Looking to make the Move to the Chicago Area (Arlington Heights: real estate, rentals)

[rdwoelfe]

Hello everyone. First let me start off by introducing myself. My name is Rob and I am married with two children looking to move to the Chicago area from South Bend, IN. I am originally from Indianapolis, but I also know that Indy is nothing like Chicago, in fact I say that it is a rain drop in Lake Michigan in comparison. I have visited a few times in the last few years since it is a quick shot over on the South Shore, but I know virtually nothing outside of visiting my family who lives their now, brother in Ukrainian Village and Sister/Brother-in-law in Elmhurst.

I am a manager at Home Depot so I would have a job lined up, but I want the challenge of working in one of the city stores, convenience of being able to take a trip into town, but the security of living in a suburb or outlying neighborhood might possibly bring. We only have one car to help keep costs down, we are rather frugal in a way, so being in an area with a Metra rail is a must as would having work close to that Metra rail once being closer to the city as my wife would keep the care to take care of the kids while I am at work. I have done a little bit of research, but I want to get some unbiased advice, my brother and in-laws keep saying "live near us it's perfect for you". There are three Home Depots convenient to the Union Pacific Northwest Line that terminates in Harvard. So with that in mind in your opinion what neighborhood or village along that line has a combination of good schools, affordable living, and also family attractions like parks etc.

Thank you in advance to anyone who offers some advice and let me apologize for rambling, giving too much info, or any grammatical and spelling errors.

[chet everett]

I have no idea if your relatives make signficantly more or less than your salary would be nor do I know if either your brother or your sister / brother-in-law have school aged children. I would ask their honest opinions on the very signficant differences in school quality between a desirable suburb like Elmhurst and the very complicated procedure needed to find a good performing school inside Chicago.

I would not recommend Metra for commutes that are likely NOT to office centric employment hubs in the Loop and nearby parts of Chicago. It is technically feasible but rarely time efficient.

Depending on what you could afford there are LOTS of Home Depot locations throughout the region and it probably makes sense to try to get a position in one store that would give you the easiest commute, have the nicest mix of housing in your budget and have the greatest potential for success.

Those things MIGHT be found in either the closer in suburbs where folks do remodel / upgrade OR in the areas with newer homes a bit further out. I suppose the HD stores inside Chicago would also be worth considering as some of the same forces of remodeling are present, though likely different deographics...

Basically without more DETAILS of what you want / need and what you'd like to avoid it is too hard to make suggestions...

[linicx]

How old are your children? What is your rent budget? How much time do you want to spend traveling between HD and home? Rush hour in Chicago is 6 hours every day but Sunday. Your children will be better served in a suburb than in city schools. There are some lovely areas in the city but most of those parent send junior off to a private school.

Since you do not have a store location allow me to present some examples.

Evanston and Oak Park both have parks, and some amazing stuff for children thru the libraries, family events, and city events. Evanston is larger, a bit farther from the Loop than Oak Park, and it has a big university, the vibe is different than Oak Park. OP shares a border with Chicago and has many of the same amenities as Chicago. The vibe feels more Chicago than suburb. Both are family, professional, upscale, communities. Under normal fair weather conditions its about 20 min ride from OP to the Loop via train. The political vibe is a bit different in each suburb, too. .

Chicago has an amazing variety of transportation. For instance if you worked in Chinatown, even if you lived in OP, you hop a train and then take the Water Taxi from Loop to Chinatown. After the novelty wore off, the distance would be tedious, yet people do it every day. Living in an Alpha+ city has trade-offs and you will bear the brunt of it in a big, busy store and travel. Do consider all your options carefully. BTW, if you are too frugal you may not not be living in safe area with the good schools you want.

[rdwoelfe]

chet everett and linicx,
Thank you for your reply. I realized after I posted that I didn't leave enough information, but had to make it to an appt. so had no time to edit. My brother works makes much less than I do, but has roommates. My in-laws make a bit more than I do, $30-40k more we tend not to discuss our salaries, but based on some past conversations I can gather it is in that range. I know some of that would be drawn down with a cost of living increase that would come with the move, since I can't know for a fact if that would be a $10k or $20K bump per year until I start making formal inquiries (still about 2 years off of the move, just want to have time to visit different areas a few times before we start truly looking at real estate or rentals).

But a few bits of info that I forgot:
Rent: Would like to stay under $1500 per month either mortgage or rent (prefer to rent at first)

Kids: 2 sons by the time we would be looking at the move one would be around 6 the other around 3 so good safe schools are a definite along with a safe neighborhood

Commute: I honestly have never lived more than 15 minutes from work, but I would be willing to look at around an hour or less trip to an from. That is why I mentioned the train it seemed run fairly frequently close to times I either go into or leave work.

Places to work: I am open to working much closer to home. I just have a few friends that have experienced both Urban Chicago Stores (north ave) and the suburb stores (schaumburg) and they all have said that the city stores we an experience worth having.

People: I am a working class kind of guy, I like to get my hands dirty so I have no problem living around other working class families as long as the majority of that working isn't spent slinging drugs.

Basically I am an open book at this point. I have spent time in both my brother's and in law's neighboorhoods and looked into the schools. UV is somewhere I would have liked to live during college and Elmhurst is somewhere I want to raise a family, but I also know that the range in housing is a bit more than I can actually afford and still live comfortably. I was hoping to just get ideas of neighborhoods to look into that weren't on my radar just because I didn't know about them.

Thanks again for the replies.

[cubssoxfan]

You mention stores along the Metra line; getting from the train to the store may pose a challenge since suburban bus service is spottier and scarcer than city/CTA bus service. For example, the palatine store or even the Mt. Prospect store are too far to walk and may not have bus service or service that coincides with your hours. So to avoid the expense of 2 cars, here's a suggestion. Rent or buy in an area that is walkable. Near downtown Arlington Heights comes to mind. Your wife can walk to grocery store, library and parks while you take the car to get to work. If you work at a nearby store like Mt. Prospect, then she can also drop you off and pick you up and have a few days where she gets the car. Living near the Metra line in AH also opens up the possibility of working at the North Av. store in Chicago. It is only a few blocks from the Clybourn station on the same line.