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Old 09-05-2014, 09:35 AM
 
28,455 posts, read 84,971,395 times
Reputation: 18725

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Old 09-06-2014, 12:24 PM
 
Location: All Over
4,003 posts, read 6,059,651 times
Reputation: 3162
Don't listen to all these people who say the only good part of AUrora is district 204. Ideally yeah you will want to be in 204 but west aurora isn't bad, you just want to avoid east aurora school district. If you don't mind townhouses or duplexes there is plenty of stuff for 80k to 150k in the district 204 area.
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Old 09-06-2014, 12:30 PM
 
Location: All Over
4,003 posts, read 6,059,651 times
Reputation: 3162
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lookout Kid View Post
Aurora, Elgin, Joliet, Waukegan, all have some similar characteristics... Sure, there are some small signs of "rebound" in all four of these downtown areas and they are not necessarily as dangerous to visit as they were in the 1990's, but none are really places I could recommend living in.

There are some nicer areas of Aurora, but you might be better off in a nearby town. I've always thought that Geneva would be a nice place to be an "empty nester" or retired person, but of course it is quite a bit more expensive than Aurora. Batavia is also nice. Whether or not you would be a "pest" to your kid is none of our business, and is between you and your child.
I wouldn't put Aurora in the same basket with Elgin, Joliet Waukegan. I think when 99.9% of people on these boards talk about Aurora they are talking about district 204 portion or over by orchard not the sketchy areas. It's like when people talk about the area over by caton farm as being joliet, thats more shorewood not really the same as joliet joliet.
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Old 09-08-2014, 02:04 AM
 
366 posts, read 490,182 times
Reputation: 751
Quote:
Originally Posted by doodlemagic View Post
Don't listen to all these people who say the only good part of AUrora is district 204. Ideally yeah you will want to be in 204 but west aurora isn't bad, you just want to avoid east aurora school district. If you don't mind townhouses or duplexes there is plenty of stuff for 80k to 150k in the district 204 area.
Oh come on, District 126 is horrible. My gosh the former Alderman for the 4th Ward would not even let his daughters walk to and from high school and he was 2 blocks away! They have virtually nothing to offer kids greatly above the curve, so some of the more proactive parents enroll their kids at Waubonsee Community College and get high school credit for their college classes(they can choose college or high school credit but not both (unfortunately IMO).

Greenman is a crap school period and nothing can be done about it when you have deal many 4th world refugees and lower class 2nd and 3rd world immigrants who do not have parents that value education (that is not a sweeping generalization of all immigrants, just those as described). Freeman, for all its rep has fallen badly in the last 15 years.

And Washington middle school, it is a gang recruitment center for gosh sake. And those are the good schools in District 129.

I do not know much about school rating sites, but I found this on zillow:

The graduation rate in Aurora West Usd 129 is 79%

That indicates to me 1 in 5 students fail in the district. I am one of those people that do not necessarily blame the schools, I blame the parents. So to me that is indicative of a large presence of a very undesirable element in the community.
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Old 09-08-2014, 08:40 AM
 
28,455 posts, read 84,971,395 times
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I don't generally like to rely on enrollment statistics about private schools because they can often shift very rapidly in response to economic challenges but from all indications anybody that can figure out a way to get into the various private schools in the Fox Valley whether by scholarship, scrimping / saving or some combination of extra jobs are doing so. That tends to suggest that folks are actively dissatisfied with the public schools...
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Old 09-08-2014, 10:09 AM
 
11,973 posts, read 31,644,361 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by doodlemagic View Post
I wouldn't put Aurora in the same basket with Elgin, Joliet Waukegan.
I think a lot of people think of Aurora in the same category as these other towns. Note that all four of them still have nice, safe areas with newer homes. Joliet in particular has seen explosive growth on it's fringes over the last 15 years. Waukegan is more of a Lake Michigan town instead of a river town like the other three. But I see a lot of commonalities.
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Old 09-09-2014, 01:31 AM
 
Location: Chicago
103 posts, read 149,892 times
Reputation: 190
Aurora is the 2nd largest city in Illinois...200,000 people. It has good areas and bad areas. Surely you can find something.

My Dad grew up in Aurora, I used to work in Aurora...so my 2 cents is if you have kids, Avoid East Aurora schools. If not; the East side south of New York street, West of Hill/Ohio, and North of 5th avenue is very well kept and reasonably priced. Very diverse area.

I like the west side a great deal, but it may be a tad more expensive...especially in those neighborhoods off downer. Lot's of old money, beautiful homes.

I'd recommend Aurora if you aren't counting the schools.
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Old 09-18-2014, 02:32 AM
 
1 posts, read 923 times
Reputation: 10
Skeach101 is absolutely right. I got lost in W Aurora and had to get directions from one of the police officers at W Aurora High School when it was letting out. There is a townhouse community called Hometown that I considered. The HOA varies on each property.
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Old 09-19-2014, 11:40 AM
 
Location: All Over
4,003 posts, read 6,059,651 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BeingFedInPlano View Post
Skeach101 is absolutely right. I got lost in W Aurora and had to get directions from one of the police officers at W Aurora High School when it was letting out. There is a townhouse community called Hometown that I considered. The HOA varies on each property.
Hometown I think is a cool concept but its not near shopping, trains, etc. It filters into east aurora schools, association fees are fairly high, and there's a ton of foreclosures and short sales in there. I sorta like the concept of a little community, I think something like that near downtown Naperville would be cool to get a lot of houses close together in walking distance to train and downtown and keep properties somewhat affordable by having small yards and stuff. Hometown never really took off though, probably because it was around the housing crash but really there's not much of a draw there, its not that convenient to rt 59 shopping, east aurora schools, the community aspect of having restaurants and stores never really took off most are vacant or insurance agents and massage places not really something like an ice cream shop for people to frequent. also parking in there seems like a nightmare.
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