Montgomery/Oswego/Aurora (Chicago, Naperville, St. Charles: for sale, city hall, crime)

[justgreene]

I am planning to move back to the Chicago area. I am looking at these 3 towns to live: Oswego, Aurora, Montgomery. What can you tell me about these neighborhoods? How are the schools?

I noticed homes are very affordable in Montgomery? Is that a good thing?

Any info is appreciated.

Thank you.

J

[laney28]

Im late to this thread but,

Montgomery is growing almost as fast as Oswego. There are a bunch of new subdivisions up. I wouldnt buy a home in boulder hill per se, but the new areas are nice. THey will soon have a super wal mart and a bunch of other stuff on Orchard road..as well as a new city hall.

Oswego--love it here a lot. Its got a lot of shopping and things coming to it, which is making it "the next naperville" so in a way thats a negative. We dont want to be naperville. Schools are good, crime is low. People are really nice.

Aurora..depends on the part. Part of aurora is VERY bad.

[Kalysa19]

I agree a lot with the previous post. Oswego/Montgomery are probably the fastest growing areas in Illinois and the school system and town appear to be handling it fairly well. Oswego is close to popular areas too like Geneva, Naperville, St. Charles and is probably only around a 50 minute drive to Chicago (longer during rush hour).

As far as Aurora, it definitely depends on where you live.

[Anne from Oswego]

Originally Posted by justgreene

I am planning to move back to the Chicago area. I am looking at these 3 towns to live: Oswego, Aurora, Montgomery. What can you tell me about these neighborhoods? How are the schools?

I noticed homes are very affordable in Montgomery? Is that a good thing?

Any info is appreciated.

Thank you.

J

Don't move to Oswego taxes to high.....They are trying to competent with Naperville but what is funny is Naperville move into Oswego to get away from high taxes now they are trying to move out......

Montgomery is Good town to move to very small town.... Aurora is also high in taxes....

[coming2az]

I agree w/ the high tax in Oswego. The new homes built in Oswego and Village of Montgomery are desirable to many. However I would like to say Boulderhill is not a bad place to live. Boulderhill homes were built more than 30 yrs ago by Caterpllar to sell to their employees at that time. So there are many smaller homes in Boulderhill, roughly 1000 to 1200 sf each. But they usually have larger front and back yard. Many people move here for the lower prices, tax, and larger space. On top of it, BH is still a very safe neighborhood which is wonderful. If you look at Boulder Hill, Illinois - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia you would see this is not a poor area. It just has smaller homes. So BH is ideal for 1st time home owners and retirees. Many young couples buy in BH to build equity. Then they move on to bigger homes in the newer subdivisions.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by coming2az

I agree w/ the high tax in Oswego. The new homes built in Oswego and Village of Montgomery are desirable to many. However I would like to say Boulderhill is not a bad place to live. Boulderhill homes were built more than 30 yrs ago by Caterpllar to sell to their employees at that time. So there are many smaller homes in Boulderhill, roughly 1000 to 1200 sf each. But they usually have larger front and back yard. Many people move here for the lower prices, tax, and larger space. On top of it, BH is still a very safe neighborhood which is wonderful. If you look at Boulder Hill, Illinois - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia you would see this is not a poor area. It just has smaller homes. So BH is ideal for 1st time home owners and retirees. Many young couples buy in BH to build equity. Then they move on to bigger homes in the newer subdivisions.

The slow down in new construction could have some very negative impacts on people's ability to get a new house in a new area and build any significant equity. From a practical matter, even if one uses a conventional mortgage the initial payments are so heavily biases toward interest the "natural" equity is almost non-existent. For folks who may have been lucky to get a boost in equity from rising property prices that is extremely unlikely...

A better strategy is the tried and true success story of finding homes in need of some TLC and then using some elbow grease and sweat to bring it up to the standards of nice established community that it exists in...

Jobs are still centered a pretty good distance from the new home builder communities and high fuel costs are a big concern for folks how might have a long drive.

[kittycat9]

You can probably find a decent deal in one of the newer subdivisions right now. Several homes are up for sale, some for relocating - some for other reasons I'm sure. But this is truly a buyers market. You can probably walk in and name your price on a nearly new, and have access to new schools, new shopping, clubhouse lifestyle living, etc.

The park district is the best here. We take advantage of the programs for our son, and he really enjoys it (also quite affordable). I don't think the taxes are horrible, at least compared to Naperville - but they are higher than Aurora.

We don't have SSA taxes here, but watch out in places like Montgomery and Aurora - because many/most of their newer neighborhoods do, and that transfers to the new owner.

My DH commutes to the city 2day/week via the Metra out of Downtown Aurora. It's 1:40min each way. If he did that daily, we wouldn't live here.

[coming2az]

Originally Posted by chet everett

The slow down in new construction could have some very negative impacts on people's ability to get a new house in a new area and build any significant equity. From a practical matter, even if one uses a conventional mortgage the initial payments are so heavily biases toward interest the "natural" equity is almost non-existent. For folks who may have been lucky to get a boost in equity from rising property prices that is extremely unlikely...

A better strategy is the tried and true success story of finding homes in need of some TLC and then using some elbow grease and sweat to bring it up to the standards of nice established community that it exists in...

Jobs are still centered a pretty good distance from the new home builder communities and high fuel costs are a big concern for folks how might have a long drive.

The slow down has definitely affected the market in BH. However because the new housing developements surrounding BH were more attractive, BH's home prices were never out of reach. It was kept low to compete with the new homes. Many younger couples and singles would buy in BH because of it. Since BH is sandwiched in between Montgomery and Oswego, the home prices might level off for a while maybe a few yrs, but it will recover, just like Montgomery and Oswego. I saw many homes for sale now in BH, the only ones that are sold are the ones priced right, roughly 10% less than a yr ago. I thought 10% less is not too bad considering the down turn of today's market.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by kittycat9

...
My DH commutes to the city 2day/week via the Metra out of Downtown Aurora. It's 1:40min each way. If he did that daily, we wouldn't live here.

There are a several express trains that make trip from end-to-end (Union Station to Aurora) in just about 50 minutes. These expresses run inbound in the AM and outbound in the PM. Metra / BNSF Monday - Friday Inbound
I suppose if he has to work a particularly late shift or something the last express leaves downtown at 6:50...

Not sure how far kittycat's husband has to drive to/from the parking at Aurora, but parts of Montgomery are easily 20 minutes or less from the Aurora station...

(maybe he stops for one with the boys on the way home?)

[PeanutMommy]

We were looking in the same areas and went with Aurora in the 204 school district. Montgomery schools scared me, so even though it was more affordable there, we took it off our list.