Where to live in Chicago with a kid (Roscoe: school, living)

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by chet everett

...it ain't PRICE, it is WHAT YOU GET FOR THE MONEY. Honestly if you can show me a home as solid as those in areas as safe as those areas and with schools as uniformly high performing than go right ahead.

There are not nearly as many home with such nice details at such a fair price anywhere inside Chicago or other "less small townish" areas.

The fact is that "small towns" have walkable cores, good schools, locally owned businesses, a lack of stripmalls and are generally very good choices for families. When those towns are also connected to employment centers via rail that is pretty hard to beat combination.

When folks that bought into Lincoln Park or Lakeview or Lincoln Square describe what they love about their now $1M+ homes they often say "its just like a small town"...

I was seeing plenty of things in Roscoe Village, North Center, and Irving Park for those prices. Also size of a house isn't as big of a deal to me, I prefer much smaller homes.

Also, I never said those towns were bad, actually quite the opposite, just from a quick look, they all looked like great little towns, but for my personal tastes they were too far out and too much on the edge of the metro rather closer into the metro, but Berwynn looked like a possibility, something I will have to look more into, which I totally thank you for mentioning that town.

I am not looking in Lincoln Park or Lakeview really, but Lincoln Square is an option, but I have noticed plenty of things for sale in those neighborhoods well under the 1+mil range. They have options of SFH and multi-unit buildings that have things in the $170K-450K range as well, which would be the range I would be looking at.

[chet everett]

If you want a condo you can.t use single family homes as comparison.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by chet everett

If you want a condo you can.t use single family homes as comparison.

I would want either a condo, single family house, or a house that is divided into a couple units.

[marothisu]

Condo is definitely less than a SFH usually. I have had some coworkers who have lived in basically 2 and 3 flats..condos..as a family. Seemed to work well with them. It all depends on your personality, but if you aren't totally opposed to that, you can get some great deals versus a SFH in a neighborhood like Lincoln Square/Ravenswood.

Oak Park though is definitely a good place for a family I think. Well, according to my friends who grew up there, I've heard mixed reviews. Depends on who you are. I like the Glenview/Northbrook area too. A little diversity (a number of Koreans live there) and good schools. You can get a decent SFH for the upper end of your budget there.

Just to give you an idea though:
2454 W Foster Ave Apt 1E Chicago IL - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #08082987 - Realtor.com®


However, I think in an area like Irving Park you'd have a better change of finding a SFH in your price range.
3853 N Kimball Ave Chicago IL - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #08056524 - Realtor.com®
4019 W Warwick Ave Chicago IL - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #08137277 - Realtor.com®


Of course five years from now, who knows what the prices will be like. There have been new buildings built around Irving Park too and I've noticed at least this summer a few new ones being built (I mean medium sized mid rise (like 10 stories) condo buildings). I like the neighborhood. It's nice a quiet. I just wish a different train line went there. The bus ride from there to brown line isn't too bad though and Blue Line is in the neighborhood. It's a nice neighborhood to raise a family in the city IMO, and it doesn't seem like the entire thing is going to get "hip" if you know what I mean. There's plenty of things to do there and places to eat too. Good neighborhood.

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

The Goethe District, not sure I am familiar with that area, I will have to check that area out too. (oh wait, do you mean the school Goethe?)

Yep - the school.

I think you're on the right track in general in the places you're checking out. Lincoln Square, Bucktown, North Center, and Roscoe Village are well established family friendly areas. Plenty of other areas are family friendly too, we have a couple friends with kids in West Town who like it a lot. One set of friends have the top two floors of a building in West Town (condo) and it's an awesome place. 3 bedrooms, a small office, and 3 decks that (combined) are larger than our backyard. It's got great views of the skyline and my daughter always asks why we don't live in a place like that. I think they paid about $500,000 for it 6 or 7 years ago.

I actually have a lot of requirements for a house that would make most people think I need to live in the burbs - a large workshop, space for a vegetable garden, room for a fire pit, and space for multiple grills and smokers (currently 7 of them). 10 years ago we found that in Logan Square for less than $250,000, today it would be around $300-350,000. We're less than a 5 minute walk from the Blue Line, and have dozens of great bars, restaurants (including 3 Michelin star places), and stores within a 10 to 15 minute walk of our house. Chicago has loads of great options.

