Moving from Baton Rouge, LA (Chicago, Arlington Heights: where to stay, good schools, living in)

[macaroni]

Hi everyone,
My family is moving to Chicago from Louisiana. My husband is looking for a short commute (hopefully less than 30 mins.) from Des Plaines. We have two small boys, and I would like a family friendly area, with good schools. I'd like a 3-4 bedroom house, with places to bike, good libraries and shopping, and lots of families with children. And of course we also need something moderately priced, say no more than $450k.

Any suggestions on where to begin looking, and where to stay away from would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[lisaurart]

Originally Posted by macaroni

Hi everyone,
My family is moving to Chicago from Louisiana. My husband is looking for a short commute (hopefully less than 30 mins.) from Des Plaines. We have two small boys, and I would like a family friendly area, with good schools. I'd like a 3-4 bedroom house, with places to bike, good libraries and shopping, and lots of families with children. And of course we also need something moderately priced, say no more than $450k.

Any suggestions on where to begin looking, and where to stay away from would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I have waited for a local to respond but thought I would put in my suggestions since we have similair situations.
We are also expecting to move with a Des Plaines commute for my husband and before living in London we lived in Bossier City, LA for 14 years. I have been researching the areas and reading all the helpful comments and have decided for us the NW suburbs would the best. We have a teen so HS is important, also about the same budget as yours, and have found that Lake county seems to tick most of the boxes. There are great schools and areas closer in that have been reccomended(Buffalo Grove, Arlington Heights, Mt. Prospect, etc) and they are all great except that the housing prices in that range are really limited.
Check out Greatschools.net and put in the town name to get good input on schools. Also search the city names and a detailed profile should come up with all kinds of helpful stats.
Hope this helps!