Commute question - Buffalo Grove to Chicago downtown (Arlington Heights, Des Plaines: property taxes, income)

[martink]

We are about to buy a home in either Arlington Heights or Buffalo Grove. We are looking for something fairly new and it seems that BG will give us more choice in our price range, however I'm not sure if commute to Chicago downtown is doable from BG. Could someone share some experience? Is it going to be much worse comparing to commute from AH? Is there waiting list / problem with parking at BG metra station?
I appreciate any comments/suggestions.

[cag]

Buffalo Grove has a train station right on Prairie. Either town is an easy commute to downtown. Buffalo Grove in Lake County is in he Stevenson School District which ranks in the top 10 in the country on a consistent basis. If I were you just on the schools alone I would pick BG. We just sold our house and moved back to BG ourselves.

[ahava]

Originally Posted by cag

Buffalo Grove has a train station right on Prairie.

That is actually the Prairie View station. The BG station is off of Deerfield Pkwy just east of Weiland Rd.

[reppin_the_847]

Buffalo Grove has a very nice new Metra station, but the problem is that the trains on that train line (North Central line) are just not that as frequent as the other train lines. I guess when trains aren't running there your backup stations could be along the Milwaukee North line (Deerfield & Lake-Cook stations). The train that passes through Arlington Heights (there's a stop there), on the other hand is very frequent (Union Pacific Northwest). Buffalo Grove north of Lake-Cook Road is located in a top school district (Stevenson High School), Buffalo Grove south of Lake-Cook Road, not so much (Buffalo Grove High School). Arlington Heights I think might be considered more desirable than Buffalo Grove south of the Lake-Cook line. Arlington Heights gets John Hersey High School which is part of the larger Township High School District 214 (serving the communities of Arlington Heights, southern Buffalo Grove, northwest Des Plaines, Elk Grove, Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights, Rolling Meadows and Wheeling, IL). But Buffalo Grove north of the Lake-Cook line is pretty upscale & affluent without a doubt.

Originally Posted by martink

We are about to buy a home in either Arlington Heights or Buffalo Grove. We are looking for something fairly new and it seems that BG will give us more choice in our price range, however I'm not sure if commute to Chicago downtown is doable from BG. Could someone share some experience? Is it going to be much worse comparing to commute from AH? Is there waiting list / problem with parking at BG metra station?
I appreciate any comments/suggestions.

[ahava]

Originally Posted by reppin_the_847

Buffalo Grove north of Lake-Cook Road is located in a top school district (Stevenson High School), Buffalo Grove south of Lake-Cook Road, not so much (Buffalo Grove High School). Arlington Heights I think might be considered more desirable than Buffalo Grove south of the Lake-Cook line. Arlington Heights gets John Hersey High School which is part of the larger Township High School District 214 (serving the communities of Arlington Heights, southern Buffalo Grove, northwest Des Plaines, Elk Grove, Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights, Rolling Meadows and Wheeling, IL).

There's nothing wrong with Buffalo Grove HS. Ranked by PSAE score it's #14 among suburban high schools, which places it higher than Fremd, Neuqua Valley, Maine South, and oh yes, John Hersey. Also, depending on where in Arlington Heights you live your kids could be attending any of the D214 high schools. http://www.d214.org/shared/info/areamap.pdf

[mtaylor6]

Hello

I am currently moving from Northern VA/DC Metro area to chicago. My job is in Rolling Meadows if I choose to live on the north side of downtown how far would my commute be for work?

[chet everett]

It will be much easier driving from Chicago to a job in Rolling Meadows than it would be driving around the Northern VA/DC Metro area.

The predominate route from Chicago to Rolling Meadows will be the Kennedy (I90/94N) out to interchange with the Northwest Tollway (I90W) and the 290 Extension. I would expect peak rush hour times to hover right around 50-80 minutes. Not much public transportation would get you directly between a job in Rolling Meadows and a home in Chicago...

[cubssoxfan]

Martink,
Keep in mind your property taxes will be much higher in Lake county portion of Buffalo Grove than cook county portion of Buffalo Grove. Stevenson is outstanding but is also, IMO,uber-competitve and has larger class sizes than the district 214 school. The typically more desirable HS's in district 214 are Buffalo Grove, Hersey and Prospect. Parts of Prospect Heights and Mt. Prospect go to Hersey and Prospect. Nice neighborhoods too also served by nearby Metra stations. Wheeling HS, Rolling Meadows HS get bad reps because they have more lower income kids attending BUT offer many honors/AP classes as well. District 214 allows your child to take an elective, they qualify for, at another HS within district if the class is not offered at their HS. Unfortunately no transportation is provided. Each HS seems to have it's own elective courses "specialty focus", with one being better at vocational ed, one in art, one in drama etc.. The core curriculum from standard through AP is pretty consistent across the entire district.