[chet everett]

The performance of Goethe is not currently very impressive IIRC: School. That said it looks like the "factors for improvement" are all very high. It might be one of those schools that, due to issues apart from ineffective curriculum/ broken leadership / poor staff / uninvolved parents may NEVER really reach the levels of achievement that schools with even more going for 'em can.
https://cps.5-essentials.org/2012/s/609942/essentials/

The other question, for a family oriented place, is what sorts of families are gonna be in the area longer term -- I wonder what the demographics will be in 5-7 years. Hard to predict...

Originally Posted by Attrill

Yep - the school.

I think you're on the right track in general in the places you're checking out. Lincoln Square, Bucktown, North Center, and Roscoe Village are well established family friendly areas. Plenty of other areas are family friendly too, we have a couple friends with kids in West Town who like it a lot. One set of friends have the top two floors of a building in West Town (condo) and it's an awesome place. 3 bedrooms, a small office, and 3 decks that (combined) are larger than our backyard. It's got great views of the skyline and my daughter always asks why we don't live in a place like that. I think they paid about $500,000 for it 6 or 7 years ago.

I actually have a lot of requirements for a house that would make most people think I need to live in the burbs - a large workshop, space for a vegetable garden, room for a fire pit, and space for multiple grills and smokers (currently 7 of them). 10 years ago we found that in Logan Square for less than $250,000, today it would be around $300-350,000. We're less than a 5 minute walk from the Blue Line, and have dozens of great bars, restaurants (including 3 Michelin star places), and stores within a 10 to 15 minute walk of our house. Chicago has loads of great options.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by Attrill

Yep - the school.

I think you're on the right track in general in the places you're checking out. Lincoln Square, Bucktown, North Center, and Roscoe Village are well established family friendly areas. Plenty of other areas are family friendly too, we have a couple friends with kids in West Town who like it a lot. One set of friends have the top two floors of a building in West Town (condo) and it's an awesome place. 3 bedrooms, a small office, and 3 decks that (combined) are larger than our backyard. It's got great views of the skyline and my daughter always asks why we don't live in a place like that. I think they paid about $500,000 for it 6 or 7 years ago.

I actually have a lot of requirements for a house that would make most people think I need to live in the burbs - a large workshop, space for a vegetable garden, room for a fire pit, and space for multiple grills and smokers (currently 7 of them). 10 years ago we found that in Logan Square for less than $250,000, today it would be around $300-350,000. We're less than a 5 minute walk from the Blue Line, and have dozens of great bars, restaurants (including 3 Michelin star places), and stores within a 10 to 15 minute walk of our house. Chicago has loads of great options.

Haha, I would actually say you need to move to Portland, Oregon with those requirements. I have a number of friends there that are practically urban farmers with their backyards including a goat and a few chickens. It is too funny really.

Funny how I didn't think about West Town, I have walked through that area once, though a while ago and don't remember too much, I do remember enjoying the walk.

It is crazy the difference of what you can get in Chicago when compared to NYC. I was playing with the cost of living calculator that someone posted on another thread and the difference in cost between NYC and Chicago if my fiancee had the same pay in both cities, we would basically get a $32K bonus simply because our money would be worth more in Chicago. I can definitely see why people in Chicago don't want to see their city become overly popular cause who would want to give up those money values.

I can't remember, has Chicago started to do the restaurant cleanliness rating system like they have here in NYC and in LA yet?

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by chet everett

The performance of Goethe is not currently very impressive IIRC: School. That said it looks like the "factors for improvement" are all very high. It might be one of those schools that, due to issues apart from ineffective curriculum/ broken leadership / poor staff / uninvolved parents may NEVER really reach the levels of achievement that schools with even more going for 'em can.
https://cps.5-essentials.org/2012/s/609942/essentials/

The other question, for a family oriented place, is what sorts of families are gonna be in the area longer term -- I wonder what the demographics will be in 5-7 years. Hard to predict...

I guess I will be able to tell you that in 5-7 years cause I am probably going to be paying close attention to these changes with schools, neighborhoods, and housing costs up until then.

Oh and thanks for the links, I will definitely be playing with those two links over these next several years.

[prinsessa]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Times have changed. Audubon serves much of Roscoe Village. It's a very good neighbhorhood school now.

I have heard that Audubon has become a good school. I know quite a few people who went there when it wasn't such a good school. Where we were living at the time my kids wouldn't have been able to attend Audubon.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by prinsessa

I have heard that Audubon has become a good school. I know quite a few people who went there when it wasn't such a good school. Where we were living at the time my kids wouldn't have been able to attend Audubon.

It's almost at bell level at this point. Housing prices relect it too.