Help me find an affordable family home near Evanston! (Arlington Heights: for sale, real estate)

[hopehome]

We're looking for an affordable family home near Evanston and I'm totally stumped. Price seems to really be limiting us.

Here's our criteria:

1. $450K max (total family income ~ $135K since I'm staying home now with the kids, so really can't go much above that)
2. commutable to Evanston. Seemed like something on the Metra that stopped in EV would be great, but the prices along the North Shore! Lake Bluff or Highland Park possibly? Alternatively, what would the drive be like from Buffalo Grove? Prices seem so much more reasonable out there. Deerfield/Northbrook commute to EV reasonable? (though still don't get a lot of home there in that price range)
3. We have 3 young kids and would love a 4 bedroom, but I guess we could make the kids share with a 3 bedroom if there was enough other communal play area (play room, fenced yard)
4. Need a great school district. That is one of the main factors keeping us out of Evanston itself.
5. Need a fenced yard.

Any other suggestions for other communities to consider? Thoughts about the commutes and/or desirability of those I have listed?

Finally, Buffalo Grove - really seems most affordable of those I have considered and would love to make it work, assuming the commute is tolerable. Seems from my online searches like there's some high voltage power lines running through the east side - anything to worry about there? I'm not inclined to live near those with young children... Also, I understand I would want to search in the Stevenson HS district, but what about the other neighboring communities that also are - Long Grove, Kildeer, Lincolnshire etc. all show up on Redfin if you do a Stevenson search. Any reason to consider/exclude them along with BG?

[chet everett]

If OP / spouse can take a Metra train to work in Evanston it would a whole more tolerable to live in Highland Park than having a horrendous commute on mostly jam packed surface streets from Buffalo Grove !

Frankly that sort of trade-off is a no brainer for several reasons -- for a stay at home parent Highland Park has a whole lot more walkable core that ought to make it much more feasible to have a single car AND just enjoy time with kids / neighbors vs dealing with being stuck in a "kiddie cab" rut. Secondly, Highland Park is part of the North Shore and all the nice aspects of Lake Michigan that goes along with such things. Further, the performance of Highland Park is superior to that of Buffalo Grove High and much less of "mega campus" than Stevenson.

If your shopping uncovers an acceptable home in the towns served by New Trier that would also be an excellent options too, might even be more affordable property taxes.

Without knowing exactly how old the kids are or where in one's career curve the working parent in this family is, I would not worry too much about a salary of $135k, many folks do just fine with three or more kids on the North Shore with similar income.

[CSD610]

There are numerous websites that have real estate for sale and rent you should look at.
There could be an area that someone suggests to you and then you visit and just don't like it.
The best way to find the area that you may like is to go for a drive on a weekend when it is the busiest in the neighborhood.

Make a list of your most important needs then start searching from there.
Just because one family gets along well in one area does not mean that you will get along well in that same area, neighborhood, school or adapt to the commute.

[reggie_04]

Try Glenview. D34 is a good district. Commute would be 15-20min (I did it for 10 years). Here's example house:

1314 Glenview Road, Glenview IL For Sale - Trulia

Not as much to walk to as Highland Park- but a possibility.

[ToriaT]

What about Skokie? It seems like a good community and it is close to Evanston. Its a diverse place but well located.

[hopehome]

Thanks, all.

Chet - Our kids are all under age 5 and hopefully when they're in school I'll be income-earning again. But for at least the next few years, we'll probably be at this point. Thanks for the reassurance on income suitability for those communities...it's hard to know. We haven't yet done a practice Buffalo Grove to Evanston drive, but it sounds like especially during rush hour it will be pretty slow, which is a shame from a price perspective. Highland Park has a lot going for it though and the Metra commute would be nice. I know I've read various threads about this, but we are not Jewish (not very religious at all) and I am aware that HP is highly Jewish...does anyone know what percentage of HPers are non-Jewish? I've read highly variable estimates. We're fine with being in the minority in that respect but would like to know to what degree. Also, are there unsafe areas of HP? Near Highwood/Fort Sheridan? That is an area I haven't been to before and just want to know what sections of HP to focus our search on.

Reggie - Glenview is a good idea - thanks for that. I need to look more at the various elementary schools, as it seems some are better than others, at least from the rankings. We are familiar with Glenview's kids options/the Glens/etc. and it does seem family friendly.

Toria - I hadn't really considered Skokie b/c I was under the impression that it was on the decline (people say it wasn't what it was years ago)... it's really important to me that we are in a safe area.

