Anyone regret moving to Naperville or later leave? How crowded is it? (Aurora: fit in, rent)

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by CGab

I didn't live in Naperville, but we used to live in North Plainfield literally a block from Naperville. Overall Naperville is a great town with a lot of positives. It has a very nice downtown and the schools are top notch. There is a lot to do there! From the river walk, to shopping and restaurants.


The negatives I personally saw about Naperville was:


. Everyone is trying to keep up with the Joneses.


. Naperville and Neuqua Valley H.S. is known for having a bad heroin problem.

. Naperville is very expensive to live there. Yes you can find an affordable home under $300k, but it will be small and outdated.


. Property taxes are extremely high.

. Rt 59 can be a nightmare to drive down.

It is baffling how some one who moved to St. John can comment on things that are very likely not dissimilar from the area they've left.

While I like NWI quite a bit and completely agree that you can get a lot more house for your money, especially when you factor in property taxes, there is no place that is immune from the rise in opioid addictions. I'm fairly confident that on per capita basis it is much worse in NWI than either Plainfield or Naperville. Reality check:

St. John event to detail path to heroin addiction | Lake County News | nwitimes.com

Stairway to Heroin - Lake Central High School, IN

Statistics show heroin use on the rise in Lake County | Dyer News | nwitimes.com

UPDATE: 2 dead after at least 5 people overdose on heroin within 12 hours in LP County; police warn of extremely potent strain of drug | What's New LaPorte?

https://www.wthr.com/article/heroin-in-the-heartland

Further the "keeping up with the Jones" phenomenon is e very bit as strong in NWI as anywhere else. in fact, given the rapidly rising prices for housing, that is far outstripping any local rise in wages it is exceedingly likely that the "new Jones" are much different than the traditional Indiana resident, which must be causing some friction ...
Home sales and prices continue to rise | Northwest Indiana Business Headlines | nwitimes.com
Cities Where Wages Haven't Kept Pace with Rising Housing Costs

Lastly, I have been to St. John IN a few times and while there are parts that are still "open country", where folks who like ATVs and such can get a few acres, for anyone who has to regularly travel to / through the Dyer & Schererville areas the traffic is every bit as bad as Naperville. I suppose if folks have a work location nearer to some the economically troubled towns south of Chicago, especially along the sparsely travel 394, commuting is not bad, but with the continued concentration of jobs from the region into the core of Chicago the lack of any sort of rail service to St. John is going to be a growing negative...

[CGab]

WOW Chet! Thanks for bashing of St. John! Not sure how that's part of the thread! I believe the OP asked what the negatives of Naperville are and why did you leave if you did! I replied as we left and why! Doesn't make Naperville a bad town, but those were my reasons.

As far as your comments on St. John Opiod events. The high school does an informative event for the students and parents once s year. I think that's being proactive. Does Neuqa do it? Naperville is an affluent area and dealers go their from Chicago to sell. It's a known fact. Not saying the crap isn't here, but it's a fact! It's also a fact that the keeping up with the Joneses mentality is much more strong there than here.

And lastly, the Metra is expanding to Munster so getting down town will be much easier for people working there.

[chet everett]

My point is simple: There is NOTHING unique about opioid epidemic spreading into EVERY area. No town is immune. It is therefore foolish to suggest that is something deserves to be pointed out about any area. I showed that it is something that is a major problem towns of NWI, I could have also found just as many articles that show it is an issue in Canada's NW Territories or the remote reaches of any US state. It has nothing to do with "dealers going out from Chicago" and to suggest such a thing shows a certain kind of bias that is both foolish and potentially detrimental to one's ability to monitor their own kids.

It is no longer the case that drug dealers look like the sorts of people Starsky & Hutch would throw on the hood of their Gran Torino, it is increasingly folks much more the Mary-Loiuse Parker character in Weeds or Walter White from Breaking Bad. Less good looking and perhaps more complex, the guy who runs the local lawn cutting service may also be selling smack to help "keep up with the Joneses" even in areas where that means having a fun hopped up Camaro instead of a BMW...

[fusillirob1983]

Originally Posted by CGab

I didn't live in Naperville, but we used to live in North Plainfield literally a block from Naperville. Overall Naperville is a great town with a lot of positives. It has a very nice downtown and the schools are top notch. There is a lot to do there! From the river walk, to shopping and restaurants.


The negatives I personally saw about Naperville was:


. Everyone is trying to keep up with the Joneses.


. Naperville and Neuqua Valley H.S. is known for having a bad heroin problem.

. Naperville is very expensive to live there. Yes you can find an affordable home under $300k, but it will be small and outdated.


. Property taxes are extremely high.

