Need advice: Lake Barrington+public schools or Hoffman Estates+private schools? (Elgin: house prices, buying)

[nwsuburbs_resident]

Hi Folks,

We are looking for a house to buy in the next 6 months in the NW suburbs. I work in Lake Zurich and my wife works in Hanover Park. We have 2 kids that will start school next year.

Until now, we were thinking about buying a house in the Barrington area (North/South/Lake/Inverness) thinking about the great 220 school district. However the house prices and property taxes are very high in these areas and the houses available are dated and not much to our liking in terms of floorplans. We also looked north toward Kildeer/Lincolnshire/etc. but there the taxes are even more outrageous.

So now our thought process has changed in that we are thinking to buy in Hoffman Estates/Elgin/Palatine and send the kids to private schools (in Schaumburg/Arlington Heights/etc.). Prices/Taxes are definitely lower in Hoffman Estates/Elgin for similar houses. And we could use the delta in the taxes to pay for private schools. We checked the private school fees and think they are reasonable as long as we pay very low property taxes (for eg. property tax in Hoffman Estates = 14000 + private tuition for 2 kids = 10000 is almost the same as property tax in Lake Barrington = 22000. In addition, we get a bigger/more modern house).

But as you can tell, we are in a quandary regarding what to do. I would really appreciate your thoughts on which is the best way to go for us. Are private schools (eg. Schaumburg Christian school or St. Peter Lutheran in Arlington Heights) really a lot better than the 220 schools? Or is it worth paying around 22K in property taxes and the higher prices in Lake Barrington for the 220 schools? Any other insights are much appreciated.

Thanks.

[cubssoxfan]

Why not look in Palatine and sections of Hoffman Estates that feed into D15 and Fremd HS?? Or sections of Arlington Heights that feed into D25 and Hersey or prospect HS?