Brit moving to Chicagoland, help needed please (Waukegan, Arlington Heights: buying a house, neighborhood)

[swedgeman]

Merry xmas to everyone. My wife,(Polish) and i (English) will be moving to Chicagoland in March. My wife is 2 months pregnant (our first) and we are looking to purchase a house ($500K ) around the May timeframe. I will be working in Libertyville and we are considering the following areas:

Evanston, Glenview, Wilmette area
Hoffman estates area
Vernon Hills area

In truth we are not too bothered about having easy access to Chicago but would like access to a 'town/village' with a vibrant downtown area. However i donot want a killer commute to Libertyville so if anyone can give me a good idea of the commute times to L`ville it would be useful. I have discounted L`ville simply because i would like to escape work after work so to speak. Any advice you can give me would be gratefully accepted.

[Tom1113]

Well, Evanston has a decent downtown area, BUT it is also a college town. There's a lot of kids, and driving around there is terrible. I've heard its getting a little rough, but I don't know how true that is.
Hoffman Estates is not that nice. It's too close to Schaumburg, so there's a lot of shopping around there, but it's too congested. If you want to be in that area, Arlington Heights and Mount Prospect are better.
Glenview and Wilmette are very nice areas.

[LadyPleiades]

I would say Evanston or Wilmette although Hoffman Estates or Vernon Hills are closer.

In terms of buying a house, make sure to stay in the Central St, McCormick, Crawford, Golf Rd section in Evanston. If you look in realtor.com and put in 500k max price, you can see about 6 houses in that neighborhood. Wilmette has slightly cheaper taxes but any location is good.

Downtown Wilmette is cute little village; Downtown Evanston is bigger but lots of fun, a destination for restaurants, movies, shopping. Of course both are easily accessible if you live in either place. My parents live in Wilmette and I live in Evanston and moved back here after living in Paris, Moenchengladbach, Venice Italy, Orlando, LA, and Iowa!!

[mendelman]

Go with Vernon Hills. It is next to Libertyville (to the south) and should give you zero commute (relatively speaking, of course).

All the others will require a minmum 30 minute commute and probably end up being 45 mins each way everyday.

[tcs1366]

I'd think if you want to keep your commute short[er]
don't look into Hoffman Est.

if you are working in Libertyville, look in the north to northwest 'burbs
where i would consider H.E. west burbs.

and Uggg, i was in Evanston over the weekend and traffic was awful ... it was snowing, but streets seem more narrow than i'm used to and way too many cars.

[ahava]

Originally Posted by tcs1366

and Uggg, i was in Evanston over the weekend and traffic was awful ... it was snowing, but streets seem more narrow than i'm used to and way too many cars.

The streets in Evanston are really narrow. I hate driving there, but I'm the type of person who freaks out about that.

[Frank the Tank]

Libertyville itself is very nice with a strong town center and a fantastic school system. A comparable house there will be a little more expensive than if it were in Vernon Hills or Hoffman Estates, but less expensive than Glenview, Wilmette, or Evanston.

[swedgeman]

Thanks to everyone for being so helpful. I have discounted HE and have put Arlington Heights on the list...any advice/comments??
Do VH and Glenview have a downtown of note?? by that i mean choice of restaurants, spots bar etc
I must also comment that Wilmette is looking a pretty strong contendor..so confusing so many great places.
I have lived in the UK, San Jose CA, and my current residence is Wiesbaden Germany. Each place has its positives which i like to focus on whilst keeping in mind the not so positive ( was that comment a little too CA!!). So please be as candid as you can. Once again much appreciated. Merry xmas everyone.

[yakijy]

If I was in your position, I'd look at Highland Park. Wilmette is nice, but probably more than $500k. If you want a cheap place, you could look at Waukegan or North Chicago.
If you are big into water sports, you can look at the Fox Lakes area. It's still relatively inexpensive to get a lakefront property there.

[Avengerfire]

Vernon Hills is very close to your job.