[ToriaT]

I doubt if its unsafe. It has a lower than average crime rate if you look at city data. Its not the promised land that it once was during the sixties when it was the leading place for Jewish people to move out of the city who had "made it". That is now taken up by other areas such as Highland Park. Its gotten more diverse but I don't know I would say its on the decline.

[chet everett]

...while in a historical sense there are links to the past when lots of folks did public adhere to Jewish traditions the fact is even folks with that heritage in their background are very much mainstream in Highland Park.

To be frank, one of my good friends that lives in Highland Park said that 20 years when they used to entertain they'd go out of their way to present a "Kosher friendly" menu -- no cheeseburgers, no shellfish, no pork, etc. That has all changed and even their neighbors that might have cultural ties to things like Bar Mitzahs are also very likely to have folks over for pulled pork or shrimp kabobs.

Even people that might have some older inlaws that are perhaps a bit more conservative are basically more like Steven Speilberg than some Hasidic diamond dealer in NY.

In short, unless you go out of your way to alienate yourself with conversations about how wise the Iranian mullahs are or other inflammatory nonsense the vast majority folks living in Highland Park and shopping for homes there are seeking the same desirable family-friendly things as those in any other nice suburb.

[Paige65]

With regard to being a non-Jew in HP, much of what chet said is correct. The one thing you will surely notice is that many of the Jewish people seem to know one another because many that are raising their families here also grew up here, but you would probably find that in many nice towns where the children migrate back when they become parents. I live in an area that is about 50/50 and it's quite nice to have the diversity. Even living here it's difficult to say what the ratio of Jews to non-Jews, but I would put it at about 60Jewish/40 non-Jewish or 65/35. My only reference is my children's grade school and middle school populations and my neighborhood.

No, there are no areas of HP or Highwood that I would consider undesirable or dangerous. Certain areas would be more desirable (along the lake, of course).

You might also want to consider Deerfield. You can get a little more for your money than HP.

You may have difficulty finding a 4 bedroom at or under $450,000 in HP that isn't in need of some work, at least in my area (SE). It may not be impossible, but there will be some sort of trade-off (location, condition/updating needed, yard size, etc.)

[wjj]

Originally Posted by hopehome

We're looking for an affordable family home near Evanston and I'm totally stumped. Price seems to really be limiting us.

Here's our criteria:

1. $450K max

Finally, Buffalo Grove - really seems most affordable of those I have considered and would love to make it work, assuming the commute is tolerable. Seems from my online searches like there's some high voltage power lines running through the east side - anything to worry about there? I'm not inclined to live near those with young children... Also, I understand I would want to search in the Stevenson HS district, but what about the other neighboring communities that also are - Long Grove, Kildeer, Lincolnshire etc. all show up on Redfin if you do a Stevenson search. Any reason to consider/exclude them along with BG?

Kildeer, Lincolnshire, and Long Grove are well outside of your budget. The power lines are obvious and if you do not want to live near them, then don't. BG has about 45,000 population and there are plenty of places to live away from the one set of high power lines cutting through part of the village.

I note that downthread there is discussion about the Jewish population in Highland Park. BG is still considered a very Jewish village, though less so than 20 years ago. I am not Jewish and have lived in BG for over 25 years. Absolutely no issues at all regarding Jewish vs non Jewish population. BG is a great place to live with probably more parks, open space, and golf courses than most suburbs other than the "country setting" places like Long Grove. Borders on several operating farms as well.

But there is no core downtown at all. I know some value core downtowns like in Arlington Heights but honestly, I really couldn't care less. In fact, given that most of those downtowns are around train stations, the noise from trains day and night is not something I would embrace (I am a little over a mile from the CN tracks and can hear the freight trains all night - I can't imagine the noise living a few blocks away). All in all, I would rather have the parks and open space than the downtown. But others I am sure would disagree. There is a proposal to create a downtown by taking over much of BG Country Club, but it is meeting with fierce resistance from residents and I doubt it will happen. No one wants to see all of the green space developed. The last attempt to create a downtown in BG failed miserably (it is just a tacky strip mall now).

A 4 bedroom updated home on the Lake County side of BG is going to be hard to find. But possible if a 30 year old plus home is okay.

But the commute from BG to Evanston will be a NIGHTMARE if you have to do it every day. Especially in winter. As much as I like BG (notwithstanding the obscene real estate taxes), it is not the place to be if commuting to Evanston every day. Stevenson is at the very top of high schools, as is Kildeer District 96 for elementary and Jr. High, but there are similar high achieving school districts serving Highland Park, Deerfield, Glenview, Willmette, etc. which would make for a much easier commute. But budget will be an issue.

In Illinois, schools are largely funded by real estate taxes so high achieving schools usually mean high house prices and high real estate taxes.