Buyers, please come to Wheaton! (Chicago, Naperville: relocation, real estate, for sale)

[chet everett]

Large homeless population? Get real.

More people like the "pop" of a bigger house way out in the south of Naperville, the downtowns don't factor for those kind of buyers...

[355express]

Compared to other towns near Wheaton there is a bigger homeless population with the multiple shelter options and county run halfway houses in town. The PADS is very convinently located to the train station and that brings homeless right into the center of town.

[chet everett]

Puhlease -- PADS serves folks in a variety of towns including Naperville: interim_housing_schedule

Take your misinformation elsewhere.

[355express]

What part of my post did I misinform you? The shelter IS in downtown Wheaton, there ARE multiple halfway houses, and in my opinion (I should have made that clear) there are alot of homeless in Wheaton compared to other towns!

[fairmarketvalue]

Hi 355express,

Thanks for the opinios on Wheaton and Naperville. I have to disagree and tell you that Downtown Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst, ect., etc., are quite charming and up and coming, with alot of the downtowns already there. All our feedback, when we were passed for Naperville, was because they got a little bit nicernewer house. Most all went on to say they realized why Wheaton was more expensive but decided the fanciest house was most important. Not once were we told it was because they picked the "town" of Naperville or liked the "town" better. It was always all about the house and the upgrades that made them more luxurious, even if smaller, in some cases. ALL of the prospective buyers bought in the "unincorporated" areas of South Naperville, which is really Aurora, Plainfield, and Bolingbrook. This is not even close to downtown Naperville and where these homes are located, they are no more part of the community than we are from Wheaton.

As for restaurants and bars- we frequent many, drink alcohol at all of them and believe me, quite social in the "party atmosphere", but obviously not as much as downtown Naperville. But then again, remember, most people there are visiting and dining and bar hoping from other towns and Wheaton gets this too. Glen Ellyn has an italian restaurnt that people travel from the city to dine at. While Wheaton has always had the reputation of being a conservitive town, it has much more nonconservitive "folk" than you realize. Our 40 something group of friends have quite a good time, in Wheaton, and elsewhere.

As for the housing market, right now, the buyers are not looking "outside the box" like they used to. They only look at the house, literally, and what kind of deal they can get and how much they can get for their buck. I do not fault them for this, but it's a shame that for now, at least, the understanding of why some suburbs drive higher prices than others, is really not something buyers in our price range seem to be acting responsibly about lately. But once in a while, they are still out there. South Naperville, Aurora, and Plainfield have a high % of foreclosures and also tax foreclosures because these are the homes that many bought with the subprime loans with little or no down. People got caught up in finding their "dream home" and didn't care where it was located. Towns like Wheaton and similar will always hold their values and is why the "tear down" approach is taking off in this town. People want to stay and have a bigger home. Instead of going to the other burbs I speak of, where they could that bigger home for less money, choose not to for a reason.

I started this thread to see if there was anyone out there who understood this and if so, to invite them to start looking at home values and other community based facts that make some stand out more than others. Surely they still exist.

Thanks

[fairmarketvalue]

Originally Posted by 355express

What part of my post did I misinform you? The shelter IS in downtown Wheaton, there ARE multiple halfway houses, and in my opinion (I should have made that clear) there are alot of homeless in Wheaton compared to other towns!

You are VERY misinformed on this one. We have lived in Wheaton for 17 years, on our 4th home, and I can count on one hand the amount of "homeless" people I have seen roaming the community. Wheaotn is a charitible town who serves the homeless through our many churches and organizations like PADS. This is why we DON'T have homeless problems in our town. Our insurance rates are lower than many communities, including Naperville and certainly this is based on crime rate and other factors. What you say about Wheaton is completely false, on this particular subject. Ther are NO 1/2 way houses, just churches who, one night a week, provide a warm/cool place to get a good nights sleep, eat a decent meal, and move on. They are EVERYWHERE, in EVERY town and Naperville, if anything, apprears more like the city, with the homeless on the sidewalk, roaming the streets, etc..

You might try being a little more charitible yourself and help at one of these types of temporary shelters Wheaton has. What a ridiculous thing to say, really! You paint a opposite picture of what Wheaton is like. It's about as "Norman Rockwell" as you can get, in the midwest!

