looking for great retirement area (Chicago, St. Charles: real estate, budget, houses)

[richardcharles]

Need advice for wife and self on a truly friendly place for retirement in Illinois. Must be stones throw if not on a lake or river with great fishing/boating. Artsy area with some culture, but down-home feel. Need to be within reasonible driving distance from Glenn Ellyn area (no more than 90 minutes or so).
Rick

[Sideblinded]

Galena, IL, Oregon, IL; (Although not artsy) Ottawa, IL, St. Charles, Sycamore, come to mind.

[SoIl]

Sounds to me you're already there. Otherwise, go south, young man... and you can still get to Glen Ellyn in 90 mins. - - if you fly.

[Drover]

If you've got the budget for it, I suggest the Chain O' Lakes area (Fox Lake, Round Lake Beach, Antioch, Ingleside, etc.)

[Paxtonian]

A lot of Suburban Chicago people retire to Lake Iroquois in Iroquois County. Look it up, you might like it.

[rickle]

Originally Posted by richardcharles

Need advice for wife and self on a truly friendly place for retirement in Illinois. Must be stones throw if not on a lake or river with great fishing/boating. Artsy area with some culture, but down-home feel. Need to be within reasonible driving distance from Glenn Ellyn area (no more than 90 minutes or so).
Rick

If you are retiring, for real!, there is no better place than Melbourne Florida.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by rickle

If you are retiring, for real!, there is no better place than Melbourne Florida.

Right, because Melbourne Florida is EXACTLY what someone who specifically states he wants to retire in Illinois is looking for. Oh, and it definitely fits his requirement that it be close to Glen Ellyn.

[CarolL]

Those are some requirements you have there, richardcharles. I'm not sure there is such a place -- friendly, artsy, small town on the water within 90 min of Glenn Ellyn. I can think of several, but none is partitularly "artsy", ie. Bourbonnais, Wilmington, Henry (on IL River), Oregon (Rock River), Ottawa...

But if you find a place, I'd love to know about it, so I can retire there, too!

[Kalysa19]

I would stick with the Chain O Lakes area, Galena, Lake Geneva areas.

Or move to Lake County near Lake Bluff, Lake Forest and be right near Lake Mich. But be prepared to pay some hefty prices up there!

[Doug Bergren]

Hi Richardcharles-This is farther than 90 minutes from Glen Ellyn, but for a wonderful small town that fits your criteria, you may want to consider Mt. Carroll, the county seat of Carroll County, and 10 miles from the Mississippi River. Mt. Carroll is a small town of 1900, and we still have some of our brick streets left, which we're attempting saving. You won't find a more friendly group of people than here. I should know, as my wife and I lived in close to a dozen places before we found this little gem. Cost of real estate isn't very high, and we're finding that a lot of people are retiring and buying houses here. Actually, they're buying houses before they retire, and have them fixed up when they do retire. We seem to be getting an awful lot of people from the suburbs and Chicago moving out here. The pace is quite slow, and I'm ashamed to say that Carroll County just received its first stop light. It's sad, and I hope that we don't have to have another. The County population is about 17,000 and mostly farms. We have a couple of art galleries in town, and trying to get more by actively promoting Mt. Carroll to the artist community. We get a few tourists here to experience the old time feel of the place, but it is nothing like Galena. The artists who live here usually make their living at shows. It's a wonderful little town, and we're trying to make it even better. Oh, by the way, Timber Lake Playhouse is 5 minutes down the road, which is the oldest summer stock theater in the state. They have plays all summer long. Good luck in your quest. Doug Bergren

Originally Posted by richardcharles

Need advice for wife and self on a truly friendly place for retirement in Illinois. Must be stones throw if not on a lake or river with great fishing/boating. Artsy area with some culture, but down-home feel. Need to be within reasonible driving distance from Glenn Ellyn area (no more than 90 minutes or so).
Rick