After spending a large part of my life in Phoenix, it's time to come home. We need some advice. (Chicago: low income, real estate)

[MrM827]

Back in 1990, my parents moved us to Phoenix and I have lived here ever since. I met my wife in 2000 after she followed her parents out to AZ once she graduated from college. After spending 14 years together in the Phoenix area, we have decided it's time to get back to our roots. While she has had some semblance of an adult life there, I have been gone since I was 10. We have been back to visit many times in all seasons, so we are well aware of the weather, good and bad. She also still has a lot of extended family in the Chicago area.

The major reason we are moving back is for our kids and to an extent our social life. We don't really feel like we belong in Phoenix and always feel more at home when we are in the Midwest. We want to be able to take advantage of the seasons and culture of the area, something that we sorely miss in Phoenix.

We are looking for a place where we can live that has friendly neighbors, lots of kids (ours will be 5 and 9 when we move...probably next summer) and something without too crazy of a commute if one of us has to work downtown. (< 1hr) Most importantly we don't want a place where everyone stays indoors all the time and keeps to themselves. Obviously we are looking for good schools as well.

We are not sure about jobs yet as we still have 8 months or so until we are planning on making the move. We currently have a household income of around $200k. She is a pediatric nurse, I'm a software developer.

We are currently in our mid 30's.

If anyone could suggest some good suburbs or neighborhoods to look into we would greatly appreciate it. Let us know your experiences as it relates to what we are looking for.

We are very excited to go back to a metropolitan area where people are passionate about where they live and are friendly and welcoming!

[flamadiddle]

lol, sounds just like us, only we're in Atlanta now.

Look at Hinsdale or the North Shore areas like Highland Park, Winnetka, Wilmette, etc.

[JJski]

La Grange - IMO, West is best! DTLG is alive for a burb...

[brian571]

You'll want to get your jobs lined up before figuring out a place to live. If you ended up working in Oak Brook or Schaumburg, for example, you wouldn't want to live on the North Shore. Likewise, if you worked in Northbrook you wouldn't want to live in Hinsdale. Wilmette, Winnetka, and Hinsdale are all top notch suburbs. Unfortunately, even at $200k of income you're going to be very stretched in those areas. I'd personally play it more conservative. For northern suburbs I'd look at Libertyville, Deerfield, or Glenview. All have excellent schools and are family friendly. I don't knew the western suburbs well enough to make any recommendations there. I'm sure someone will chime in on those. Definitely figure out where you're going to be working before buying anything though. Like Phoenix, if you live on one side of town and work on the other you can easily have an hour or longer commute - without snow. Add that to the mix and it's easily double. Good luck on your move!

[MrM827]

Thanks for the info Brian. We will definitely have jobs lined up before buying anything. Right now we are more in the research phase. We want to find good areas where we may want to live and start our job searches from there geographically to see if we can find jobs near where we want to live.

I agree with your conservative approach; home prices are pretty high out there compared to here in the Phoenix area and taxes are 4x what they are for us currently.We just got ourselves out of debt outside our house and are looking to live a much more financially secured life.

I have been looking at demographics for different areas and it baffles me how median and average incomes are around 150k in some areas, yet you can't find a house for under 500k. Based on the income demographics it seems like we would be fine in those areas, but we don't want to put ourselves in a bad situation financially. Another thing we are considering as well is age. The last thing we want to do is move into an area where most of the families have parents in the 50s and kids in their teens. Not that there is anything wrong with those ages, I look forward to those years, but we want to live near families with kids near the same age as ours.

Ultimately as long as we are in a safe area with good schools, what we really want is a place that is welcoming and friendly. A neighborhood where our kids are going to make a lot of friends and the norm is to get out of the house and play.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by MrM827

I have been looking at demographics for different areas and it baffles me how median and average incomes are around 150k in some areas, yet you can't find a house for under 500k.

As a Gen X homebuyer, this always confounded me as well. We have a higher household income than the medians in the vast majority of high-end Chicago suburbs--even on the North Shore--yet as a family of four with childcare costs and very little home equity due to the real estate crash, we didn't feel we could afford to live in a lot of them. I think that the income numbers are low due to older "boomer" homebuyers getting in to the market decades ago before price run-ups, and also due to low income numbers for retirees. I don't think it bodes well for future housing prices in these areas, as a lot of very well-off younger homebuyers will be needed to replace the boomers in $800k+ houses. The old "trade up" mentality is dead in our era of flat or negative appreciation, so these expensive homes require buyers with a large amount of cash.

