Neighborhood recommendation - quiet, safe, house, yard, downtown commute?

[ConcreteRooster]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I would say this is NOT a terrible time to be looking -- in general the signficant slow down in listings is an opportunity for shoppers to get a sense for how serious some sellers are about accepting an offer that allow for the best value. Much harder to do that when listings are fresh and buyers are more numerous in the spring...

That's a good point, I never thought about it that way. I was looking at it like this: it's bad in the sense that it's the traditional "dry" time for real estate; overall availability is low. But at the same time, I think you're right, probably some good deals to be had.

Originally Posted by chet everett

Unless you need to live inside the city because negotiated labor agreements you may be pleasantly suprised by just how far a nice Metra based commute allow you to be from the Loop...

No labor agreement situation. We actually started out in Des Plaines when we fist moved to the Chicago area. That commute was about an hour door-to-door (roughly 40 minutes on the train itself). There weren't any express trains that worked for me at the time. The move to OIP kept me on the same Metra line, but cut the train time down to about 15 minutes and made the walk from home to the train a little shorter as well. Total commute was cut in half. That extra hour makes a huge difference when you work 11 hours/day.

Originally Posted by chet everett

BNSF from Lagrange is wickedly fast (17 minute express) and the relative values in housing prices are pretty favorable to anything inside Chicago. Service from Brookfield is also excellent and the housing values are even better. Walk from Union station can't add more than 5-7 minutes compared to Olgilvey...

Thanks for the suggestion! Those might be worth our consideration. Previously, I'd limited my search to the northern half of the city/suburbs, only because our friends generally live in the north city or north shore suburban area. But we don't get together as much as we did before kids...

Originally Posted by chet everett

notable differences are lack of all night public transit, which I am guessing is extremely low on the list of utilization for anyone with kids...

Exactly, that's not even on our list.

@All: thank you for all the additional suggestions! To summarize, sounds like we should increase our search area to include Ravenswood, Andersonville, Lincoln Square, and Roscoe Village. I know one colleague that lives in LS, and we have a friend that used to live in RV, so these places aren't entirely foreign to us.

Thanks again, and happy to hear any additional thoughts or suggestions!

[ConcreteRooster]

I meant to ask: what do you think of the likes of Jefferson Park and Norwood Park? Only a couple extra stops on the Metra line I already take, so not a major change in commute time. Doing some searching on this forum suggests they are similarly "boring" neighborhoods---which is a selling point for us. They also seem to have a good reputation for safety. Any thoughts?

[Chicagoist123]

Originally Posted by ConcreteRooster

I meant to ask: what do you think of the likes of Jefferson Park and Norwood Park? Only a couple extra stops on the Metra line I already take, so not a major change in commute time. Doing some searching on this forum suggests they are similarly "boring" neighborhoods---which is a selling point for us. They also seem to have a good reputation for safety. Any thoughts?

Can't speak for Norwood Park, but Jefferson Park is nice, but nothing special. Nothing exciting, but I wouldn't call it boring. It has it's fair share of solid bars and restaurants. Best way I would describe it is that it's semi suburban with some urban pockets to it. It's a great place to raise kids and have a family, yet it's not a bad place for a young single to live in. I like it, and wouldn't mind living there.

My only issue with the neighborhood is that it's one of those hoods that it's not as easy to live without a car and it's somewhat far out from the core of the city.