For those of you who've fled Illinois, where did you go? (private school, salaries)

[CGab]

Originally Posted by wheelsup

What's your point? You can get 40 acres in NM for $20k.

My point is why live in Illinois when you can get so much more living in another state for so much less! I get that some people have no choice but to live in Illinois due to jobs or family, but if you don't need to, then why???

[myrc60]

If you're living on a fixed income there is no reason not to search out somewhere where your money will go further. We moved from Chicago to South Carolina (#9) in 2003 before the RE bust. We got top dollar for our home in a Chicago suburb and bought a home for less that was in better shape than the one we sold. In the process my parents moved from California to SC and though we've lost family members over the years, we are better off here than almost anywhere else. No where is perfect! Living beyond your means like we'd be doing in Illinois right now, doesn't make sense. We made the best move for our situation.

[rrah]

We "fled" about 16 years ago. Even then, the property taxes outweighed the benefits for us, and my husband had a telecommute business. I was raised in NWI with lots of family in the IL suburbs-north, south, and west. He was born and raised in central IN. We could agree on one place in IN because it is more liberal than the rest of the state, and we spent 6 years or so here as students.

What did we get? A slightly larger house with many upgrades (all brick house, more hardwood floors, an inground pool, etc.) on 33 acres vs. the 3/4 acre we lived on in the western suburbs. I think our children received a much better education, or at least had more educational opportunities. We lived in the Tri-Cities area so schools were fine. They were able to attend an in-state university and graduate debt free in 3 years because of the high school offerings. Both had jobs immediately after college. We still laugh when local people tell us how "far out" we live. I used to spend 15 minutes driving 5 miles in the suburbs. Now I spend about 15 minutes getting to the grocery that's 13 miles away. As important, our property taxes are still one-third of what they would be in our former house. That's roughly $1000/month for us.

At times I miss the shopping and food available in the Chicago area, but the benefits have outweighed all of that for us.

Final note: we lived in the Chicago area for 15 years together. I grew up 30 miles or less from the city.

[RelaxTakeItEasy]

I wanted to return, to Chicago in my early 20s. Lots of stuff has happened since (and did not happen). My parents moved out their family house, left me and my brother are in charge of our "modest" suburban house.


Now I just want to have the ability to save some extra money (I still save, but I could save a lot more somewhere else and enjoy more). I'm 30 and partly accountable for almost 10k in taxes a year , it is split between me and my slightly younger sibbling. Also are larger than usual utility bills. Looking at the property tax statements, they remind me to leave this tax region, as I am 30 years old and not expecting to have children soon who will take advantage of the Naperville public schools. Even if someone wanted to have children with me I can not imagine them going through a public school. Well Cook county taxes are going up, and I am having doubts about paying money to live in the city.

So west I desire to go. Go west young man! Unless I get a nice govt job anywhere in Cook County, Springfield IL, Washington DC, or some fed satellite.

[damba]

Originally Posted by RelaxTakeItEasy

Even if someone wanted to have children with me I can not imagine them going through a public school.

Why the heck not? Aren't you living in Naperville(?)

[Hello Okie]

Oklahoma.......Low taxes, good people !!

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Hello Okie

Oklahoma.......Low taxes, good people !!

Not a good choice, most states are better.

[RelaxTakeItEasy]

Originally Posted by damba

Why the heck not? Aren't you living in Naperville(?)

Maybe my experience in public schools around Cook county was not the norm, but I can't imagine having a child go to a public school that includes some of the kinds of people I went to school with.

Would rather send them to a private school even if it costs me, and just live where ever I want. However, I do realize the public schools of my child days are very different than Naperville schools. Maybe if I have a large family

[RamenAddict]

Originally Posted by RelaxTakeItEasy

Maybe my experience in public schools around Cook county was not the norm, but I can't imagine having a child go to a public school that includes some of the kinds of people I went to school with.

Would rather send them to a private school even if it costs me, and just live where ever I want. However, I do realize the public schools of my child days are very different than Naperville schools. Maybe if I have a large family

"West" by and large does not have good schools. Many places that have really good school districts may have lower taxes but will be super expensive. MD and VA also have good schools, but around DC is also insanely expensive and the federal government pays only around .5% more there than it does in Chicago (this is only a recent change, btw, DC used to pay less). You'd rather pay $10-25K a year per kid so you could have good schools but are balking at part of $10K in a district that already has great schools?

[MSchemist80]

Originally Posted by RelaxTakeItEasy

Maybe my experience in public schools around Cook county was not the norm, but I can't imagine having a child go to a public school that includes some of the kinds of people I went to school with.

Would rather send them to a private school even if it costs me, and just live where ever I want. However, I do realize the public schools of my child days are very different than Naperville schools. Maybe if I have a large family

My experience in the schools here is mixed. The elementary and especially Jr High I had a lot of issues with bad teachers. A lot of them were just totally dysfunctional people only in it because they had tenure and I doubt the private sector would tolerate them. They sucked at classroom management, my parents and I constantly were getting into feuds with teachers over crazy policies like no erasing on tests, make the kids grade each others papers then taking points off the student grading when they made a mistake, collective punishment of students etc. It got so bad in Jr High I failed classes and my parents looked at getting me into a private school but they couldn't find one affordable nearby.

Fortunately, high school (Maine East) was a whole lot better and I thrived and graduated with honors but to this day I don't respect a lot of the teachers I had in elementary.