Moving from St. Louis, MO to ?????, IL

[Xing]

Look into Oak Park or Evanston. Those are by far the best suburbs in Chicago.

[lynnew]

Towns like O'fallon, Mascoutah, Shiloh, Highland are all nice and safe, have good schools and decent home prices. I am presently looker further south because I like the smaller towns like Red Bud, Sparta, Pickneyville. Good luck.

[kaosproperties]

Try Sangamon County (ie Springfield, Chatham, New Berlin, Loami, Pleasant Plains, etc)

With an exception of District 186 schools (really bad schools!), all other school districts are pretty darn good!

Pretty reasonable housing costs. Not too hyper crowd, not too lazy crowd.

[destoria]

Bologna! the farther west you go the cheaper it is once yo get past Aurora which is cheap itself.

Nothin on the Northside is affordable
If you like the Northside properly known as the "North Shore" (Evanston, Skokie, Lincolnwood, Glenview, Wilmette, Kenilworth-my hometown, Northfield, Winnetka, Northbrook, Glencoe, Bannockburn, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Highwood, Lake Bluff, Waukegan, and Southern Wisconsin after that.

i know I live in Kenilworth avg home price:1.5 Million.


Try South Holland, Palos area, Riverside, and Schaumburg.

[destoria]

O'Fallon, and Shiloh are in St. Louis Mr.

[garsky]

Originally Posted by Xing

Look into Oak Park or Evanston. Those are by far the best suburbs in Chicago.

For $200K or less, you can get yourself a nice cardboard box under the freeway in those towns.

Think more like $350K, for what will be a STARTER home.

Originally Posted by gkb

I've heard to look at Evanston, Wilmette, Oak Park, Park Ridge, Elmhurst and the further west you go from Chicago the more expensive it is.

You have champagne taste on a Budweiser budget.

Schaumburg is a nice community, but $200K won't but you a whole there, either.

Maybe Homewood? Prices are rising there, too, but the schools and park district are good, and transportation into the city is excellent. Diverse too. High taxes, tho.

Much depends on where you'll be working. Commuting from suburb to suburb can be a nightmare, and some commutes from suburbs into the city can be just as bad.

[Xing]

Originally Posted by lynnew

Towns like O'fallon, Mascoutah, Shiloh, Highland are all nice and safe, have good schools and decent home prices. I am presently looker further south because I like the smaller towns like Red Bud, Sparta, Pickneyville. Good luck.

Swansea, Glen Carbon, and places like that are much like the cities you listed above.

O'Fallon is a military town, so many of those who live there are from all over the country, and well traveled.

Belleville , Edwardsville (College Town), and Glen Carbon are also very nice, if you're looking into staying in the STL area. Homes are way cheaper also.

[prairiestate]

A housing budget of less than 200k won't really work in Chicagoland. And before you start looking for a home, you need to know where you're going to work. The major employment centers are downtown, Oak Brook, Schaumburg, and Northbrook. The south suburbs will have the most options for housing, but really no jobs. Down there, forget about commuting to work in the suburbs. Even Oak Brook will be 1 hr. minimum on a really good day. If at all possible, try to get a job downtown so you can take the train (Metra). Homewood would probably be your best choice. Not only is it a really nice, quaint town, but it's one of the only decent places to live in Chicago where you can find a home in your price range. There's a metra station, and plenty of shopping and dining. All the big box stores are on the edge of town, along Halsted.

Way out in the cornfields, Shorewood, Minooka and Manhattan, west and south of Joliet, there are townhomes starting as low as the mid 100's. Traffic is horrible, though. For the most part, the old two lane farm roads were never upgraded for the new development. Except for Manhattan, it's also a long drive just to get to a train station. Forget about driving to work. It will be at least 1 hr. just to get to southern DuPage County, then you still need to keep going to get to Oak Brook or Downtown. Chicago is a wonderful city in many ways, but the problem in finding decent, affordable housing in the past few years is one reason I'm seriously thinking of relocating. It's still a bargain compared to the west coast and the northeast, but it's just gotten ridiculous for the midwest.

[cavewoman]

I hope to be doing the reverse in the next few years. Leaving Illinois for STL.
Warmer...friendlier...and my best bud live there.
Good. luck!
10 degrees does make a difference.