new communities in North Shore area / Barrington? (Chicago, Evanston: sales, new home)

[jjk12]

hi.

we are planning to move to Chicago and are looking for a single-family house. we would prefer to move into a new community being built if possible but there does not appear to be many options along the North Shore. "The Glen" in glenview looked like a real nice neighborhood and relatively new but seems really expensive and very few homes were on the market. does anyone have any suggestion of new communities/homes that are being built in the north shore? our price range is to stay under 800k and we will need to commute to Evanston.

we found some nice homes in the Barrington area that fit our price range and found some houses that we like but obviously, the commute is a problem. can anyone tell us what the commute from Barrington to Evanston will be like? (especially during the snowy winter?) google maps say 50 minutes, sales people at Barrington homes say 40 minutes while realtors in Evanston say 1.5hrs. our job allows us to have flexible hours so we can probably avoid the peak rush hours.

thanks for the help!

[chicago-to-naperville]

I think that the Barrington to Evanston commute would be brutal. I grew up in South Barrington and remember getting stuck in horrendous traffic when visiting my brother at Northwestern. Granted, that was over 15 years ago, but it'd be easy to assume traffic has only gotten worse! ;-) I love Winnetka which would be a great commute, as well as Highland Park and Deerfield. Lake Forest may not be too bad of a commute either.

[LkZurichMom]

Originally Posted by jjk12

hi.
"The Glen" in glenview looked like a real nice neighborhood and relatively new but seems really expensive and very few homes were on the market. does anyone have any suggestion of new communities/homes

anyone tell us what the commute from Barrington to Evanston will be like? (especially during the snowy winter?) google maps say 50 minutes, sales people at Barrington homes say 40 minutes while realtors in Evanston say 1.5hrs.

I am very near Barrington and drive to the east side of Skokie on the evanston border regularly to visit family. My drive time is 45 minutes in the dead of night. Add 5-10 at either end to get to downtown evanston and downtown barrington. It's a bit over and hour. Thats with no traffic. rush hour will add 40-60 minutes. Snow will add another 30-60 during rush hour, though you'll find that snow has little effect on travel time at off hours on major roads. (off hours doen't mean an hour either way, it means 10pm-4am). Rush hour here is anywhere from 630am to 930 am and 4-630pm. It isn't unusual for a downtown to lake zurich rush hour in a winter storm to be a 5 hour drive.

The glen was pretty much sold out before it was completed, as will be all new development, which is VERY rare on the north shore. The glen used to be a naval air station, closed under Clinton, which is why it exists. There are occasional farms that go up, but major developments are going on in mainly the far suburbs ringing the city. Most are cookie cutter type. There are some attempts to bring brownstone type developements into suburban downtowns, but again they are usually sold out before completion.

[yogomoto]

Barrington to Evanston would be a brutal drive. I know, I just got lost on my way up to the North Shore from Barrington looking at new homes myself.

[Paige65]

Don't know if you are still looking, but you may want to try the Fort Sheridan subdivision in Highland Park/Highwood. Your commute to Evanston would be 35-45 minutes traveling on Green Bay Road, depending upon time of day and area of Evanston.