Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My husband and I are moving to Chicago from New York City. We are originally from the Midwest, but unfamiliar with Chicago. We are looking for a nice-sized home, some greenery in our yard, good schools for our future family, a garage, walking distance to public transit, everything but the latter is what's missing for us in NYC! We want to live North or West of Chicago. His company at least for now will be based in Oak Brook and I will be hopefully working downtown.
We've found some great places in Berwyn, and it seems like the Berwyn South District has good schools , like Emerson and Blythe. What are your thoughts on safety and the neighborhood overall? We definitely want the comforts of suburbia with the options of urban life . . . we definitely want diversity for our growing family, but we also want to have security in our location. One of my favorite places I've found so far is by Proksa Park.
I think you will find some other threads on here regarding Berwyn including some that might have current or former residents weighing in. I personally like Berwyn. I love the vintage housing stock and affordable prices. Love the old bungaloes and two flats. I like that its easy to get into the city and that other suburbs like Oak Park and Riverside are neighbors. Personally I would live in the other two if I had the cash but Berwyn is much more affordable. There are many naysayers and some who will steer you to Brookfield or elsewhere because Berwyn has a Hispanic population they are wary of. But Brookfields housing stock I find rather insipid. I have been there over the past few years on quite a few visits and it looks pretty safe to me. I think the consensus is that the southwest side of the town is the most desirable. I see quite a few businesses in Berwyn and others seem to be moving in. Many of the newer residents seem to be Berwyn boosters so that is a good thing. Old timers will mourn how Berwyn has changed but you can not go back in history. My last comment is that it seems pretty close for commuting purposes to Oak Brook so that is good.
If you live in NYC the COL outside of the City of Chicago may come as a pleasant surprise. Oak Park is an inner ring upscale suburb that shares a border street (Austin) with the City of Chicago. If you have kids the Oak Park Library is well regarded and has programs for all ages. It has a pretty nice city park system that includes a dog park too. Oak Park is a little more city than most suburbs and seems to offer more services and amenities to residents. It is, I think, a very different breed of cat, so to speak.
I lived in Berwyn back in the ice age. My neighbors were Italian, Czech, and Polish who spoke little or some broken English. It was a nice area of the brick bungalows. Yes the face of Berwyn is changing. Perhaps it is not such a bad thing. The Hispanic families I knew were not any more anxious to live in a drug infested, gang controlled, ghetto in an apartment owned by a slumlord than I was. They were nice people trying to live the American dream just as everyone else on the block was.
What I would say since you do not know this area well, is rent for six months or a year, and get your feet on the ground. You don't know where you are going to work - which most likely will make a difference in where you ultimately buy a house. Cook County for instance is some 1000 square miles and growing. And Some suburbs have little or no transportation into the city. Each suburb in Cook County is as different as the 1000 little neighborhoods in the City.
Just remember to check the additional taxes for each city. Some are very high! What seems affordable as housing prices can be deceptive when taxes and city fees are added.
I have lived in Berwyn 23 out of 24 years of my life, so I think I can provide some insights. South Berwyn is definitely more appealing than North Berwyn. There is an effort to revitalize Roosevelt Road, which is located on the northern boundary, but the areas closest to it in Berwyn are not the safest, to be frank. My girlfriend lived one block south of Roosevelt and one could easily find graffiti on garages, as well as unsavory types walking around at night. Last week someone TAGGED A DOG, off of 24th and Elmwood. I would not recommend Berwyn north of the IC tracks (these largely run north of the BNSF tracks and intersect at the east end of town.) South Berwyn is certainly not a bad choice, there is quite a variety of architecture. Bungalows, Georgians, Victorians, 4-squares, etc. are more reasonably priced than in neighboring Riverside.
Also, to make it clear Blythe school is in Riverside. South Berwyn elementary schools are in District 100 and Morton West High School is in 201. I grew up around 35th and Maple (one street east of Harlem, close to Riverside). This area has few issues compared to the other end of town, and I've never felt unsafe there. AFIAK, taxes are lower here, but you are getting schools with lower performance. The elementary schools are passable (esp. Emerson and Irving), but as the kids get older you may not like the culture they encounter. They will be in the minority if they actually perform above grade level. The facilities in the high school leave much to be desired, students share outdated textbooks and have outdated technology. They might feel out of place, since this area has a blue-collar ethic that doesn't put education as a top priority (most adults with kids in the public schools are not highly educated themselves.)
There are people here working to improve the schools, but they are in the minority. Especially at the high school level, the school board is run largely by puppet of the political machine of neighboring Cicero.
Now that I got that off of my chest, the some of the pros of Berwyn are the proximity of downtown Chicago (you can see the skyline from the Metra station), 3 metra stations, a hospital close by, and 20 minutes to Oak Brook. If you are placing your children in private schools and living on the south end, I would have no reservations, but otherwise I would look into Brookfield. It is similar to South Berwyn and has better schools.
Good synopsis Mark. All pretty much true. Hopefully the attitudes regarding education will continue to improve as it is important. I think we are getting more and more educated families who understand this. They just need to start producing and voting for good school board candidates for D201, which hasn't happened yet. It will in time I think.
Also, as to taxes, Berwyn's are in the 4-5k/year range on a typical SFH. In Oak Park or Riverside they will be $10-12k, so it's a pretty significant difference that really adds up over time. That's enough to pay for private elementary school (like St. Mary, St. Leonard or the Children's School) and have some left over.
