Relocating questions: commute, taxes, $ west vs nw (Chicago, Naperville: best town, foreclosure)

[fishandram]

I did research the threads and a lot of my questions were answered, but I still have a couple.

My husband just accepted an offer in Hoffman Estates; we live in the Cleveland area. We have two kids 9 and 6, so public schools are very important. I'd rather buy the smallest house in the area then upgrade in a couple of years w/o moving the kids out of their schools.

We're also trying to find an area that is commutable to HE (my husband doesn't mind a 45min commute) and to downtown--as in the train. (He's in an industry where people move around a bit). And we're the types to take the train on Sat. w/ the kids to museums and downtown events.

We're looking at about $300-325K. My short list includes: Geneva, Naperville, Wheaton....northwest: Arlington Heights, Palatine. Quite honestly though, it seems (internet search so far) that our $ goes further in the western burbs. What have I missed? One more question, do any Chicagoland burbs have community pools. Haven't seen any yet. Just curious.

Taxes--I was an advertising major, so bear with me. How do I estimate my taxes when they give a tax rat of 5.7 for example?

The offer came last week while we were on vacation, he starts 4/21 (commuting until we sell our house), need to put our house on the market...needless to say, my head is spinning. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[chet everett]

I like part of your strategy: Buy small in the BEST TOWN you can afford. That generally works REALLY WELL, much smarter than buying big in a crummy town or hitting the middle of a middling town.

The tough thing is your price range. Sticker shock , my friend, sticker shock. I can just about guarantee that the stuff you find online in Geneva, Naperville, or Wheaton $300-325 is going to need A LOT of work. A ton of people in those towns have paid more than that to TEAR DOWN a house and start over (which is not a bad strategy if you can handle it...)

The other thing that is a absolute KILLER for you is the desire to have a decent commute to HE and downtown. HE is quite a ways out there. If hubby works close to the AT&T campus I'm sure it looks on maps.google.com that he could get to Wheaton in like 45 mins on Rt 59 & 64 but there is no way that is going to be less than a hour most rush hours. Naperville might be 30 minutes further, Geneva about the same.

Frankly I am pretty sure that even if you look CLOSER to HE you are not going to find a great commute situation. If you look at Barrington, which on paper is MUCH closer to HE there has been a conscious effort to limit roadbuilding. Too much traffic gets funneled up Rt 59 -- that takes about 30 minutes too.

I know that Barrington has OK train service, it is probably a bit quicker from Wheaton, but in the same range.

I know that Wheaton has pool/water park -- I've been there, the one is pretty far south in town, apparently there is one on the north end too: Aquatic Facilities-Hours & Locations-Wheaton Park District
Barrington has a site too: Barrington Park District - Barrinton, Illinois (http://www.barringtonparkdistrict.org/html/aqualusion/ - broken link)

Again, I have no idea how much you can really buy for <$325k (maybe a foreclosure??), but it won't be much. OTOH I can tell you that Barrington is much more desirable than any of the other NW towns you mentioned -- it is surrounded by ultra expensive Barrington Hills and South Barrington where the prices are truly out of sight. I would probably advise you to put the full court press on Wheaton & Barrington -- be careful to make sure that the houses you consider are in the most desirable districts/attendance areas. If you do decide you can afford to move-up/add on you want to be sure that moving is not needed. The online Illinois School Report cards are your friend here, as they list all the vital info.

Good Luck!

OH. Taxes. Hang on. Basically the tax rate is a nightmare. Every little district/subdistrict gets it own line on tax bills in Illinois. The "rate per hunderd" is all over the place. There are equalization factors and homeowners exemptions. The important thing to know is that most homes end up having a tax amount of about 2-3% of the market value. For $300K you better budget about $6-8K annually. You pay half twice a year, or you could have you lender will escrow some every month. Welcome to Illinois.

[sgresident]

Since Hoffman Estates is more to the North, I don't think you would want to choose wheaton or naperville for your location. could be a lengthy commute. you might want to choose something in the bartlett, streamwood area. As far as community pools, Naperville, Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles all have pools. Bartlett has a great community park district building. my kids have played basketball there. it is fabulous, with an indoor wave pool.

