Where do tree hugging, vegetarian liberals belong in north Chicago? (Evanston: renters, home)

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by CrazyJay

Evanston,

I too am moving to Chicagoland.

I will be moving in to Evanston at the end of this month, or early in July.

However, I'm not a tree hugging hippie. I'm a moderate libertarian. it's going to be a ton of fun pissing off liberals.

Anyway, Evanston is a really nice suburb. It's a good mix of quite suburb living with the urban big city feel.

Remember that "earth hour" a few months ago where everyone in Chicago was supposed to turn off their lights for one hour? I know people in Oak Park that were actually afraid not to participate in this because of the possible negative reaction from their liberal neighbors and high-school students. Evanston is about the same in terms of liberal-ness. It reminds me of being on my very liberal college campus in the 90s when dissenting opinions were not tolerated (and I say this as someone who has always been left-of-center on most issues). I'm a lifelong Democrat (not in a "Chicago Democrat" corruption kind of way) who actually finds the liberal orthodoxy of Evanston and Oak Park a bit off-putting. But it's better than living with bunch of Republican religious fanatics!

By the way, does anyone know if Oak Park and Evanston went for Tood "the Toddler" Stroger in the last County election? Most suburbs did not, and I suppose that even Oak Park and Evanston have their limits...

[CrazyJay]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Remember that "earth hour" a few months ago where everyone in Chicago was supposed to turn off their lights for one hour? I know people in Oak Park that were actually afraid not to participate in this because of the possible negative reaction from their liberal neighbors and high-school students. Evanston is about the same in terms of liberal-ness. It reminds me of being on my very liberal college campus in the 90s when dissenting opinions were not tolerated (and I say this as someone who has always been left-of-center on most issues). I'm a lifelong Democrat (not in a "Chicago Democrat" corruption kind of way) who actually finds the liberal orthodoxy of Evanston and Oak Park a bit off-putting. But it's better than living with bunch of Republican religious fanatics!

By the way, does anyone know if Oak Park and Evanston went for Tood "the Toddler" Stroger in the last County election? Most suburbs did not, and I suppose that even Oak Park and Evanston have their limits...

LULZ, i wasn't in Chicagoland during the earth hour stuff. If earth hour is done again, I'm not going to purposely leave my stuff on (i'm not a wasteful douche, i do try to conserve). However, i'm going to keep on trucking with using whatever it is i want to be using at that hour.

Like i said. It's going to be fun. I'm not going to live in "fear."

I will always voice my opinion till the gestapo take me away, or till i'm sent to a gulag. I'm very intellectually confrontational. I loves me some debate.

i hate Stroger by the way. Though i haven't made my move to CHicagoland, i've been paying attention to Cook county politics over the last year. sickening really.

However, i agree. i'd rather live in a liberally dominated neighborhood, than a conservatively dominated neighborhood (by conservative, i mean die hard republicans that only follow party lines, i'm cool with right wingers though, as long as they're not bible thumpers).

generally (i stress generally) i'm left socially, and right (wing) economically. Which puts me in the center . Essentially a libertarian.

[openspace]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

I tell my husband almost every day that pretty much everyone thinks that Evanston is for us even though our realtor steered us away from it to the point where we didn't even drive through it when we were there for 3 days in December.

I am not sure where you will be working but consider where you will have to commute to work. Evanston is good location if working downtown or suburbs around it but difficult if you work say in Schaumburg.

[Lookout Kid]

Hey jaynetarzana, check out this link for some great modern home listings (though I'm sure many of these are beyond your stated price range):

http://www.modernchicagohomes.com/

[mia220]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

DH and I are liberal, tree hugging, vegetarian, urban hip parents of two little girls in our early 30's considering a move to Chicago. We grew up in Detroit, but we've lived in California for 13 years. We're looking for an area with like-minded people, great schools, safe neighborhoods and a real sense of community with a hip (and safe) downtown area. Best case scenario, would have us in a mid century modern or new modern home in the $600-$725K range.

I'm looking for the same thing, but am in the $200-300K range The main difference (besides our pitiful budget) is that we would be totally happy with an older house. We also don't have kids yet, but are planning on them very soon. Good schools are important to us.

Where do we go besides Evanston and Oak Park?

Anyone up to the challenge of helping us out????

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by mia220

I'm looking for the same thing, but am in the $200-300K range The main difference (besides our pitiful budget) is that we would be totally happy with an older house. We also don't have kids yet, but are planning on them very soon. Good schools are important to us.

Where do we go besides Evanston and Oak Park?

Anyone up to the challenge of helping us out????

Madison, WI. No? Had to get a plug in for my ultra-lefty home town...

You're probably priced out of Oak Park and Evanston. You might find something around $300k in Oak Park that's a major fixer-upper on Austin Avenue... You're probably also priced out of any northern suburb that isn't really far from the city.

Do you need public schools? If not, Berwyn might work out for you. It has many wonderful old Craftsman Chicago Bungalows, and the prices are right. Brookfield is nearby as well, and that feeds into a pretty good public high school.

There are probably other options in your price range in the South Suburbs, but I'm just not familiar enough with any of them (one side of my family is all from Hammond, Gary, and Cal City, and I know you DEFINITELY don't want to live there). Your other options would be to get something way out in the bumblef__k exurbs in Will County or something, but you won't find many tree-hugger liberals there at all. Going north and west, Streamwood is in your price range (yuck). For some reason liberal communities are often the most desirable and expensive places to live!

