Ridiculous wish list, need advice (Evanston, Oak Park: for rent, house, safe neighborhood)

[ProMa]

Hello all, I am new here but have been reading for a while. I lived in the NW burbs most of my childhood, before we moved to the Southwest. My ex husband and I are both from there, and we are planning a move back, along with our two children, who will be ages 7 and 5 when we move, and my husband. It's been a long time since I've lived there and I'm really struggling with where to live. We will be renting and my husband and I currently make around 160k a year. Just to be safe, we plan to make the same there (not going to bother adjusting for cost of living in this economy). Our kids go to a charter school and my son (7 yr old) is in a gifted program, we love the setup of the more family oriented style and smaller classes. We are city people at heart, but our families live in the NW burbs (Highland Park, Grayslake, and Gurnee). The other catch is, we will be renting and due to the logistics of the move, my husband will be the only one working through the summer, as I will not be job hunting until the kids are back in school, so our income will be cut in half. We will have savings to cover the budget during this time, but not up to our 160k a year level. We will be renting for the foreseeable future and have a budget of about $2000 a month for rent alone (not including utilities). So to wrap up, we are considering Evanston, Oak Park, Gurnee, Lindenhurst, Highland Park, Deerfield, and Northbrook. I'm listing our wishlist in order of importance, and would love suggestions on where we should be narrowing this down. Thanks!

1. Good schools
2. Safe neighborhood
3. Less than an hour commute to NW suburbs
4. Easy access to conveniences (Target, Walgreens, grocery stores, etc.)
5. Less than an hour commute to downtown
6. Urban lifestyle, we really like diversity, things to do (we are not homebodies), being able to walk to the coffee shop on a Saturday morning
7. Some sort of yard/patio

Again, thanks for any advice/insight!

[Avengerfire]

If you are looking for "diversity" you need to cross off Lindenhurst, Highland Park, Deerfield, and Northbrook right away.

[TempesT68]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

If you are looking for "diversity" you need to cross off Lindenhurst, Highland Park, Deerfield, and Northbrook right away.

Agreed. Otherwise from your list evanston sounds like the city you are looking for.

[ProMa]

Thanks. I'm heavily leaning toward Evanston as well, it seems like it meets all our needs. The only concern I have is most of my family is in Highland Park and a big reason for moving back would be to spend a lot of time with them, which would be difficult if we had to commute 45 minutes every time. Do you all think finding a reasonable sized house in a safe (I mean city, realistic safe, not middle of nowhere safe) area is do-able in Evanston on 1500-2000 a month?

[TempesT68]

First i would factor in where your husband will be working. Also is visiting family just on the weekends? Or will you go numerous times a week?

[ProMa]

Visiting family would be as often as possible. My husband is a database administrator so he's got a somewhat broad range of areas. Is the commute worse going from North to South and back or vice versa?

[chitown85]

The commute is bad going into the city in the morning and coming back out to the burbs at night. Conversely, the commute out of the city in the morning is not as bad, but terrible at night going back toward the city. It's a no win situation really. It just depends on how long you are willing to sit in the car (or train- which many find preferable). Evanston to Highland Park isn't bad, especially on weekends. But I-94 and I-294 (if you live west like in Morton Grove) do get backed up quite a bit, though in my experience, I-90 to/from the NW burbs is by far the worst, following by the Ike (I-290) to/from the West burbs. The benefit of Oak Park is the quickness of the El and METRA to the city and back, but traffic into downtown and the Loop is still bad.

[ProMa]

Thanks chitown, that helps a ton. I've been talking to my family there but most of them have jobs without regular commutes (realtors, etc.) or work in the same suburb they live in. So here's the next million dollar question... is it feasible to live on about 85k a year in the 'burbs without eating ramen every night, assuming we're renting at 1500 to 2k a month? I'm starting to panic about the likelihood of both of us being fortunate enough to land jobs quickly.

[AuDiBelle]

Here's a suggestion, and I have no idea how feasible it is BUT is there any possibility of staying with family short term until you're both on your feet employment-wise? That way you won't have to worry as much about having only one income, and it gives you time to scope out the areas you would like to live and eventually buy. I know you stated you have kids. Will they be going to public or private schools? This suggestion might be easier if you're going the private route.

[ProMa]

I'm honestly not sure yet whether they will go to public or private schools. I'd say if only one of us is working, private school is probably out, which is OK as long as we're in a good district. As for staying with relatives, I know if we were really down and out we could definitely do that, but I would prefer not to. My aunts and uncles have downsized since they all have grown kids, and my cousins all have families of their own so there isn't much room to spare. If it's really not possible to survive on one income for any length of time there, we'd more likely postpone the move.