Rating DuPage County Suburbs. Anyone agree with this? (Naperville: apartments, condo)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Tier 1: Oakbrook Terrace, Oakbrook area. Very wealthy, with homes very expensive
Tier 2: Areas like Hinsdale and Burr Ridge. Quiet, wealthy areas that homes are quite expensive but not super expensive to live in. Also put Naperville, and really, most areas near Hunsdale
Tier 3: Your run-of-the-mill DuPage areas. Still middle-class, and with good schools. Areas like Westmont, Lombard, Darien, Downers Grove, and Lemont come to mind. A lot of places past the Hinsdale Oasis, on 355 belong here.
Tier 4: These are the more working class areas of the county. I’d put the areas near O’Hare here, due to lower property values from all of the airport noise. Average when it comes to America, but bottom-tier when it comes to DuPage. Crime is low (we’re still talking about DuPage), and schools are fine; not great, not terrible. Addison, Bensenville, and Villa Park come to mind.
Oak Brook is a nice enough town and it does have many costly homes on large lots. What makes it hard to say it is really "top tier" is that it is split between about four school districts -- the most desirable is probably Butler D53 which feeds into D86 (Hinsdale Central) because of the very good student:teacher ratio, excellent resources, and stunningly low taxes. Other parts of Oak Brook are also nice but as no part of town is really close to rail transit that makes a negative for large percentage of commuters. In contrast "Oakbrook Terrace" is served by the lackluster Salt Creek and Willowbrook schools. It has all the negatives of traffic from the mall too -- traffic, noise, etc. No rail transit, no real "center of town at all". It is NOT desirable to most home buyers. In fact there have been several efforts to literally buy up the whole town and let it all get redeveloped.
Burr Ridge is similarly hamstrung by being split into a few different school districts / attendance areas. Again the most desirable is D181 which is generally associated with Clarendon Hills and Hinsdale, those elementary / middle schools feed into D86's Hinsdale Central. Other parts of Burr Ridge are served by schools that are nearly as desirable at the elementary / middle school level, as well as by the D86's Hinsdale South which may actually be a better bet for many families as it is smaller, tends to have greater percentage of kids do better on things like AP Physics due to preferable "physics 1st" sequence. There is a weird divide between where in Burr Ridge the school dividing lines and the cross over the Cook / DuPage board so it is rather challenging to discern where the most family friendly areas. Burr Ridge has suffered from some ill defined zoning too, with little pockets of relatively low quality townhomes and condos scattered amongst rather nice areas. In trying to be "friendly to developers" they really have some yucky subdivisions. Other parts of Burr Ridge feed into the mostly desirable Lyons Township, but it involves some lengthy bus rides for kids in the far corners of town and perhaps explains why those areas tend to have a dearth of families with school aged kids. Worse not only does Burr Ridge have no rail access and a oddly money losing "mixed use development" https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...hopping-center but there are huge concerns with exposure to EtO gas from the Sterigenics site. If that is not bad enough there is a controversial "acting Mayor" that seems to have ties to the landlord of the Sterigenics firm. The lifestyle choices of the poltician seems very much out of sync with the somewhat elderly mix of residents -- https://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...228-story.html
Larger towns, especially Downers Grove and Naperville, show distinct patterns of much higher costs for the homes nearest the desirable core, with better access to commuter rail and other amenities.
The farther out parts of those towns compete more with towns like Darien.
Westmont is making big gains in the quality of its schools and very likely will be the "hot spot" for gains in value.
Lemont is not really in DuPage at all. Though it does have rail service it is not as reliable as that of the BNSF.
Lombard is bit like Downers Grove, with a much smaller pocket of vintage charmers that are desirable nearer the core of town and the UP-W line.
The safer bets along the UP-W line include Elmhurst which was once THE premier destination in DuPage Co after WWII, attracting a core of very powerful residents that built up the political base to the point where it could actually wield power in Springfield against the Chicago Machine -- amazing stories https://www2.illinois.gov/alplm/libr...anielsLee.aspx Unfortunately a massive "brain drain" as school consolidation saw huge cutbacks dropped Elmhurst down from the top tier in the 80s. A very successful series of focused referenda have helped put it very high on the list of home shoppers.
For folks willing to look just a bit further west the current County Seat, Wheaton is an increasingly solid choice. In some ways it is a almost "joined" to Glen Ellyn, though prices in the hottest parts of GE are kind of astronomical -- https://www.mysuburbanlife.com/2018/...esses/akn1vn0/
There are far more homes in close proximity to the THREE Hinsdale rail stops than any of the other towns mentioned. Many of the highly desirable homes have architectural significance and/or vintage charm. Coupled with the very well defined rail-centric downtown core with many interesting restaurants, independently owned boutiques and stellar new middle school it is far and away the most desirable destination on the BNSF. In some ways adjacent Clarendon Hills is a less known and nearly as desirable destination, though it is much smaller and has some sub-neighborhoods that are not served by D181 but other school districts. The actual percentage of homes in Cook Co is under 20%.
Oak Brook is a nice enough town and it does have many costly homes on large lots. What makes it hard to say it is really "top tier" is that it is split between about four school districts -- the most desirable is probably Butler D53 which feeds into D86 (Hinsdale Central) because of the very good student:teacher ratio, excellent resources, and stunningly low taxes. Other parts of Oak Brook are also nice but as no part of town is really close to rail transit that makes a negative for large percentage of commuters. In contrast "Oakbrook Terrace" is served by the lackluster Salt Creek and Willowbrook schools. It has all the negatives of traffic from the mall too -- traffic, noise, etc. No rail transit, no real "center of town at all". It is NOT desirable to most home buyers. In fact there have been several efforts to literally buy up the whole town and let it all get redeveloped.