[fishandram]

I've done a search and found only a little on Cary or Crystal Lake.

I know what GreatSchools.net says about the schools, but what's reputation on the street??

What kind of commute could my husband expect from Hoffman Estates (W Higgins right on S Barrington Rd exit)?

Is there any sort of downtown? Family/kid friendly?

Thanks for any input!!
>Michelle

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by sgresident

Since Hoffman Estates is more to the North, I don't think you would want to choose wheaton or naperville for your location. could be a lengthy commute. you might want to choose something in the bartlett, streamwood area. As far as community pools, Naperville, Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles all have pools. Bartlett has a great community park district building. my kids have played basketball there. it is fabulous, with an indoor wave pool.

I believe St. Charles has 2 pools, one at the Norris Center and one off of Peck between 64 and 38. West Chicago also has a pretty nice pool, complete with waterslides and kiddie area. Bartlett's pool is very nice, I agree.

[chet everett]

Crystal Lake and Cary are both pretty far out there. The both have a kind of odd "farm town meets highway" feel to what should be their central downtowns. If you look at Wheaton or Barrington you are going to have a much more "traditional" feeling downtown. Personally I don't like the way that retail strip centers dominate what should be the traditional core of towns.

I am not real sure what "kid friendly" means, but it is a area that is growing/changing and I'm sure there a lot of families that live there with kids. In decades past the high schools had a real 4-H flavor to them. When kids would play the more suburban schools in play offs you really felt like you where in a different sort of state, where FARMING was king not office workers. That is pretty well past.

The commute time/distance from Cary and Crystal Lake is not real pleasant, there is a lack of highway capacity with ton stoplishgt on NW Highway (really just a big state road(not an expressway at all) and they are constrained by bridges at the Fox River too. It is in McHenry County which is generally rippling from rural to suburban, could have issues for future tax increases.

As you may have picked up, it is my preference to seek out houses that are a little smaller/older in more established/desirable towns. Tend to have a lot more more consistent development and better stability.

[gardener34]

We know many people who work in hoffman estates. Most live in H.E., schaumburg, (these would be closest), Bartlett, Arlington Heights, and Crystal lake (farther commute - but the houses are cheaper and there are new developments if you want new housing).

From personal exp. the commute from St. Charles - the northernmost of the far western burbs for you, is around 45 minutes. Hour if you have weather or a traffic snafu. In the mornings it is a little lighter.

You can get a little more for your money in St. Charles. The building stock is very diverse, from small inexpensive ranches to millions of dollar homes. Something for everyone. Which is why we like it.

And yes, most town park districts have public pools and park district activities and facilities. Depends on the town. I know schaumburg has a nice one.

[dsv1496]

Not on your shortlist, but maybe look into Lombard. It's just east of Wheaton and has two very good school districts, some houses in your range, a community pool at Grace & St. Charles Roads. The drive to HE would be easy as well heading up 355 to 290.

They also have a metro stop that will take you to downtown. It's a nice little downtown, and it seems a lot of folks are doing the tear-down and rebuild home method. Which gives it a good mixed feel of working class and better off families.

[SPTLSS1]

Check out Schaumburg.

Great schools and a wonderful park district with tons of kids progams. The west part of Schaumburg is less $ than the east part but again it's not cheap... but nowhere in the decent Chicagoland suburbs are.

[cdc3217]

Crystal Lake would definitely be more in your price range - there is an older downtown area where there are older traditional homes and you can walk to the train, but most of the town is pretty spread out amd subdivion-y. I believe the train into the city is like 75 minutes, though.

One concern I have is that I hear there's a lot of home movement in the area, and there is a lot of new development in the area and I think homes are going to have a hard time holding their value.

One of the things that I like when I visit Crystal Lake is that it does seem to have a lot for families. The park district is supposed to be good, there's a lot of private gymnastics - indoor rock climbing -kid activity type stuff as well. My secondhand impression is that the schools are solid but not top tier. Its in McHenry County and the McHenry County Conservation District has some really nice programs.

Another suggestion in terms of researching suburbs that are family friendly is to go online to ChicagoParent.com - The top resource for parents and kids in the Chicago area This is the free local monthly rag with all the family fun resources and articles.

Good luck with your search!