South Naperville Vs bloomingdale (Chicago, Oswego: apartment, renting, crime rate)

[donna28]

We am looking at a single family home in South Naperville which is around 10 years old. There is another home in Bloomingdale which is about the same price and 20 years old. We are a young couple planning to start a family. I am looking for jobs in downtown Chicago and the suburbs. I am not sure where I would get my next position. So, place of work is undecided for now. Which home will be a better choice between these two.

Thanks....

[Prairie]

That's a real toss up donna28, both towns have traffic congestion that is going to add valuable time to your commute. Bloomingdale taxes are high, not sure about So. Naperville.

[aiwei]

If I were you, I pick Bloomingdale. SoN is congested and only 1-way-in-and -1-way-out. (Only main route is Rt. 59.) It's near tornado alley. Further from Metra station. Bloomingdale is congested, but there are more main roads so more alternate routes. Not as far from Metra station.

[donna28]

thanks for the reply. Which area is good in terms of crime rate and the crowd in those places. Since we are young we would want to have some neighbors in our age group. I felt like bloomingdale has a lot of senior citizens.

[aiwei]

I do not feel Bloomingdale being more of a aging town than Naperville. You need to pick the right neighborhood, rather than the right town. I have family in Nap (single family home) and a best friend in Blo (apartment). I have not heard about crime being a big problem from either source. Both family live within a good, stable, diversed neighborhood and are happy with it. Both Nap and Blo are crowded because they are land-locked. You want space, you need to go farther west, like west of Oswego or even Yourville.

[donna28]

Thanks for the reply....Do you have any idea about the subdivision Bloomfield Club? Does it have many senior citizens? It looks like it has....just wanted to check ...

[blackst5]

Is there a reason that you aren't considering renting for a period of time? I'm surprised that you want to jump into ownership if you haven't had a chance to get a feel for the area...

[aragx6]

I don't know that I'd buy a house if I didn't know where I was going to be working. Chicago's metro is so big that if you got a job on one side of the metro and owned a home on the other side you'd be totally effed.

[aiwei]

I do not know anything about Bloomfield Club, sorry.

I do agree with above 2 posters about knowing where you will be working and renting for while before buying. I just moved to AZ and, if we had not rented for 4 months, the pressure to buy would have forced us into a house we did not like. I wished we could have rented longer than 4 months, but I was totally burned out from house hunting (June until August, 110F, walking in and out of 10 houses each time, 3x a week) and settled with one my hubby liked. It is a nice house, but not one I would have picked.