From NJ to North Chicago (Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove: house, neighborhood, to buy)

[flamda]

We would like to have more information about north chicago areas.
My husband have an offer to work in Deerfield. He would like to avoid a long commute.
We have 4 kids, so we need a great neighborhood to raise our children, with good public schools. We would like to buy a 4-5 BDR single house with some garden to be able to put a swinger set. We would like to spend around $400K.

Where could we live?

Thanks in advance for your input.

[chitown85]

The traffic is pretty brutal around that area. My suggestion is Buffalo Grove, you should find a 400K home there no problem. BG is very close to Deerfield (to the west). Also look a little further north to Grayslake, where you could get more for your money, but it is a little further away. Libertyville and Vernon Hills are also very good choices. Of all 4 places, Libertyville has the weakest schools.

[code10t]

Deerfield is a very nice neighborhood with homes that size, but I think you would have to settle for a smaller property to stay in your price range. 5 bedrooms for $400,000 up there may be a little tough, but maybe you can do it with the housing market being down. I'd start by looking in Buffalo Grove (Lake County), which is just a little bit west of Deerfield. Like Deerfield, they have excellent schools, and the homes are reasonably priced by area standards.

If that doesn't work, I'd look at Libertyville, which is a really nice town. It's a bit of a longer commute, but you can take the tollway down or 43 or 21 (local roads). They are supposed to have good schools. Homes there seem expensive but are actually not too expensive given the neighborhood's quality and the prices in the surrounding communities.

There is also Arlington Heights to the west of Deerfield, but I'm not sure how their schools compare. If you are looking to commute farther, Grayslake and Gurnee are also options. You probably won't find much in your price range south in Cook County.

Good luck, let us know if you have any more questions.

[TheHaskells]

I live in Zion and commute to Highland Park dialy. It is about a 45 min drive. I take Hwy 41. My husband was an instructor at Great Lakes from 06-09. We are retiring and moving home to AL. We are in the Beach Park School District which is very nice. High School is Zion Benton, Middle School is Beach Park and Elementary is Newport for our zoning per our address. We have 3 boys, ages 16, 10 and 7. They have been extreamly happy in the area and will not want to go. Our neighbors and neighborhood are great. We are close to everything where we live. Just built a new super Walmart by us as well. We are trying to sell so we can move ahead of my husband and get settled before the school year starts. We have a lovely home that is a cape cod model. So, there are 2 bedrooms and a full bath upstairs, main floor has master and 4th bedroom and 2 full baths. Downstairs we have a fully finished basement, office(could be a bedroom), utility and laundry room. House has a very long paved driveway and backs to a large open park owned by the park district. 2 car garage, shed, deck and hot tub with a fenced yard. I can give you more info. about the area or the house if your interested.

[lakecountylifer]

No offense----but if someone is wanting to spend 400K on a house and work in Deerfield--its just a bit disengenious to reccommend Zion/Beach Park.

If someone posted that they are looking in the $150K range and want a reasonable neighborhood in that price range----I could see offering up Beach Park or Zion.

With so many areas to choose from, if you have 400k to spend---Zion and Beach Park would be at the bottom of your list. Sorry.