Park, and new businesses have been coming in including Mac Specialist, School of Rock and a bunch of other eateries...
5. Yes, O.P. is very kid friendly. Many families move to O.P., one of the reasons being that it offers much for kids. There are a tone of park district programs for kids. Yes, you can take your stroller around... many people do so. Kids can play safely in the neighborhood... Some consider the first couple of blocks just west of Austin Blvd (the Chicago / O.P border) to be "less safe", but I also know families that live on those block with young kids that are happy there. Plenty of kids play in the parks, in their front yards, ride their bikes etc... It's safe and very kid friendly.
6. I don't know much about the gyms here, as I don't frequent them, but I have friends that like Midtown Fitness. Some people like FCC also.
7. There are not many straight up bars, but there are a ton of eateries. It would be redundant to try to list them all here, but if you want specific suggestions of different types of food, I could recommend specific places.
Oak Park has a specific feel, with it's mixture of urban/suburban characteristics, diversity etc... Plenty of people like it, and some people want a much more "suburban" life. Just depends on what one is looking for.
Last edited by chitownperson; 05-21-2013 at 08:33 AM..
Looking at OP, love the unique character. Please help answer below questions:
1. Is it still safe? Getting better or worse?
2. Still a desirable location in Chicago? Home value increase in future? - Seems like many houses for sale.
3. Is downtown fun? Do they host many events/festivals?
4. Is downtown growing/improving? - Seems almost run down in areas.
5. Family/kid friendly? Can you take stroller around? Can kids play in neighborhood safely
6. Nearby good gyms? - lifetime fitness caliber
7. Lots of bars/restaurents downtown?
Sorry about the many questions - I'm a out of stater so don't know anything...
Jon
I agree with Chitown's analysis above. A few additional thoughts.
2. There are not many homes on the market. Houses that are priced right are going under contract the first weekend they are on the market. A new neighbor just told me he made an offer immediately on the house on our block because he was sick and tired of making an offer on a house where he was the 7th or 8th offer. He was looking in a specific price range though ($550-650 range) where desirable properties are going immediately.
3. Every Sunday in the summer at Scoville Park there is a band. It is filled with families enjoying the music, a picnic dinner and summer weather. Scoville Park will be reopening in a couple of weeks. They added a permanent bandstand to continue the music in the park tradition. There are several active theater groups in OP that perform plays both inside and outside. There is also a Holiday Cookie festival, various wine and beer festivals (microbrew review in August) and Thursday night outs in the summer. The farmers' market is very popular and well known in the region.
5. OP is very family friendly. There are so many kid activities it's ridiculous. There is not enough time in the day to avail yourself of all the opportunities. The park district is excellent too.
6. There is nothing like Lifetime Fitness in Chicago or Oak Park. East Bank Club in Chicago is the only thing that comes close and still doesn't compare. FFC is a full service gym with state of the art equipment, one basketball court and an indoor pool with childcare; it has locations all over Chicago. Many people join the Oak Park one for weekends and workout at one of the Loop ones during the week. Oak Park does not have empty land mass to accommodate a Lifetime Fitness type facility.
7. There are plenty of restaurants in Oak Park and Forest Park (more bars here as well).
2. There are not many homes on the market. Houses that are priced right are going under contract the first weekend they are on the market. A new neighbor just told me he made an offer immediately on the house on our block because he was sick and tired of making an offer on a house where he was the 7th or 8th offer. He was looking in a specific price range though ($550-650 range) where desirable properties are going immediately.
I'd like to put an exclamation point on this. Oak Park was a one of a small handful of suburbs on our list as we were recently looking for homes, and you pretty much have to make an appointment to see a home right after it gets listed on the MLS if you want to have any chance of getting a bid in. This only applies to houses in prime locations without obvious flaws. The good stuff is flying off the market, while other stuff lingers.
Our price range was about $100k lower than mentioned above. We didn't want to compromise on proximity to transit, schools, or the house itself, so we had to open our real estate search to a wider range of suburbs than we originally planned on if we wanted to move this year. One strike against Oak Park is that property taxes seem to be higher for most homes compared to similarly priced homes in other suburbs--especially if you are looking at the larger lots north of Madison St.
