Illinois To NWI Migration (Hammond, Carmel: high school, living in, vs.)

[Northwest Indiana]

Originally Posted by Humboldt1

Did you leave Nequa for NWI?

I totally get the tax argument but Nequa is pretty top notch. You said you lived in Plainfield, a block from Naperville so I assume you were not in Plainfield North district. Both are good districts (Nequa is rated better). I have not heard of declines in either high school.

My wife's uncle lives in 700k house just north of Nequa and they pay 14k for property taxes. And their kids are 30 and 35 years, so lots of taxes for no kids in school.

Anywhere you have affluent idle teenagers you will have drug problems. Barrington and New Trier are very affluent and have similar issues.

I have to admit your concern about ME seems a bit like nuanced white flight.

Many ME people have large extended families whose members often come to visit for several months at a time. I have never seen crime spike as ME population increases.

I have seen schools improve as middle eastern population increases, though I think radical Islam is horrible, especially in its treatment of women.

I have several friends who live in St Johns. They are all Hispanic and some relocated from the south side as Chicago experienced white flight. Some sold their homes in Pilsen and used the funds to relocate to St Johns after they retired.

I was going to say the same thing about the extended visitors. Most ME families (and many Indian and Asian as well) live in multi-generational and multi-family situations within a single-family home and rarely you hear of issues because of this.

Also, it is Saint John or S. John, not "St. Johns" with the "s".

[CGab]

We were in Plainfield North school district not Neuqua, ; however, yes we were literally just a few blocks from Naperville and Plainfield North is rated a 9 as Neuqua is a 10. The middle school my children would have went to was also rated a 10. We could have lived in unincorporated Naperville and had our taxes be around $4k, but as "Top notch" as Neuqua is, it also has 4,000 student which is even more than Lake Central. Plainfield North has about 1,900. If your friend lives in Naperville in the Neuqua school district with a $700k home, they are not paying $14k in property taxes! More like $18k-$20k (no joke)!! I think it's just insane to pay that kind of money! I could be using that for my children's college or retirement instead. So even though Lake Central isn't as "top notch" as Plainfield North or Neuqua, I think it is still a very good school district for the difference in the cost of living. Kolling and Clark actually have less total students in the school and less students per classroom/teacher than Plainfield and Naperville schools. Trust me, St. John is no Naperville, but I think the quality of life will be better for my children and I'm glad we made the move. We also had concerns with Illinois in general and the economic state it is currently in. With that said, we decided we had enough and decided to move out of Illinois. Since we do have family and close friends here, we decided on Indiana.


In regards to M.E. families coming into Plainfield in large numbers, that was not our main concern and we did not move because of that, but it definitely played a small part in our decision to leave. I never said that there was more crime because of the larger M.E population in Plainfield and there was not. I have friends of all races, but they tend to keep to their own race as they rarely socialize with others that are not of the same ethnicity. I had several M.E neighbors that wouldn't even wave back when I waved to them. Add that to the fact that they don't keep up there properties.

[jvr789]

Originally Posted by CGab

An earlier post wanted to hear from some people who moved to NW Indiana from the SW suburbs of Illinois.....Just to clarify, there were many different reasons why my family decided to move from (Plainfield) Illinois to Indiana. We actually considered several different states, but we do have some family and friends here and family that lives within 35 minutes over the border in Illinois. Like I said previously, our main reason for leaving Illinois and moving our family to Indiana was the taxes. Illinois is now the highest taxed state in the U.S. and I just didn't see my money being used for anything. The schools that were once considered great are having staff and programs cut left and right. Sales tax increases every year along with income tax. Every time you turn on the news they are talking about raising the taxes and how they need more money for pensions. I can't give anymore. Yes, there are other reasons why we moved as well, but our lifestyle in general has become more relaxed since we moved here. Would I recommend others from the Naperville area to move here? Maybe, depends on the lifestyle their looking for. There is obviously more amenities in the Naperville area than here, but I don't feel I'm missing anything. People seem a lot more laid back and friendlier in general here. I wish we made the move sooner!

Good post. I think this hits the nail on the head on why you see folks crossing the state line. We moved from IL too and overall are really happy so far in Munster. I think when you see the constant news regarding the fiscal state of IL, it can really weigh on you in terms of where taxes and programs are going to have to head in IL to start to fix the mountain of debt. Below is a recent article from Bloomberg about IL starting 2017 with $10 BILLION in unpaid bills. This is making national news not just Crains Chicago. I hope that IL can start to set the ship straight but I am a person of action and I voted with my feet. I felt the problem in IL was too big for me to be able to help. Too much corruption and too liberal (fiscally speaking, not socially speaking) for voters/politicians to work on this sooner than later.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-14/illinois-to-start-2017-with-over-10-billion-in-unpaid-bills

[Humboldt1]

Fear mongering is not the way to have a debate.

I agree that Illinois has issues and this is why I am in the process of selling my last property there.

We are not actively looking at houses in Chicago Illinois suburbs because of rising taxes.

That being said I would love to return to Indy but cannot find jobs with comparable pay.

I like Munster and believe it is a decent place to live and appears to be getting better. I just wish some of the surrounding towns would catch up (apart from St. John's).

I just wish it was closer to the loop time-wise. Trains in NWI are really slow compared to western burbs and I don't want to spend 2 hours per day commuting to the Loop.

