Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst or Downers Grove? (Chicago, Evanston: for sale, renters, condos)

[moonkus]

My partner and I will be buying a house in the next couple months, we are looking to spend about 195,000-230,000. We both work in the oak park area but are reluctant to live where we work. Also concerned about crime in Oak Park. A main priority is being within walking distance to something (stores, library, etc). Looking for a place we can ditch the car on the weekends and walk most places.

Any suggestions about how conservative these areas are or aren't?

Suggestions of other neighborhoods?

Thanks!

[Vlajos]

crime isn't bad in Oak park

[linicx]

There is at least one poster who lives in Oak Park who can tell you much more.

It is an older village with mature trees, the largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright designed buidlgings in the world, the childhood home of Ernest Hemmingway, Iand it is probably one of the most truly diverse communities in Cook County; It always has been. There are some areas that are as safe as anywhere in the world, and nearby communitites that are a bit rough around the edges.
K-8 is very decent. 9-12, well, teenagers have their issues and so do schools. There is always the options of private or homeschool. You will not need a car most of the time. OP has the trains, bus, taxi, zip car and limo driver. Trader Joe's is in OP, too. You'll need a garage or covered parking more than you will the car to do most things.

What you might consider is contacting the Oak Park Regional Housing Center. They can help you find a short term rental while you look for a place to buy. OP certainly has diverse and interesting housing stock. You might find that you can rent what you want cheaper than you can buy it.

[chet everett]

Be very very very very very very very very very leery of any "advice" from the folks that run Oak Park's Housing Center ESPECIALLY AT THE LOW END OF THE MARKET!!!! Their well documented practice to gloss over property crime has them steer folks into areas that are going to be quite a bit less stable / desirable than the "median", which really is not all that unsafe, but a MUCH HIGHER PRICED...

Frankly with $230k as your ceiling I doubt you are going to find much in even Berwyn or a Brookfield that won't need quite a bit work if you want to be in a "walk the whole weekend" location and Ber & Bro are my "go to" burbs for value with few / no real safety issues...

[moonkus]

my partner is a police officer in oak park and i can assure you there is crime in oak park. does anyone have suggestions of other good burbs? any thoughts on Lombard? Brookfield?

[chet everett]

There are probably cop-to-cop channels of communication that would useful to avoid the "rowdiest" areas of any town, though not sure how much mixing there is between cops in Cook Co. And the surrounding collar counties.

There are parts of Lomabrd that have come way down in price that are still nice -- lots of good parks and such. Schools in Lombard are a notch below those in Downers Grove or Glen Ellyn, but still very acceptable compared to most parts of Chicago.

Personally I like Brookfield an awful lot too -- big advantage in my mind is just the nice compact size of town. The east part of Brookfield, Hollywood, shares school district with Riverside and that seems to be a plus. Not a huge percentage of renters either, so that keeps the transient count low.

[moonkus]

chet or others? can you recommend an area of berwyn to look at - is the depot district good?

also are there areas of lombard to look into/avoid? Lombard is a really large suburb it seems and appears disconnected from one part of town to the other

[ToriaT]

I just looked at the mutiple listing service and there over fifty homes in Glen ellyn selling for between 2 and three hundred thousand. I looked at Refin today and there are several very charming houses for sale at "affordable" prices in Berwyn as well. Google this address 3525 S. Gunderson, Berwyn. Very charming house but there are a few others.



Glen Ellyn is very nice. If you want an inner suburb but not Oak Park, there are areas in Berwyn with charming vintage homes.

[Cat Man]

Originally Posted by moonkus

My partner and I will be buying a house in the next couple months, we are looking to spend about 195,000-230,000. We both work in the oak park area but are reluctant to live where we work. Also concerned about crime in Oak Park. A main priority is being within walking distance to something (stores, library, etc). Looking for a place we can ditch the car on the weekends and walk most places.

Any suggestions about how conservative these areas are or aren't?

Suggestions of other neighborhoods?

Thanks!

Glen Ellyn is very nice and yes Oak Park has its issues. Oak Park reminds me of Evanston. Beautiful tree lined streets with nice homes/condos and then you get mugged late at night.

[chet everett]

Crimes like muggings are not common in most parts of Evanston and all but unheard of in Glen Ellyn.

The OP is cop -- even in the roughest neighborhoods no sane thug will ever knowingly mug a cop. The retribution is brutal -- whole police force will exact retribution on even winos and stumble bums that mug cops....