[355express]

You can count the homeless on one hand? Try going to your train station or your new library, if that does not convince you take a walk off the path at Lincoln marsh or go to the wooded area behind the north main jewel to see the homeless camps, if they aren't there their empty vodka bottles will be, or go to the northwest corner of Wheaton center parking garage between the garage and the tracks just 25 feet east of the prairie path and you will find another camp. My question to the good people of Wheaton is what came first the homeless shelters or the homeless? As far as the halfway houses are concerned you will have to contact the county of Dupage to find the locations of them since I don't feel like doing that for you. As a 17 year resident I am surprised you can count on one hand the homeless population in your town,you need to open your eyes. As far as me helping out, just maybe I already do!?

[fairmarketvalue]

I do go to the train station, but not too often. And yes, I have seen homeless as with ANY train station in ANY suburb. The library, I have never seen one, I guess we go at a time of day they are not present. As for the wooded areas behind Jewel as "camps" or off the prarie path, I really have never been in the woods behind Jewel, nor do I plan to. And again, I can wager that if you searched ANY back ally or woods of ANY suburb, you would find homeless there too. So what exactly is your point?

I started this Thread on seeking advice for the real estate market and in all of the 17 years we HAVE lived here, not ONCE did I ever hear of Wheaton being a troubled town full of homeless. I am quite sure the real estate market and the multitude of over million $ homes would not be being built if it were anything you describe it as.

Start your own thread and get off of this one as I do not appreciate you giving false information about a fantastic suburb. And remember, this was you stating that people were picking Naperville, not Wheaton, because of this and other issues. Please, you need to look around as well, as you are clearly focusing on what most of us clearly do not see and I am sure if it existed as the "problem" you seem to think it is, we would be publicized as being a suburb of negetive demographics, not positive ones as they are! I'm just curious, if you have checked the backs of stores and woods of Wheaton, have you done this in other burbs? The prarie path is a wonderful, wonderful trail that we feel so lucky to have and yet you take this thread and exploit that too, making it sound like it is a safehaven for the homeless and their camps and unsafe for the rest of us.

I still stand strong on the opinion that Wheaton is a great place to live, and whether I need to "open my eyes" or not, I choose to see it for what it is, literally. Beautiful homes, great, award winning schools, a tight knit community, and a clean, safe, beautiful town.

[355express]

I stated a few factors in post #9 about Wheaton/Naperville, somebody named Chet Everett pulled the homeless comment out and made issue of it, then you also did. I was simply defending my homeless in Wheaton comments because of that. Want me to talk about the good things about Wheaton then just ask! I can go on and on. Again good luck in this tough market and with your fifth Wheaton home (I can only assume since it seems you love Wheaton so much) Remember PRICE and CONDITION.

[fairmarketvalue]

you are correct, as I read post # 9 again, and although he pulled out that comment, it was still wrong and uncalled for. He also made excellent points in the post you replied to. I corrected your other comments in post #15, and becasue you also stated in post#9 that the homless is what might "turn people off" and that they were picking a "better town" in Naperville. Post #11 summerized that much better than I obviously did. While you are entitled to your opinion, as we all are, painting Wheaton the way you did, is an unfair and inaccurate advertisement to potential buyers, especially ones from outside Illinois, looking to transfer to a nice suburb in the Chicago are. Your opinions about the homeless were exagerated and "picked out" to suggest only Wheaton had ANY of these problems and it just isn't so. As I mentioned in my last post, ALL communities, ALL downtowns where served by public transprotation, ALL areas where they can "hide" in woods or otherwise, ALL are going to have homeless, whether we see them, or not. I corrected you, in the beginning, by stating that people were not picking the town of Naperville over Wheaton or any other burb, but they were picking the bigger, further away house itself and not weighing ANY other factors like the ones I have mentioned several times.

I hope this clarifies what I was trying to say. Scope out the naperville downtown homeless population (I did, at least where 1/2way houses or shelters were concerned) and then post those stats, would you? They are multiplied by many to the examples you gave for Wheaton. The riverwalk alone, has "camps" all over the place. And those vodka bottles, who's to say they are not form the college students(North central is right downtown) or other Party Goers, in the town of Naperville? See my point yet?