East St. Charles - Hunt Club (Hinsdale, Wayne: mortgage, loans, real estate)

[MayMove]

Friend of mine is looking for a home in St. Charles. Hearing East of the river for schools and commute is the place to be. There is much for sale in Hunt club. This location is close to 64 and the mall. Is there an issue with crime and traffic? Understating there is so much on the market everywhere. When you see a bunch in one location the flag goes up. Same goes for Kingswood she tells me.

Is there another location East that would have nice wooded home sites? Or an area on the other side using East HS.
Thanks

[Steve-o]

Hunt Club should not have any issues with crime at all, its a very nice neighborhood, just north of Rt. 64 and east of Tyler Road. Traffic isnt horrible either, you can shoot south to Rt. 64 where traffic is a little high, but never horrible except during rush hour. Or you can head east to Dunham Road where traffic is fine, or west to Rt. 25 where traffic is also nice.

[gardener34]

There are no bad subdivisions or neighborhood in st. charles that I have heard of. They will love it there, lots of homes, just means there is just lots of inventory backed up now because of our mortgage crisis... they aren't giving out loans like lollipops anymore.

Good tips on the traffic from steve-o.

[gardener34]

oh yeah, you asked about wooded lots, forgot to mention my personal mission to warn buyers about unincorporated areas of kane county (st charles twnp) unless you check the zoning very carefully. Many are still zoned farm even though it is a subdivision and looks like a regular subdivision (unincorporated - zoned F does not necessarily mean well and septic). But you will be treated as a farm... pros and cons to that. If you go unincorporated check the county codes with the zoning dept., to see how the zoning may affect your particular parcel.

[Drover]

Plenty of wooded lots in Valley View... as long as you don't mind hillbillies as neighbors. That place has the strangest combination of money and mullets living side-by-side that I have ever seen.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Drover

Plenty of wooded lots in Valley View... as long as you don't mind hillbillies as neighbors. That place has the strangest combination of money and mullets living side-by-side that I have ever seen.

LMBO

You aint lyin! Id reckon its one of the only areas in IL (er, maybe the USA too) where you can look at one side of the street and it could pass for some areas of Hinsdale, then turn around and look at the other side of the street and swear you were transported deep into the heart of good-old-boy Alabama.

[gardener34]

Hey - watch the comments I live there. I know what you mean about the dichotomy though.

Our house is worth approx $500,000 per the county assessment. It is ON the river, and we bought it for $89,000 in 1992 and put additions on.

The st. charles townies have a big attitude towards the area - they are so sheltered, I bet most of them have never seen a real bad area (city)... where we moved from!

Thus the reason I say I am from st. charles township - actually "valley view" was it's own town that went bankrupt in 81... so it technically no longer exists. The correct term is "st. charles township, valley view subdivision". It is a subdivision. If you say you live in vv, people think you are a redneck with no teeth. It has st. charles school district and park districts. Also the new development 'saddle ridge" with $5000K+ homes in it borders on route 25. That is in st. charles township. Wayne is directly across 25 to the east and Wayne now has a border agreement along the route 25 corridor there.

The deal is most of the little houses were originally cottages from the 30s. People started living in them when they moved up from down south for jobs... these things were never meant to be lived in, thus they have lots of goofy little additions. the majority of these smaller ones are being torn down now and/or are getting condemned! If not they are rental homes. There are about 3-4 landlords that own like a dozen houses each they rent. Some have problem renters, most do not.

There was a lot of vacant wooded land all in there that was owned by the forest preserve. It took an act of congress to allow that land to go back into private hands. Now the lots are being built on, especially around the "hideaway" restaurant and they are really really nice homes. I even saw one real estate ad mention "HOT" valley view!

The biggest deal is that whole area of old subdivisions up and along the river are all zoned farm. Even the expensive "farmington on the fox" along route 31 is zoned farm. Which means the county says you are a farm, not in a regular subdivision. Which means your neighbor can get a pig or a rooster and can site it 100 feet from your residence and it is all perfectly legal and there is nothing much you can do about it.

So watch your zoning all up and down those older subdivisions on the river to see how the farm zoning will affect you. remember: anything goes in the F zoning. You get the cons of F zoning but none of the pros... really goofy, depending on the size and shape of your parcel.

[MayMove]

Have not cheked in for a few days. We did a drive through with our friends. I loved Royal Fox myself! Hummm, wonder if it's a good time to move myself?
:-). Thank you for the tips. Find the Zoing F very interesting. Will pass this info on.