. Rt 59 can be a nightmare to drive down.

As chet stated, opioids are a problem all over, including many towns surrounding Naperville.


In most upper middle class suburbs in Chicago at this point, a house that's under $300k will be small and outdated. I bought a house for under $350k a year ago that would probably sell for $450k or so if located in a place like Park Ridge, Elmhurst or LaGrange. Regarding property taxes, in all likelihood I'd also be paying $1k-$2k more in property taxes if my house were located in any of those towns. For additional comparison, it would likely be similar if my same house were in Wheaton or Glen Ellyn based on other houses I saw during my search. The reason I ended up buying in Naperville is because I saw many houses in other suburbs referenced in this post that needed a lot more work than my house and had higher property taxes.


I agree with you that Rt. 59 can be a pain to drive down. However, if someone doesn't go over there for much (for me, it's only to visit Home Depot, Target or a couple other stores on a Saturday or Sunday).


Back to mazzer's post, though. He's referring to the walkable part of town if I'm interpreting his post correctly. If someone's dealing with traffic on Rt. 59 on a regular basis, they likely are not living in the walkable part of town. For the most part you will be getting less house for your money to live within a short walk of the heart of downtown Naperville. I'm not sure if you can type in a search to find places like Naperville. Are you looking only in the Chicago area or nationwide? On the whole, Naperville is kind of a unique town for the Chicago area, but you can find aspects of it within other suburbs. There's several suburbs with good schools, a walkable core, newer subdivisions further from the town core, good park district, retail, etc., but they're a tad smaller, which could be a good thing.


After 12 months, if there's anything I regret about moving to Naperville is that it's quite far from Chicago, which is difficult having lived in the city or just outside the city my whole life. If proximity to Chicago is not a concern for someone considering Naperville, then I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to someone.

[Kmanshouse]

No regrets moving here. I've done it twice. A fantastic place to live. There are a few things that may really bother people though.

1) the keeping up with the Joneses is very real in certain subdivisions. You are better off living in one that is a bit below your means rather than stretching into one where you will feel pressured to have expensive upkeep. And there are tons of homes in expensive subdivisions so it feels "normal" to roll up to someone's house and it's 4,000+ square feet with a 3 car garage.

2) East of Rt 59 there is no good N/S thoroughfare until you get go 5-6 miles and hit Washington or Naper Blvd. This is a problem for traffic, and it can take 20 minutes to get across town. You think, oh, it's right here in Naperville, and then realize you need to leave a half an hour beforehand or you'll be late.

Restaurants are somewhat crowded but there are so many of them that you can usually find a good one without too much of a wait.

[chicago0311]

Naperville traffic and crowdedness is not something to really worry about. It has more traffic than some other places, but its pretty mild, especially away from downtown. It's a pretty typical upscale midwestern suburb. It's pretty boring and cookie cutter quite frankly.

[Kmanshouse]

Originally Posted by chicago0311

Naperville traffic and crowdedness is not something to really worry about. It has more traffic than some other places, but its pretty mild, especially away from downtown. It's a pretty typical upscale midwestern suburb. It's pretty boring and cookie cutter quite frankly.

I completely disagree Naperville is boring. There is more to do in Naperville than in most suburbs, and its downtown is incredible. More nightlife in Naperville than anywhere in the Chicago area except Chicago itself.

[flamadiddle]

As far as suburbia goes, it doesn't get much better than Naperville. In fact, most of the West burbs are really nice. I'm about 30 minutes from Naperville in the Fox Valley and I have zero complaints with the area other than high taxes.

[doodlemagic]

Originally Posted by Kmanshouse

I completely disagree Naperville is boring. There is more to do in Naperville than in most suburbs, and its downtown is incredible. More nightlife in Naperville than anywhere in the Chicago area except Chicago itself.

Totally agree with you. Teens jokingly call Naperville Naperthrille trying to be ironic but like you said outside of living in Chicago Naperville is probably one of the best areas you can be in in terms of shopping, restaurants, movie theatres, park district activities and intramural sports, nearby access to COD and Waubonsie for classes or other progams, and Naperville has some of the better nightlife in terms of bars as well.

[Kmanshouse]

Originally Posted by doodlemagic

Totally agree with you. Teens jokingly call Naperville Naperthrille trying to be ironic but like you said outside of living in Chicago Naperville is probably one of the best areas you can be in in terms of shopping, restaurants, movie theatres, park district activities and intramural sports, nearby access to COD and Waubonsie for classes or other progams, and Naperville has some of the better nightlife in terms of bars as well.

Have you seen the show Ozark on Netflix? Justin Bateman?

There is a really good reference to Naperthrill in that show. Took me by surprise.