Chicago right fit for young family? (Naperville, Evanston: houses, employment, safe area)

[reisenman]

Here's a bit of background:

Grew up in midwest, lived on East Coast and now in San Francisco. My young family and I are looking for an affordable place but in the city. Currently 3 bedrooms in SF are going well over $1.3M and that's way out of our price range.

Living in nice weather the past 5 years, I've become somewhat of a weather softy but know that I could get used to the Chicago winters quicker than folks that didn't grow up in such weather.

A few questions here:

We have a budget of $800K for a 3 bedroom in a nice family-oriented neighborhood. Is this reasonable?

What neighborhoods would you recommend for us? Looking for other young families and walking distance to great bars/restaurants.

Living in NYC, everyone takes public transit, regardless of class. Does this ring true in Chicago? Is it safe?

Is Chicago a nice city for a young family? Many things to do and is it generally safe? I understand living in a city has its potential safety issues but the culture/people/food/convenience seems to quite this concern down.

Thanks everyone.

[marothisu]

(1) $800K for a family oriented neighborhood is reasonable, as well as in the suburbs of course. Some of the more family oriented neighborhoods that are nice such as Roscoe Village/North Center, Lincoln Square, or Ravenswood while considered not cheap, will have homes below that range, though there's a good amount of properties above $800K there too.

If you want neighborhoods with some restaurants and bars to walk to then I recommend those three above - Roscoe Village, Lincoln Square, and Ravenswood. If you're looking for walkable and connected to the city, then I could also recommend suburbs like Oak Park. While not part of the city, it's next to it and if I dropped you off there I could tell you it's part of Chicago and you'd believe me. There are areas there, and walkable, with bars and restaurants for sure. Two of the city train lines go into that suburb too. You could say the same about suburbs like Evanston too.

There are some areas that may have less in the way of restaurants and such, but are still good. These may be areas like Irving Park, Norwood Park, Edison Park, Jefferson Park, Forest Glen. Some of these may be right next to suburbs, good for families, but not necessarily like a Roscoe Village or Lincoln Square with a bunch of restaurants and some bars in a walkable area. Of course, you'll be able to find this in most suburbs and not all suburbs are what you're thinking of. For example, you could tell someone that Oak Park is part of Chicago and they'd believe you. Same as ones like Evanston. The city trains actually go into Oak Park and Evanston too.


(2) Chicago has a big public transit system, probably #2 in the US behind NYC. NYC may have more of the upper class taking public transit, but it does exist in Chicago (though people will not necessarily recognize it, but I have a few multi millionaire friends who ride the trains and have no cars here). Public transit is safe here and most normal people do not say "WTF?!" when you suggest taking a train somewhere.

(3) It's a city of 2.7 million people with tons of cultural amenities, of course there's tons of things to do. While there are many dangerous areas of Chicago, there are many more safe or relatively safe areas. Most of the dangerous areas are pretty segregated from the safe, good areas.


(4) I would not count out some of the suburbs. They are of course family oriented, and some such as Oak Park are more walkable than you'd ever think. There are other suburbs that have small walkable areas. If you don't need a HUGE walkable area, then it might be good. Otherwise, I'd look in areas like Lincoln Square, Ravenswood, Roscoe Village/North Center, and possibly somewhere like Irving Park/Old Irving Park, and maaaybe Jefferson Park. Norwood Park and Edison Park are options too but less walkable than Lincoln Square or Ravenswood.

[reisenman]

@marothisu - thanks for the great feedback, much appreciated.

I'm not interested in living in suburbs. If I wanted to do that, I'd just move to Cincinnati where my family is. We're strictly looking for neighborhoods within the city.

Lincoln Square, Ravenswood and Roscoe Village/North Center seem to resonate in your responses. I think that's a great start for me to begin researching housing and other options.

Thanks again.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by reisenman

@marothisu - thanks for the great feedback, much appreciated.

I'm not interested in living in suburbs. If I wanted to do that, I'd just move to Cincinnati where my family is. We're strictly looking for neighborhoods within the city.

Lincoln Square, Ravenswood and Roscoe Village/North Center seem to resonate in your responses. I think that's a great start for me to begin researching housing and other options.

Thanks again.

Do you have school age children?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by reisenman

@marothisu - thanks for the great feedback, much appreciated.

I'm not interested in living in suburbs. If I wanted to do that, I'd just move to Cincinnati where my family is. We're strictly looking for neighborhoods within the city.

Lincoln Square, Ravenswood and Roscoe Village/North Center seem to resonate in your responses. I think that's a great start for me to begin researching housing and other options.

Thanks again.

I understand, but the point is that a few of them like Oak Park are nothing like typical suburbs. I could literally blind fold you, take you there, tell you we're still in Chicago and you wouldn't even question it.

Anyway, yes I think since your budget is nice, that those three areas (Lincoln Square, Ravenswood, and Roscoe Village) would fit you well. Andersonville might be another area that could fit the description.

