Bolingbrook or Homer Glen? (Chicago, Orland Park: townhouse, to buy, good schools)

[RomeovilleGirl]

Hello ,

We are young couple with one year old daughter , looking to buy a home for about 350K 3-4 Bed/2 Bath in Bolingbrook/Homer Glen or close by area.

Currenly we are situated in Romeoville .My husband works near Kankakee and I work in Hoffman Estate/Chicago. So it is about an hour commute for each of us each way.Somedays on the week , I take metra to chicago. We are looking for home in either Bolingbrook or Homer Glen area. I guess both Bolingbrook/Homer Glen has comparable schools. Please give us your input about Bolingbrook/Homer Glen or suggest some other south subburbs which meets folllwing criteria.

1) Close to I-355 and metra stations.
2) Good Schools
3) An hour commute for Kankakee and Hoffman Estates
4) Good community .

Thanks for your inputs.

RomeovilleGirl

[sbd78]

You may want to check out Lockport as well. Good schools and right off the new 355 extension. Lockport also has a Metra stop to get downtown.

[WildWestDude]

Q: When did Homer Glen become officially a suburb?

[vester72]

Look at Homer Glen, Mokena, Frankfort, New Lenox and Maybe West Orland Park and Lemont.

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by VegasVic

Q: When did Homer Glen become officially a suburb?

2005 I believe.

[Chinolala]

Have you considered Downers Grove, Lisle or Woodridge?

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by RomeovilleGirl

Hello ,

We are young couple with one year old daughter , looking to buy a home for about 350K 3-4 Bed/2 Bath in Bolingbrook/Homer Glen or close by area.

Currenly we are situated in Romeoville .My husband works near Kankakee and I work in Hoffman Estate/Chicago. So it is about an hour commute for each of us each way.Somedays on the week , I take metra to chicago. We are looking for home in either Bolingbrook or Homer Glen area. I guess both Bolingbrook/Homer Glen has comparable schools. Please give us your input about Bolingbrook/Homer Glen or suggest some other south subburbs which meets folllwing criteria.

1) Close to I-355 and metra stations.
2) Good Schools
3) An hour commute for Kankakee and Hoffman Estates
4) Good community .

Thanks for your inputs.

RomeovilleGirl

Homer Glen can really go to either Lockport HS or even Carl Sandburg HS in Orland Park depending on where you are in HG. Basically to go to CSH you have to live right along Will Cook Rd north of 151st.

Personally if it were me and I was looking to save a little $$$ I would buy in Cook Cty. Not Will. Will's tax structure is too unpredictable and has been rising steeply in Lockport and Homer Glen to compensate for the immense growth the area is experiencing. It is basically the situation of "oh we need more schools, we need a library, we need more police, better fire, wider roads, etc" and of course where does the county and town get the $$$ from??? HMMMMM???? Ya, so taxes in Will cty are not like they used to be. Actually Cook's taxes are more stabil and from what I saw about 3 years ago when I was looking to purchase my new home, were dramatically lower! I was surprised too.

I would say if you are looking in Homer Glen, then just come across Will Cook Rd and buy in Orland or Palos Park. In both cases the schools in both towns are far superior. Lockport HS while a great school, has become so over crowded that they have had to begin creating a little trailer park outside the school to accomodate all the growth and much needed classroom space. Don't believe me? Take a ride down Farrell Rd. and look at all of them (trailers). You will see about 10 portable classrooms out in the front lawn of the school. Of course because of this, the town has once again began looking to it's residents for more $$$ and higher taxes and also of course these cannot just be ordinary permanant classrooms they build. No they have to be "gold plated/marble floored" so to say to compete with nearby district 230's schools so what's that mean? Big $$$. So save yourself the aggravation of every Nov. opening your mail and seeing the surprise of what your new tax bill will be for the following year, and move right across Will Cook Road. My taxes hardly go up at all every year and I live in Orland Park and can take advantage of Dist 230 schools.

I have close friends living off Natoma and Farrell Road in a TOWNHOME in Broken Arrow with little land and are paying about $5500-5900 a year now in taxes and their townhouse is nothing special believe me! I'm in Orland with a house and don't pay that much! If taxes continue to rise out there they will have to change the name of Broken Arrow to Broke as a joke because it's residents will be in the poor house from all the taxes.

[vester72]

Good point on the property taxes - I am in Cook County (Chicago), but building a house in Frankfort (Will County) - moving in March 2008.

The new house house is comparable in price to my townhouse in Chicago, but my property taxes will be going from $6,500 to $14,000 a year - not an exaggeration.

Orland and Palos are great areas too - not like you'll be compromising anything by looking there vs. areas in Will County. Some would argue they are nicer areas than those in Will, without the crazy property taxes.

[Windy City John]

I vote for Homer Glen!

[chicagocarol]

I agree with the poster who mentioned the need for schools, etc. in Homer Glen area will drive up taxes... I can only speak about where I am -in Palos... and our taxes are not cheap- we pay over $7000 a year.