Moving to Chicago - Public Schools and easy access to downtown (Oak Park: apartment, rentals)

[sotretus]

Hi All,

I've recently been offered a transfer from my country to Chicago, IL. Since then I've been checking out rents, public schools and what not but I still don't have a clear picture on where it would be nice living.

At first I was going to ask a very simple question, but by reading the forums I realize that you guys have lots of experience and knowledge, so I am going to raise the bar a little.

Here are my "facts:
We are a family of 3, my wife me and a 5-yr-old kid.
I will be working downtown, 100 North Clark (most probably)
I need to be able to go to work by train or subway, a 45'-50' travel is fine with me (less, better)
My kid does not speak english so finding a good public school for non-english students is key to us
We are looking for a 3br house (800-1000 USD rent)
We want a safe place (crime-wise)

What would you recommend? I've been looking to houses near South Green Line and they seem the cheaper ones, but I don't know if the hood is nice or not; I'm also having problems Identifying the best bilingual public schools.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
AB

[oakparkdude]

Do you mean a single family detached house or attached housing (townhouse or condo)? For your price range you'll find it difficult to find a detched house for rent in a desirable or even average neighborhood.

[sotretus]

I don't have any preference, actually. I've been doing some searching and it seems that some are available at that price range. The thing is that it might be because the neighborhood stinks; that's what I'm trying to find out. If it has to be more than that (i.e 1200 or 1300), well so be it.

[cdc3217]

Blue Island might be a good option for you.

It is the first suburb south of CHicago and has a substantial bilingual population at about 127th & Western. Every school has bilingual classrooms at every grade (not sure when they phase out) Also, there is a "dual language" classroom thats starts in kindergarten where native spanish speaking and native english-speaking are taught in both languages side-by-side in one classroom. I have had good experiences with my son, (not bilingual) I think the schools are fair and there is a nice community spirit, although thats partly because there are a lot of extended families that have lived here for several generations. (Now don't assume they're the spanish-speakers that's NOT what I mean.)

Also, you can rent a house for $1000 or less, with a yard and everything! Some neighborhoods feel safer than others, you should visit and judge for yourself. I think the north end of town west of Western is good and near Eisenhower HS is also OK and near a big park. The east side by St. Donatus church is well-kept.

Finally, you have a 25 minute commute on Metra to the south end of the Loop, it would be about a 5-10 walk to your work address.

Crime stats are not the greatest here, but other than a couple garage break-ins, I have not had problems.

The Park District is not very good, but neighboring towns have good programs that we are welcome to participate in.

[chet everett]

Is the native language of your county Spanish? If not I don't know that there are an abundance of suburbs that have a wide array of bilingual offerings, though I suspect some districts do offer course in Polish.

Your 5 year old would probably be entering kindergarten, so that might be less of a factor than if we were talking about an older child.

Your situation is not that different than one that came up from a poster in the UK just a few days ago. In his case his firm had offices in Northfield (a suburban area several town north of the city limits where public transportation is limited). Ultimately he decided that a salary of $55K (which was what the firm would pay him) would have left too strapped to have a comfortable life with his $250K housing budget.

Although only have one child and your desire is to rent, given the very modest sum you wish to spend you too may find that Chicago is too pricey to make sense for a transfer.

In generally most firms that elect to have employees posted overseas tend to send Sr. managers/Jr. Executives at a salary that would be in the range of about $75K US to $100K US. On such a salary it might be reasonable to spend $2500-3000 on rent or a mortgage/taxes/insurance. That would make it more than feasible to have a nice unit in a downtown or Lincoln Park building, or perhaps rent in a desirable like Oak Park, where the schools might be better equipped to deal with a student that is not proficient in English or Spanish...

More info about you situation would help us to guide you.

[sotretus]

Thanks to all for answering. I would have posted earlier but I thought there were no responses since I received no notification mail (should have read the first e-mail more thoroughly ).

We are from Argentina, so we all speak Spanish, and my wife and I speak English.

My salary would be near the 80Ks with a probable 5K bonus (of course, bonus varies ). The thing about spending 1K in a house is because we are not too demanding on housing (I mean on the house itself, not considering the neighborhood, schools, etc) and we want to build up some cash "just in case". We don't want to have zero free cash. But this was just our estimate based on some real state googling. Having said that, and with the expenses I have been considering, I am pretty sure I cannot spend 2K in rent.

I read the post about the UK guy and, personally, I wouldn't move for less than 80K, unless of course there are other things being considered than just living "fine". He was not going to be working in downtown and he wasn't Spanish, so I thought there might be some differences.

I would like my kid, if possible, to go to a "good" school instead of "fair". Or "fair" is ok there?

Again thanks a lot for your responses! moving from such a far-away place is like walking blind at first!

[emmi605]

Almost all school districts in the suburbs have some type of English Language Learner program so you will be serviced. You will probably have to pay a bit more in rent for a quality district. What would be ideal is to find a "dual-language" program where your child will experience Kindergarten or 1st grade (not sure where he/she will begin) in both Spanish and English. That terminology is important so if you are researching schools, look for Language support described in those terms. When a district just says "bilingual" education that can mean many things.

[sotretus]

Wow, Blue Island seems so far away. I can't believe that it takes only 25' to downtown! that's great.
What about the neighborhood around [SIZE=-1]500 E. Bowen, Chicago, IL, (I can't seem to figure out the name, is it Bronzeville?) If it is Bronzeville then I read some posts that it can be dangerous to take the green line which would be a bad thing. Giving my type of job, there will surely be sometimes where I have to leave work late...

Emmi605, thanks for the clarification. I've been saying it all wrong Will check on "dual-language" from now on, thanks.
[/SIZE]

[sotretus]

Sorry for posting multiple times but... There seem to be some pretty nice houses for under 200K. With 6% loans this makes ~2K-2.5K monthly payments (plus annual taxes). Isn't this much better than renting? I mean, I haven't calculated the TCO, but seems much better.

[cdc3217]

Regarding Blue Island schools...

They perform slightly below the state average. The thing is, areas with a lot of low-income or bilingual kids generally have lower test scores than white middle class areas.
Blue Island has a lot of both of these populations. Some smart successful people are really comfortable with the schools and others avoid them at all costs. Its very much a philosophical divide. But Blue Island schools seem to shine in their special programs: their gifted program, their early childhood program, and the dual language program. I have sat in classrooms and/or had children enrolled for all three and would recommend them all.

But due to the test scores and the partial brain drain to area private schools, I can't objectively rate them as better than fair overall. But for your situation, it might be great.

Also, I know I said BI's crime stats were not the best, but that's compared more against other suburbs. I think compared to the city neighborhoods you're looking at, BI would compare favorably.