Burr Ridge is similarly hamstrung by being split into a few different school districts / attendance areas. Again the most desirable is D181 which is generally associated with Clarendon Hills and Hinsdale, those elementary / middle schools feed into D86's Hinsdale Central. Other parts of Burr Ridge are served by schools that are nearly as desirable at the elementary / middle school level, as well as by the D86's Hinsdale South which may actually be a better bet for many families as it is smaller, tends to have greater percentage of kids do better on things like AP Physics due to preferable "physics 1st" sequence. There is a weird divide between where in Burr Ridge the school dividing lines and the cross over the Cook / DuPage board so it is rather challenging to discern where the most family friendly areas. Burr Ridge has suffered from some ill defined zoning too, with little pockets of relatively low quality townhomes and condos scattered amongst rather nice areas. In trying to be "friendly to developers" they really have some yucky subdivisions. Other parts of Burr Ridge feed into the mostly desirable Lyons Township, but it involves some lengthy bus rides for kids in the far corners of town and perhaps explains why those areas tend to have a dearth of families with school aged kids. Worse not only does Burr Ridge have no rail access and a oddly money losing "mixed use development" https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...hopping-center but there are huge concerns with exposure to EtO gas from the Sterigenics site. If that is not bad enough there is a controversial "acting Mayor" that seems to have ties to the landlord of the Sterigenics firm. The lifestyle choices of the poltician seems very much out of sync with the somewhat elderly mix of residents -- https://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...228-story.html
Larger towns, especially Downers Grove and Naperville, show distinct patterns of much higher costs for the homes nearest the desirable core, with better access to commuter rail and other amenities.
The farther out parts of those towns compete more with towns like Darien.
Westmont is making big gains in the quality of its schools and very likely will be the "hot spot" for gains in value.
Lemont is not really in DuPage at all. Though it does have rail service it is not as reliable as that of the BNSF.
Lombard is bit like Downers Grove, with a much smaller pocket of vintage charmers that are desirable nearer the core of town and the UP-W line.
The safer bets along the UP-W line include Elmhurst which was once THE premier destination in DuPage Co after WWII, attracting a core of very powerful residents that built up the political base to the point where it could actually wield power in Springfield against the Chicago Machine -- amazing stories https://www2.illinois.gov/alplm/libr...anielsLee.aspx Unfortunately a massive "brain drain" as school consolidation saw huge cutbacks dropped Elmhurst down from the top tier in the 80s. A very successful series of focused referenda have helped put it very high on the list of home shoppers.
For folks willing to look just a bit further west the current County Seat, Wheaton is an increasingly solid choice. In some ways it is a almost "joined" to Glen Ellyn, though prices in the hottest parts of GE are kind of astronomical -- https://www.mysuburbanlife.com/2018/...esses/akn1vn0/
There are far more homes in close proximity to the THREE Hinsdale rail stops than any of the other towns mentioned. Many of the highly desirable homes have architectural significance and/or vintage charm. Coupled with the very well defined rail-centric downtown core with many interesting restaurants, independently owned boutiques and stellar new middle school it is far and away the most desirable destination on the BNSF. In some ways adjacent Clarendon Hills is a less known and nearly as desirable destination, though it is much smaller and has some sub-neighborhoods that are not served by D181 but other school districts. The actual percentage of homes in Cook Co is under 20%.
There are all kinds of tiers within each suburb, as well, so it's tough to really generalize. What do people in Naperville who live within a short stroll of the downtown, versus someone in the semi-projects off of Bailey/Washington, versus someone in a McMansion off of Rt 59 and 111th, versus someone in an older, 1500 sq foot home north of Ogden have in common, besides their Naperville address? Not a lot, I would say. You could take a house near the 'median' price, I guess, (355k sale, 430ish list) around maybe 87th and Washington or Modaff and Bailey and compare to an $850k Hinsdale home, but it's still just an average and does not capture the spectrum of experince that one might have
There are all kinds of tiers within each suburb, as well, so it's tough to really generalize. What do people in Naperville who live within a short stroll of the downtown, versus someone in the semi-projects off of Bailey/Washington, versus someone in a McMansion off of Rt 59 and 111th, versus someone in an older, 1500 sq foot home north of Ogden have in common, besides their Naperville address? Not a lot, I would say. You could take a house near the 'median' price, I guess, (355k sale, 430ish list) around maybe 87th and Washington or Modaff and Bailey and compare to an $850k Hinsdale home, but it's still just an average and does not capture the spectrum of experince that one might have
Off-topic, but what are the "semi-projects" near Bailey and Washington?
Given that it's Naperville, the average income of those living there is still probably in the range of middle class. It's just probably the most affordable area in the city.
Given that it's Naperville, the average income of those living there is still probably in the range of middle class. It's just probably the most affordable area in the city.
I’m not sure what the first link is showing, just seems like two points on Washington between Gartner and 75th.
I’ve gone on the bike path behind the townhomes at the second link. It never struck me as anything too worrisome.
The other poster stated there are "semi-projects" off Bailey & Washington, and those are the apartments I found along those two streets. I don't live near Naperville, but based off the high cost of living and low poverty rate for a city of its size I very much doubt there are any apartment complexes that could be considered project-ish.
The other poster stated there are "semi-projects" off Bailey & Washington, and those are the apartments I found along those two streets. I don't live near Naperville, but based off the high cost of living and low poverty rate for a city of its size I very much doubt there are any apartment complexes that could be considered project-ish.
I highly doubt there are apartments or condos that can be considered project-ish. I live about 5 minutes from there. That's why I was curious what is being referred to as "projects".
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Um, no.