[jaynetarzana]

It seems like every time we have moved and house hunted, no matter what our price range has been, we have always been made to feel like it wasn't enough. Our range was $800K when we moved to Santa Cruz, but that was when we had $160K down payment - GONE! Now it is $550K which is a real stretch for us on a single income. In fact, we should really be looking in the $300K range! I happen to think that over half a million dollars should be enough to get you into something nice. But true to form, people on this board have wished me good luck in finding anything decent in that price range. What in the world has happened? No wonder Americans are so stressed out and stuck in the rat race of life; "Getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car, and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it." - Ellen Goodman

Why have we accepted the fact that we must pay over $3K a month on housing? It is ridiculous! We aren't made of money and we chose for me to stay home to raise our girls. We've always been minimalists and very interested in simple living. When we sold our house a few months ago and lost everything in the process, we swore that we would never overextend ourselves again. Now here we are a few months later considering homes that are going to put us back in that same boat.

My wish is for people like us, who don't require large extravagant houses, to be able to buy a small piece of land and put an eco-friendly Dwell like prefab home on it for very little money. But every contractor I have spoken to has told me that you need over a million dollar budget to take on such a project.

We would be willing to live in 1000 st ft loft or condo with an open floorplan, but there really aren't any on the north shore (unless I just haven't figured out where they are) except for Evanston and those are very pricey! We LOVE the complete openess of lofts, but the have to have a ton of windows and natural light coming in.

I'd love to start a conversation about creative ideas for finding housing that meets all of your needs, is pleasing to the eye and doesn't break the bank. I don't want my kids to grow up with stressed out parents because of financial burdens.

[jaynetarzana]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Hey jaynetarzana, check out this link for some great modern home listings (though I'm sure many of these are beyond your stated price range):

http://www.modernchicagohomes.com/

Thank you, but I have checked out the site many times and there is nothing even close to our price range.

[jaynetarzana]

Originally Posted by openspace

I am not sure where you will be working but consider where you will have to commute to work. Evanston is good location if working downtown or suburbs around it but difficult if you work say in Schaumburg.

He will be working in Mettawa. Someone posted about Madison WI and I have heard a lot about what a liberal, green city it is. I wish it was a reasonable commute to Mettawa. It sounds like a great place to live.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

It seems like every time we have moved and house hunted, no matter what our price range has been, we have always been made to feel like it wasn't enough. Our range was $800K when we moved to Santa Cruz, but that was when we had $160K down payment - GONE! Now it is $550K which is a real stretch for us on a single income. In fact, we should really be looking in the $300K range! I happen to think that over half a million dollars should be enough to get you into something nice. But true to form, people on this board have wished me good luck in finding anything decent in that price range. What in the world has happened? No wonder Americans are so stressed out and stuck in the rat race of life; "Getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car, and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it." - Ellen Goodman

Why have we accepted the fact that we must pay over $3K a month on housing? It is ridiculous! We aren't made of money and we chose for me to stay home to raise our girls. We've always been minimalists and very interested in simple living. When we sold our house a few months ago and lost everything in the process, we swore that we would never overextend ourselves again. Now here we are a few months later considering homes that are going to put us back in that same boat.

My wish is for people like us, who don't require large extravagant houses, to be able to buy a small piece of land and put an eco-friendly Dwell like prefab home on it for very little money. But every contractor I have spoken to has told me that you need over a million dollar budget to take on such a project.

We would be willing to live in 1000 st ft loft or condo with an open floorplan, but there really aren't any on the north shore (unless I just haven't figured out where they are) except for Evanston and those are very pricey! We LOVE the complete openess of lofts, but the have to have a ton of windows and natural light coming in.

I'd love to start a conversation about creative ideas for finding housing that meets all of your needs, is pleasing to the eye and doesn't break the bank. I don't want my kids to grow up with stressed out parents because of financial burdens.

You can definitely find nice housing in Chicago on your budget. It's just that the "liberal tree-hugging" type communities are the most expensive ones. The last time I saw a figure, the median home price in metro Chicago was less than $280,000, and it's probably lower now.

My wife and I have one child, and are also looking for house in a decent community. We currently have a condo in the city that is about 1400 square feet, we are on the north lakefront, and it cost under $300K when we bought it in 2005. We may stay in the city and move up to a 3-BR condo and deal with private schools. Another option would be to move to the north side Bungalow Belt of the city, where many brick bungalows cost between $300K and $500K. The third option for us is to buy a house in Oak Park or Evanston, though Oak Park is more affordable to us.

I too love modern architecture, but have realized that you can pair modern furniture with a classic vintage home and it will look great. I'm not super excited to buy a home that needs a lot of work, but I've seen re-habbed smaller houses in Oak Park for under $500K. And in this down market, you can find plenty of houses in Oak Park for under $400K.

On your budget you could definitely get a post-war ranch house in Skokie, Park Ridge, or Evanston--all of which are left-leaning communities. Many of these home are brick in these areas, and can look quite good if you gut the interior and re-landscape. You just need a little imagination to make your modern home a reality!