The relative size of Cook Co is completely irrelevant in the context of the OP's question. What is important is what their hopes / aspirations are for the future and how compatible these are with those of the neighbors they choose to live near. If your budget is such that you absolutely cannot afford a rougher fixer-upper in a nicer town like LaGrange then Berwyn is probably a nice alternative, but the direction of Lagrange is much less uncertain than Berwyn or even Brookfield...
I generally tend to say that renting might make sense, but the difficulty in some towns is there is BIG disparity in what is available for rental vs purchase. Berwyn is one of those towns. Depending on what your total budget is and the relative ease of getting to Oak Brook (which is not well served by public transit at all) vs getting to the Loop (which is very well served with transit) it may be wise to do the math on total commute time & money factoring driving and other options and then decide what leaves the most budget to get any kind of home....
The relative size of Cook Co is completely irrelevant in the context of the OP's question. What is important is what their hopes / aspirations are for the future and how compatible these are with those of the neighbors they choose to live near. If your budget is such that you absolutely cannot afford a rougher fixer-upper in a nicer town like LaGrange then Berwyn is probably a nice alternative, but the direction of Lagrange is much less uncertain than Berwyn or even Brookfield...
I generally tend to say that renting might make sense, but the difficulty in some towns is there is BIG disparity in what is available for rental vs purchase. Berwyn is one of those towns. Depending on what your total budget is and the relative ease of getting to Oak Brook (which is not well served by public transit at all) vs getting to the Loop (which is very well served with transit) it may be wise to do the math on total commute time & money factoring driving and other options and then decide what leaves the most budget to get any kind of home....
In 2005-07 when people were paying $300,000 for average sized bungalows in north Berwyn, I'd have definitely agreed with you. Today though, you can buy a decent house in south Berwyn for about 200k, or even less if you are willing to take on a fixer upper. At today's 3.5% APR on a 30 year fixed rate loan, that's about $800 bucks a month, plus another $375 for property taxes. Not a lot for a house. And after the mortgage interest and real estate tax deductions are factored in, your real monthly housing cost is probably going to be in the $750-800/month range -- for a house with a yard and a garage about 20 minutes from the Loop by train. You aren't going to be able to rent something in a decent area for that cheap.
I won't sit here and tell you Berwyn doesn't face challenges. But I think that at today's prices, it's a pretty decent bet that you at least wouldn't lose money if you had to sell in 5 years. And if the community becomes more desirable, as it very well could, there's a pretty big upside if you buy in now. My $.02.
My comments were really meant to encourage ownership over renting in the current environent. I agree that with the sort of "oh my gosh" low 30 yr fixed rates and depressed selling prices it is hard to find a rental that is as good a value as home purchase.
The real "pinch point" for the OP is going to be deciding what there total budget and time-to-work equation looks like -- there are a fair number of really good values in Berwyn, with those that are well under $200k being almost too nice to not just jump right into...
If the budget is like $225-$300k it might be smarter to consider other towns, especially for the OP's commute to Oak Brook...
The one caveat is that the future direction of towns with a longer tradition of desirable schools are likely to weather any slides in income that would further depress housing prices much better than those that have long had issues with the unfortunate political domination of school boards with an agenda for other than academic performance.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BRU67
In 2005-07 when people were paying $300,000 for average sized bungalows in north Berwyn, I'd have definitely agreed with you. Today though, you can buy a decent house in south Berwyn for about 200k, or even less if you are willing to take on a fixer upper. At today's 3.5% APR on a 30 year fixed rate loan, that's about $800 bucks a month, plus another $375 for property taxes. Not a lot for a house. And after the mortgage interest and real estate tax deductions are factored in, your real monthly housing cost is probably going to be in the $750-800/month range -- for a house with a yard and a garage about 20 minutes from the Loop by train. You aren't going to be able to rent something in a decent area for that cheap.
I won't sit here and tell you Berwyn doesn't face challenges. But I think that at today's prices, it's a pretty decent bet that you at least wouldn't lose money if you had to sell in 5 years. And if the community becomes more desirable, as it very well could, there's a pretty big upside if you buy in now. My $.02.
I'm really amazed at the number of people who do not see the value of schools to the community, and how easily manipulated they are by those unfortunate political forces. Lack of education can only be a partial explanation for this. No one could possibly be that stupid.
But again, I think as times change, people will change, and this will become more front and center in the consciousness of the residents as a whole. And this will be fostered by encouraging good people to take a chance on the community. And with prices and interest rates as they are, why not, especially if, as you say, your budget is such where it fits?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
South Berwyn is definitely more appealing than North Berwyn. There is an effort to revitalize Roosevelt Road, which is located on the northern boundary, but the areas closest to it in Berwyn are not the safest, to be frank. My girlfriend lived one block south of Roosevelt and one could easily find graffiti on garages, as well as unsavory types walking around at night. Last week someone TAGGED A DOG, off of 24th and Elmwood. I would not recommend Berwyn north of the IC tracks (these largely run north of the BNSF tracks and intersect at the east end of town.) South Berwyn is certainly not a bad choice, there is quite a variety of architecture. Bungalows, Georgians, Victorians, 4-squares, etc. are more reasonably priced than in neighboring Riverside. 
I think we are in agreement...
