Working in Batavia, Looking for suburb recommendation (Chicago, Aurora: apartment, rental)

[riversabound]

Hello-
I am moving from the Cleveland area, to Illinois in about 2 months. My office location will be on the east side of Batavia.

Looking at a map, I was thinking that a location north of 56, west of 294, south of 20, and east of 355 would be good; somewhere around Downers Grove.

I am a male in my mid twenties, and do not know anyone in Illinois. I would like to be close enough to the Chicago, that I can visit on weekends, or when friends come to see me. However, I would also like to be close to work with a commute no greater than 35 minutes.

I like small towns, but also realize that my potential for meeting friends may be stunted by living somewhere tiny, so I am willing to branch out and move somewhere with a good young professional population.

That being said, I want to live in a nice area with little crime, good schools, and intellectual opportunities.

I would like to rent a townhouse, or condo for less than $2000/ month.

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide.

[gardener34]

If you are mid-twenties I would stay mostly out of the Tri-cities area as there is not too much to do there for young person night life (although there are quite a few taverns in downtown St. Charles) they are light on the townshouses for rent.
I would go into the west side of Naperville/Aurora personally. The commute wouldn't be that bad to Batavia. Cannot tell you a development name though... napervill-ites? Naperville has a metra train.

[TempesT68]

I'd stay in the area. St. charles and geneva are both great towns, plus it will make your commute easy. Downer's would be terrible during the winter in the snow and would get old real fast. St. charles also has an excellent nightlife and geneva has a train going downtown.

[sgresident]

There is a lot of things available in the naperville(along rt 59) corridor as far as developments. also, along Kirk Road(you want to stay north of 56)There are also some developments along 56. I also don't know names because I am not around there that much. you should definitely be able to find a rental unit under 2000

[MikeBoom]

I live in Naperville and I think it would suit you well. It's within the commuting distance you suggest, is easily accessible to Chicago by Metra, and has a vibrant downtown with a lot of restaurants and bars that attract a young crowd. Batavia, St. Charles, and Geneva are all nice towns, but I think the vibe of their business districts is a little sedate for most twenty-somethings.

I'm not sure what you'd define as "intellectual opportunities," but North Central College is located in downtown Naperville, offering educational opportunities and a wide range of performing arts. Apart from that, downtown Naperville doesn't have an abundance of live entertainment, except for a comedy club and live music in many of the bars.

Making up for that, to some extent, is the fact that downtown Chicago is an easy train ride from Naperville, particularly on weekdays, when there are a number of trains that take only a little over 30 minutes to get to Union Station.

If you can find something that works for you, I'd suggest living as close to downtown Naperville as you can. You should be able to find a nice apartment or townhouse for $2,000/month.