Working in Hoffman Estates - where to live?

[irenegillespie]

Thank you everyone for your ideas and help! I was thrilled to find this site!! Do you think I can get a newer home in Barrington? I was looking on realtor.com and it seems like most homes are older. I love the OLD OLD houses but not the ones built in the 60's and 70's. What do you all think of Palatine??

Thank you!!

[nanannie]

Originally Posted by irenegillespie

Thank you everyone for your ideas and help! I was thrilled to find this site!! Do you think I can get a newer home in Barrington? I was looking on realtor.com and it seems like most homes are older. I love the OLD OLD houses but not the ones built in the 60's and 70's. What do you all think of Palatine??

Thank you!!

Most of Palatine is very nice. They have a cute downtown, nice restaruants,schools, and also that metra to the city. HOWEVER, that being said, there are areas of section 8 housing I would avoid -around rt 12 (which is also called Rand rd) rt 53. Maybe someone else knows the others. I would tell your realtor you want newer, let them help you. Thats there job

[irenegillespie]

From what I have researched online, I really like Geneva. It is very comparable to where we live in PA. Do you think the commute to Hoffman Estates would be horrid? Hubby commutes an hour now and doesn't mind that -great if it could be closer - definitely doesn't want farther!

[irenegillespie]

On another note, does anyone know if most school systems have full or half day Kindergarten?

Thanks!

[nanannie]

Mapquest your husbands office/work to Geneva, it wouldnt be fun to commute,think of winter. Its a very nice town as well. Have you visited yet? Only you will know which town is 'home' for you. I know Barrington has 1/2 day kind. My son went to Montessori and that had 1/2 day but also a full day option.

[Drover]

The commute from Geneva to Hoffman during normal commute hours could be anywhere from 35 minutes to an hour depending on where in Geneva and Hoffman your start and end points are, the worst-case scenario being a commute from the far southwest corner of Geneva to the far northeast corner of Hoffman. Living on the east side of Geneva versus the west side would make a big difference because then you wouldn't have to fight all the traffic trying to cross the river. The main issue with such a commute is that it's all on surface streets with stoplights and all; there's no "limited-access" highway you can use to get from one to the other unless you go kind of out of your way to use one.

[chet everett]

I think Drover is dead-on about the surface streets being a huge negative, but I think the estimates are way way low on the commute time. I have traveled from Geneva to Wheaton many many times and I rarely do that much simpler trip in 35 minutes. Each light means you are stopped. You speed at the light is zero mph. If you get stuck at a light for two cycles or more that REALLY destroys your average speed...

Honestly in-town Barrington is very similar to in-town Geneva. Much nicer commute.

Driving down through north DuPage can be very very slow going...

[Drover]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I think Drover is dead-on about the surface streets being a huge negative, but I think the estimates are way way low on the commute time....

Well, my estimates are based on my wife's former commute from the Geneva/St. Charles border on the west side of the river (we used to live up by the new Binny's where Frank's Nursery and Crafts used to be) to Schaumburg. Her commute was 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic, and her commute took her a ways beyond Hoffman; she actually got on I-90 in Hoffman to get to Schaumburg, and by that point she would be about 25 to 40 minutes into her commute.