That's true the taxes are high. I'm willing to pay them because the majority of it goes towards to the schools, which retains the quality of education, an in turn keeps up one aspect of desirability of the village. I took into account the taxes when we bought our place, and viewed it as just part of the mortgage.
Wow, thank you so much for the detailed responses. You guys have really connected the dots with the under construction park. I think that was the missing element when we walked thru… I was really disappointed in a simple downtown way finding directory/sign missing. As someone “new to area” I was unable to figure out the layout, which way to go, what was available. Also I had to use the internet to understand the special districts. It seemed that the area should have highlighted this better for new folks like me.
We are looking at Oak park/River forest and Elmhurst. Oak Park just has that amazing neighborhood feel that stands out.
Are the Schools better at Oak Park or Elmhurst? When I do internet research I find conflicting results.
Yeah, I think the signage will be more helpful when Scoville park reopens. There are more signs closer to Forrest and Lake, and then at Marion and Lake. There's also a visitors center at Forrest and Lake. The layout of Oak Park is actually quite simple once you get use to it. It's basically a long rectangle stretching 3 miles going north/south and 1.5 miles going east/west. Lake St. cuts east/west down the center of the rectangle, and the main business/entertainment district runs from Lake and Oak Park ave, to Lake and Harlem (with various north/south streets like Oak Park ave and Marion containing various store front and eateries). There are also other districts and pockets of stuff, like the Arts district on Harrison St. which has groupings of galleries, eateries kids/teens art and dance studio etc... Just west of the FLW home and studio on Chicago Ave, you have a few shops and eateries, same with east of Ridgeland on Chicago. The Northern, Western and Southern borders also have a variety of stores and eateries to choose from. At Oak Park Ave and 290, you have another grouping of eateries and stores. It's also worth mentioning that in addition to the main library, the north and south side also have satellite branches that are smaller.
Also for the schools, Oak Park/River Forest have excellent school systems. This typically becomes somewhat of a hot button issue on the forum as Oak Park/River Forest have uneven test scores. A portion of the schools is composed with low income students and minorities, which historically produce lower test scores than their counter parts. The schools are striving to close what they call "the gap". The majority of students with involved parents do vary well academically, and place very well in quality universities, and this is reflective of the quality of education and variety of opportunities provided at the schools in OP/RF. My guess is that "conflicting results" are a product of when someone only looks at the over all data and makes a comparison on that front without analyzing the specifics of the schools and what they have to offer. People in Oak Park also like the fact that their kids are going to be interacting with kids from different back grounds and income levels etc... with the idea that they are exposed to and are a part of a diverse community. So there is that aspect of socialization that people feel strongly about.
So to answer you question, if you are an involved parent, I don't think it's a question of which school is "better", but more about what kind of environment do you want your child to develop in.
We are looking at Oak park/River forest and Elmhurst. Oak Park just has that amazing neighborhood feel that stands out.
Are the Schools better at Oak Park or Elmhurst? When I do internet research I find conflicting results.
P.S. Thanks again for all the input.
-jon
Internet research is conflicted, as noted by Chet's less than helpful statistical analysis. When you look at a school in Oak Park, look at overall test scores as well as test scores by group/subgroup. Oak Park schools are diverse, which is why people choose to move there, among other reasons. The reasons why Holmes (with 93% meeting or exceeding), for example, didn't make AYP is due to the fact that certain subgroups failed to make AYP. OPRF, the high school that serves Oak Park and River Forest, is stronger than York.
Internet research is conflicted, as noted by Chet's less than helpful statistical analysis. When you look at a school in Oak Park, look at overall test scores as well as test scores by group/subgroup. Oak Park schools are diverse, which is why people choose to move there, among other reasons. The reasons why Holmes (with 93% meeting or exceeding), for example, didn't make AYP is due to the fact that certain subgroups failed to make AYP. OPRF, the high school that serves Oak Park and River Forest, is stronger than York.
In addition to kindrakindra's accurate points, there are many professors from Northwestern University, UIC, U of C, DePaul, Loyola, Rush... and many other high level professionals that are residents, that rave about the school system in OP/RF. I doubt these people would move to OP/RF if they felt the education in the village was not excellent.
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