I would move to Hinsdale tomorrow if taxes were not a concern. Cannot beat 20 min express train. Even Naperville is 33 min. Nothing like that is available in NWI (Hammond is 40mins).

The job and the subsequent pay is what keeps me in Illinois. If not for that I would move out of Illinois today

[Humboldt1]

I do see others struggle with taxes. In laws are middle class Hispanics and make less than 100k combined. They live in 200k house and pay nearly 8k per year in taxes. They paid off home in 2010 (bought in 1990) and their taxes were basically the same as their mortgage payment. 204 schools in Naperville are great but that is a lot of taxes for middle class couple with grown kids.

Still, NWI is very dependent on Chicago economy. Taxes will continue to rise and eventually (hopefully sooner than later) people will say enough and cut the public pensions. It will not be fun but Chicago and Illinois will get thru it.

I think we may see more middle income people look at NWI. I just wish areas like Munster and St nouns would do more to attract higher income folks and the amenities that come with (restaurants like Cheesecake Factory and better, better stores - actual Nordstrom and not just Rack).

Btw, Cheesecake Factory isn't even that great but it is a start and reflective of amenities found in nicer areas.

[Humboldt1]

Previously, people mentioned Hoist Liftruck moving their plant and 500 jobs to NWI.

That is great for moving working class jobs but the owner still loves in Burr Ridge and many of the professionals who work on this account continue to be located in Illinois. Banker sits downtown and lives in western burbs for instance.

Owner Marty specifically said he moved to Indiana because he was having a hard time finding welders at their existing plant in Bedford Park IL.

Welders are great but I would like to see more professionals with high paying jobs move to NWI and maybe this is starting to happen.

I am considering areas like Munster but continue to have concerns over long commute and lack of upscale amenities.

And to repeat, you can live in Indiana but if you work in Illinois you are almost as vulnerable as this who live and work in Illinois.

[jvr789]

Originally Posted by Humboldt1

I do see others struggle with taxes. In laws are middle class Hispanics and make less than 100k combined. They live in 200k house and pay nearly 8k per year in taxes. They paid off home in 2010 (bought in 1990) and their taxes were basically the same as their mortgage payment. 204 schools in Naperville are great but that is a lot of taxes for middle class couple with grown kids.

Still, NWI is very dependent on Chicago economy. Taxes will continue to rise and eventually (hopefully sooner than later) people will say enough and cut the public pensions. It will not be fun but Chicago and Illinois will get thru it.

I think we may see more middle income people look at NWI. I just wish areas like Munster and St nouns would do more to attract higher income folks and the amenities that come with (restaurants like Cheesecake Factory and better, better stores - actual Nordstrom and not just Rack).

Btw, Cheesecake Factory isn't even that great but it is a start and reflective of amenities found in nicer areas.

As someone who really enjoyed all the different restaurants in Chicago, after moving to Munster I was somewhat resigned to the fact that I would have to take a big step down in terms of dining options. Surprisingly, we have found a really diverse set of places that serve good if not great food. I'm not one to really like chains myself (whether it is Cheesecake or Applebee's). There are good non-chain options here like Café Borgia that are more upscale but also great hidden gems like Memo's Tacos. If I moved away, I would seriously miss Memo's. Downtown CP is pretty cute with a number of non-chain restaurants like Prime Steakhouse which has a good vibe. The point is at least on the food front there are definitely some good options here. No, it isn't like living in downtown Chicago where you have new "hot" concepts pop up (and then many times shut down) every other week but I doubt you are going to find that in most burbs across the nation anyway...

[Humboldt1]

Some good BBQ joints and whiskey bars. It is more than just 3 Floyd's.

Applebee's and Cheesecake Factory are not in same league though both chains. Applebee's will go in almost anywhere with more than 10k people.

Panera is a slightly better comp (still not as particular as Cheesecake Factory) and Munster has one of those.

I just wish Munster had higher end amenities and a walkable downtown (even a fake one created by developers like the Glen in Glenview) would be nice.

Good luck getting your employer to just move so you can pay lower taxes and have lower COL, even if you know the CEO. This is hard for those working at small private companies and even harder for those of us who work for multinational corporations.

I know Marty at Hoist well and used to bank him. He only moved to Indiana for tax abatements and because he didn't want to pay higher wages for his employees. Savvy businessman but far from humanitarian.

[flamadiddle]

Looks like we'll be bucking the trend and moving back to Illinois. We looked hard at NWI, but in the end it just didn't work for us. We're currently making offers on homes in the St. Charles and Geneva area. St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia along with their downtowns, restaurants/shopping, biking trails/forest preserves, riverfront and of course the schools just blow away anything in NWI. I don't like paying higher taxes, but in some cases, it's worth it...

[Humboldt1]

Where will work be?

The areas you mention are Fox Valley and pretty far west. Great suburbs but pretty far west for folks working downtown. One of my analysts lives in St Charles and commutes downtown everyday and hates it. She is looking to move to Elmhurst but has resisted because she is able to rent family's townhome in St Charles very cheap. 10 min drive to Geneva and then another 70 min on train. Total commute is almost 90 mins each way.

By contrast, in Oak Park, 5 min walk to train and 16 mins to loop and another 5 mins to office. 26mins each way for me.

I used to work in downtown St Charles. Very cute town with great people and food. Unfortunately not very close to any expressways (kinda like much of Orland Park).