Experiences, advice, input - Highland Park, Deerfield (Chicago, Park Ridge: sales, real estate)

[camj10]

My family is relocating to the Chicago area in the Spring and we are focusing our search on Highland Park, Park Ridge and a couple of other areas. My husband's job is in the Vernon Hills, Lincolnshire area. I would like to stay within a reasonable commute of the city, but hope to find a job further north. We have elementary school age kids.

We got some helpful information last month when we first posted about our relocation, but now that we are focusing our search, would really appreciate any specific advice about neighborhoods and areas of Highland Park or Deerfield or experiences with the area. We would like to be a in friendly neighborhood, with sidewalks, pretty trees, but not an estate type area.

Also, we have been trying to follow decisions on school boundaries as related to Highland Park, but it seems in flux, making real estate decisions difficult.

Thanks!

[damba]

Originally Posted by camj10

My family is relocating to the Chicago area in the Spring and we are focusing our search on Highland Park, Park Ridge and a couple of other areas. My husband's job is in the Vernon Hills, Lincolnshire area. I would like to stay within a reasonable commute of the city, but hope to find a job further north. We have elementary school age kids.

We got some helpful information last month when we first posted about our relocation, but now that we are focusing our search, would really appreciate any specific advice about neighborhoods and areas of Highland Park or Deerfield or experiences with the area. We would like to be a in friendly neighborhood, with sidewalks, pretty trees, but not an estate type area.

Also, we have been trying to follow decisions on school boundaries as related to Highland Park, but it seems in flux, making real estate decisions difficult.

Thanks!

DF and HP are both great choices- I have lived there since 2001. Schools are great, even with some of the re-org going on in HP at the elementary and middle school level. Lots of positive involvement by parents in the various schools. Plenty of green space and Easy access to nearby shopping/amenities w/ two separate metra lines into city. Highwood (by HP) has a convenient dining ‘scene’.

A bit harder to nail down what constitutes a ‘friendly neighborhood’ though. To me at least, you often get out of it based on the effort you put into it . Block by block the ages of both kids and parents will vary. My old neighborhood in HP apparently turned over the year we moved to DF, with tons of younger families relocating there. My current ‘hood is just starting to see more sales to families with young kids. Even though we are some of the ‘younger’ ones on the block, the neighbors in their 50s & 60s are very friendly.

I suggest looking in neighborhoods walking distance to downtown DF, feeding into Walden and Kipling schools.
HP arguably has more variety of areas to explore. Besides downtown HP, I really like the neighborhood by Sunset Woods Park.

No idea what your budget is- knowing that could possibly help you discover a house a realtor glances over, etc.

[camj10]

Thank you for the information and specific neighborhood suggestions. Our current neighborhood has a mix of families with younger or older kids, retirees and couples without kids (and some singles thrown in the mix too). It's great for our kids that there are kids their age on our street, but it's some of our neighbors without kids that we have come to personally enjoy. So to your point, friendly to me is not specific to families with young kids. Even so, we would prefer an area that is likely to have a family or two with elementary kids on the same street or block, at least ideally.

If you are able to send me a message, I would be interested to know why you ended up moving to Deerfield from Highland Park?

[damba]

Originally Posted by camj10

Thank you for the information and specific neighborhood suggestions. Our current neighborhood has a mix of families with younger or older kids, retirees and couples without kids (and some singles thrown in the mix too). It's great for our kids that there are kids their age on our street, but it's some of our neighbors without kids that we have come to personally enjoy. So to your point, friendly to me is not specific to families with young kids. Even so, we would prefer an area that is likely to have a family or two with elementary kids on the same street or block, at least ideally.

If you are able to send me a message, I would be interested to know why you ended up moving to Deerfield from Highland Park?

I sent you a PM....