Here's a few neighborhood videos:
* Roscoe Village:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNYbnjewRK4
* Lincoln Square:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh7_Zm48Ius
* Ravenswood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PekToxd5SFM
* Andersonville:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcUifyq_UMs

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by reisenman

@marothisu - thanks for the great feedback, much appreciated.

I'm not interested in living in suburbs. If I wanted to do that, I'd just move to Cincinnati where my family is. We're strictly looking for neighborhoods within the city.

Lincoln Square, Ravenswood and Roscoe Village/North Center seem to resonate in your responses. I think that's a great start for me to begin researching housing and other options.

Thanks again.

In all honestly the challenges of finding a truly family sailed single family home in Roscoe Village, Lincoln Square or even nicer parts of Ravenswood that are served by decent elementary schools may not be all that much easier than San Fransico. Manu paces that have the amenities familes like such as conveneient access to interesting resturants, shops and even play groups mean $800k is not enough to ensure that updated single family homes will be in your price range.

The Chicago region has an extensive network of commuter rail that connect towns outside the city limits to the employment centers of Chicago's Loop. Many of these desriable towns have wonderful walkablilty to not just commuter rail for employment but also a lovely range of friendly bars where neighborhood parents can catch a craft beer together, interesting locally owned dining options,, friendly parks where parents and kids play together, cute little shops infused with 1 "buy local ethos" that holds wide appeal. Prices,mespecially factoring the tendency for folks in Chicago to need to budget for private school if there are not slots in the selective enrollment Chicago public schools compared to well forum free public schools that are not burdened by the legacy of mismanagement / failure of Chicago.

With a budget of $800k you would have many excellent options in towns like Evanston on the UP-N line, Oak Park, Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn or Wheaton on the UP-W line or towns like Riverside, Lageange, Western Springs, Clarendon Hills, Downers Grove or Naperville on the BNSF line.

You will not find towns like these in the Cinciinnati suburbs.

[flamadiddle]

I'm also following this thread with interest, but had the same concerns Chet just mentioned. Looks like these areas in the city are fantastic unless you have school aged children?

btw, lol at the guy in the Andersonville video at 6:40 "Even the dogs are happy here!"

[chet everett]

For folks that currently have kids in the school it is extremely challenging to navigate the very complex path for either well performing selective admissions CPS elementary school or the extreme,ly limited slots for good high schools.

If kids have several years before entinging kindergarten and parents have the kind of time to devote learning the ropes there are some good options for the selective admissions magnet schools and some neighborhood schools that have had good support from more affluent younger families, though most of these in desirable part of the Chicago tend to be "over utilized" which is CPS speak for "crowded".

In contrast the quality of schools beyond the city boundaries but still served by excellent rail transit ranges from very good to excellent, admisions / enrollemtn are basically "show up, prove you live here and start". String community support also has long kept class sizes reasonable / small and the range of electives for high schools outstanding...

The degree to which various towns have leveraged not just great rail access but superior schools and other nice amenities is quite dramatic, as there are some town's interspersed between those listed that did cling to more industrial heritage and/or never really adapted to the desires of folks to have not just good rail service but also superior schools and the walkable amenities that appeal to young families. Towns that are some cases adjacent may have signficantly less desirable schools AS WELL AS paucity of intersting shops, resturants, bars etc....

[emathias]

Not everyone takes transit here, but among those who do take transit the demographics very closely mirror that of the areas served by transit - in other words if by "everyone" you mean that riders include both rich and poor, minority and majority, then, yes, transit is well-used by people of all classes. I can't find the original source, but a few years ago I saw a statistic that compared the demographics of different transit agencies and the areas they served, and Chicago's statistics were nearly identical for transit rides as compared to the local population at large - even more closely aligned than the New York statistics.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Manu paces that have the amenities familes like such as conveneient access to interesting resturants, shops and even play groups mean $800k is not enough to ensure that updated single family homes will be in your price range.

Houses in these areas with the needs of the OP exist, even some renovated ones, but you do have a point that for a full SFH in these areas with those needs, $800K may not always suffice. Here's some that do though:

* $700K | 3 bed, 2.5 bath | http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...08-22196?row=1
* $525K | 3 bed, 2.5 bath | http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...42-41855?row=1
*520K | 4 bed, 2.5 bath | http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...90-89297?row=1
* $500K | 3 bed, 2.5 bath | http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...11-52885?row=1


There are other areas of town where you could get things for cheaper.

Many of these desriable towns have wonderful walkablilty to not just commuter rail for employment but also a lovely range of friendly bars where neighborhood parents can catch a craft beer together, interesting locally owned dining options,, friendly parks where parents and kids play together, cute little shops infused with 1 "buy local ethos" that holds wide appeal

It should be noted that while there are suburbs that have walkability, many of them are in small areas. It's not right, for example, to say that a city like Naperville is walkable. It's right to say that there's a few areas that have walkability.