[nikitakolata]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

As a Gen X homebuyer, this always confounded me as well. We have a higher household income than the medians in the vast majority of high-end Chicago suburbs--even on the North Shore--yet as a family of four with childcare costs and very little home equity due to the real estate crash, we didn't feel we could afford to live in a lot of them. I think that the income numbers are low due to older "boomer" homebuyers getting in to the market decades ago before price run-ups, and also due to low income numbers for retirees. I don't think it bodes well for future housing prices in these areas, as a lot of very well-off younger homebuyers will be needed to replace the boomers in $800k+ houses. The old "trade up" mentality is dead in our era of flat or negative appreciation, so these expensive homes require buyers with a large amount of cash.

Yeah, I think the inflated real estate prices really screwed a lot of us. Looking at the averages, my husband and I should be able to live in Kenilworth easily since our income is over the median income there. In reality, the houses were way too expensive and we just didn't want to be that stretched. If we had kids (and daycare costs), forget it.

So, OP, if I were in your shoes and had your income, I'd be looking at towns like Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst, Downers Grove, Arlington Heights and maybe Glenview. With $200k I think Hinsdale and Wilmette/Winnetka are not worth the stretch, personally. The north shore is beautiful, but your housing dollar will not go far there and, frankly, shopping there was a little depressing for me. There are so many other towns with great schools that you can consider.

Also, FWIW, there are a ton of kids around the ages of your kids in my neighborhood (Elmhurst). My husband and I are the oddballs since we don't have kids and, obviously when we do they will be quite a bit younger. I'm assuming there are babies on our block too, but I don't see them now and have no connection to any of the "mom" activities that I assume are happening.

[holl1ngsworth]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

As a Gen X homebuyer, this always confounded me as well. We have a higher household income than the medians in the vast majority of high-end Chicago suburbs--even on the North Shore--yet as a family of four with childcare costs and very little home equity due to the real estate crash, we didn't feel we could afford to live in a lot of them. I think that the income numbers are low due to older "boomer" homebuyers getting in to the market decades ago before price run-ups, and also due to low income numbers for retirees. I don't think it bodes well for future housing prices in these areas, as a lot of very well-off younger homebuyers will be needed to replace the boomers in $800k+ houses. The old "trade up" mentality is dead in our era of flat or negative appreciation, so these expensive homes require buyers with a large amount of cash.

Do You Make $400,000 a Year But Feel Broke?

[holl1ngsworth]

Originally Posted by nikitakolata

Yeah, I think the inflated real estate prices really screwed a lot of us. Looking at the averages, my husband and I should be able to live in Kenilworth easily since our income is over the median income there. In reality, the houses were way too expensive and we just didn't want to be that stretched. If we had kids (and daycare costs), forget it.

So, OP, if I were in your shoes and had your income, I'd be looking at towns like Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst, Downers Grove, Arlington Heights and maybe Glenview. With $200k I think Hinsdale and Wilmette/Winnetka are not worth the stretch, personally. The north shore is beautiful, but your housing dollar will not go far there and, frankly, shopping there was a little depressing for me. There are so many other towns with great schools that you can consider.

Also, FWIW, there are a ton of kids around the ages of your kids in my neighborhood (Elmhurst). My husband and I are the oddballs since we don't have kids and, obviously when we do they will be quite a bit younger. I'm assuming there are babies on our block too, but I don't see them now and have no connection to any of the "mom" activities that I assume are happening.

I would throw Wheaton on this list. If one were to create a scatter plot of median incomes and median home prices, Wheaton would probably have the most favorable plot. The highest-income neighborhoods in Wheaton earn more than those in Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn, Downers Grove, Arlington Heights and others, yet real estate in Wheaton trades at a healthy discount to those same areas.

[nikitakolata]

Originally Posted by holl1ngsworth

I would throw Wheaton on this list. If one were to create a scatter plot of median incomes and median home prices, Wheaton would probably have the most favorable plot. The highest-income neighborhoods in Wheaton earn more than those in Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn, Downers Grove, Arlington Heights and others, yet real estate in Wheaton trades at a healthy discount to those same areas.

Wheaton is great. For me, that is when the train ride really starts to feel long, so it's too far from downtown for me personally, which is probably why I often forget about it.