Downers Grove vs. LaGrange (Naperville, Bolingbrook: houses, neighborhood, to buy)

[babe588]

My family is looking in Downers Grove and LaGrange for a house to live in, we are originally from Oak Park. We are most concerned about schools - any thoughts about either or both school systems?

[ofcjim40]

As far as I know you can't go wrong with either. I know more about DG as far as schools go, and I know they are good. Of course you can check the ratings online. Don't know much about LaGrange schools, but I've always liked the area.

[AuDiBelle]

Both are nice towns with good schools. I think LaGrange is slightly more of a destination town than DG however.

[rfr69]

Originally Posted by whatyousay

Both are nice towns with good schools. I think LaGrange is slightly more of a destination town than DG however.

Both have nice little downtowns but neither is really a destination town. The tobagan slides used to be cool and a reason to go there but those shut down a few years ago.

Both burbs are pretty similar in schools, layout and even surrounding towns. DG is nice that its close to Naperville with dt naperville, riverwakl, libraries, etc, Lisle with the arboretum and ski hill in 4 lakes, aurora for fox valley, oakbrook for the mall, etc.

Lagrange is the same way, nice burbs all around it like orland, tinley, palos, etc.

[AuDiBelle]

Originally Posted by rfr69

Both have nice little downtowns but neither is really a destination town. The tobagan slides used to be cool and a reason to go there but those shut down a few years ago.

Both burbs are pretty similar in schools, layout and even surrounding towns. DG is nice that its close to Naperville with dt naperville, riverwakl, libraries, etc, Lisle with the arboretum and ski hill in 4 lakes, aurora for fox valley, oakbrook for the mall, etc.

Lagrange is the same way, nice burbs all around it like orland, tinley, palos, etc.

LaGrange and Downers Grove are both closer to one another than either is to Naperville, Orland, or Tinley.

As a destination town, I meant that LaGrange is more highly sought after as a place to buy a home and settle down (not visit, sorry for the confusion) than Downers Grove. Yes, both are very nice and similar in many ways, but given a choice between the two, I think more people would choose LG over DG all things being equal.

[chet everett]

I think maybe some of the previous posters are confused -- I know dozens of folks in LaGrange and Downers Grove and they consider the towns pretty different.

LaGrange is much more uniformly "charming". While Downers Grove does have a few spots with more vintage style homes it was mostly built out in an era when subdivisions were in vogue. Shopping at one of Downers Grove's modern strip mall style market areas is much more common than strolling along the well developed sections near the train stations. While most folks in LaGrange do probably drove to the grocery a huge number of folks can and do walk to the many restaurants and shops along LaGrange Rd., bumping into neighbors there is much more likely / common than a similar thing happening in DG...

There are no real bargains in either town. The tippy top prices in LaGrange and Downera Groveshow that demand for large well constructed homes of recent vintage or those of a by gone era are still in demand. There are many executives and physicians as well as commodity traders and the like that can afford the $1M+ prices that the biggest houses in each command. Similarly there are many people that would choose to pay half that fora nice suburban style house with an attached garage and big back yard in Downers Grove as well as folks that might prefer a more compact neighborhood where they could walk to the train and have a detected garage as is more common in LaGrange. Really a matter of personal taste.

On paper the schools are similar, but there are some differences in practice. For starters the why that Lyons Township High is organized the frosh / soph and jr / sr campuses are HUGE. Kids come together from far more feeder schools than at either Downers North (which is on Main Street and servers the more traditional areas of DG as well as parts of Oak Brook) or Downers South (which serves spread out over Darien, Woodrodge, and fringes of Lemont and Bolingbrook).

The elementary and jr highs in DG have a different sort of feel than those in Lagrange too-- the more traditional architecture and walkable / bicycle friendly character of the town make it less likely that kids rely ofn school buses. I think this contributes to different levels of participation in extra curriculars too.

Kids can get well prepared for college in either area, but there are noticeable variations in what happens along the way...


(btw neither town ever had any toboggan runs, there were some in Western Springs and Palos but the County Forest preserve pulled financial support from those and destroyed them several years back, thank you mr Stroger...)

[AuDiBelle]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I think maybe some of the previous posters are confused -- I know dozens of folks in LaGrange and Downers Grove and they consider the towns pretty different.

Nope, I'm not confused at all. I was speaking in generalities, not nitpicking the specific differences. The towns are more similar than dissimilar in the greater scheme of things. That's not to say they don't have their differences, they do. Some of those differences can really only be felt in person by visiting the area, walking around, checking out the proximity to the schools and the layout of the town, etc. Believe it or not, you can post on a thread without always remarking on my posts. It gets old.

Originally Posted by chet everett

The elementary and jr highs in DG have a different sort of feel than those in Lagrange too-- the more traditional architecture and walkable / bicycle friendly character of the town make it less likely that kids rely ofn school buses. I think this contributes to different levels of participation in extra curriculars too.

Umm, not sure what you're talking about here unless you were referring to DG. The elementary schools in LG are all neighborhood schools, as in, the kids walk or bike to and from school. Your post was very unclear as to which town you're talking about.

Originally Posted by chet everett

(btw neither town ever had any toboggan runs, there were some in Western Springs and Palos but the County Forest preserve pulled financial support from those and destroyed them several years back, thank you mr Stroger...)

This is true.

[chet everett]

No disrespect meant to any posters. I agree that there are some similarity between the towns, as is the case for many towns along the BNSF and UP-W line. That said I do think that no one should move to either town without also considering the alternatives. Lagrange comes out well against Western Springs, Hinsdale, Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn, and Clarendon Hills. Similarly parts of Downers Grove would comp out against those towns as well as Naperville or Woodridge, Darien, Lisle or Willowbrook.
Distance to train / town will be bigger factors than anything else for value.

Not going to find many folks cross shopping newer areas to the southwest...