What do you love and hate about where you live? (Chicago: 2013, houses)

[4122]

Sacrificing house size to be in a top notch school district may not always be worth it. It can be worth it if the the area is a short distance away from work and/or the size of the house you can buy can accommodate your family's size and the house is a good quality house. For a family with 3-4 kids, a 1,200 sq ft home is way too small and will just be problematic. A 1,800 sq ft home would be ok though as long as the home has good quality.

You may also consider buying a foreclosure. You'll get a nice spacious home for a lower price than it's value. If a home has been foreclosed for a long time, it's going to need a lot work. If you find a short sale, what's nice it's that the home price is still lower than it's value, but you won't need to fix up the house because it's not vacant yet. A con about buying a foreclosure though is that the taxes match the home's value, in other words, taxes can be high. Once you buy the house though, the taxes will be reassessed; taxes may change a lot or they may not.

Another possibility is buying a lot and building a house, which is what I did. However, you have to find a good deal for a lot too. When you build a house, it won't be as expensive as buying a home. You would still have to downsize from your home in MI, but you won't have to downsize as much. By building a house, I had around 800 sq ft more than if I just bought a house in the area. Another plus is that taxes are low when the house is first built, but they do go up years and years after building it.

From the towns you're looking at, St. Charles is the cheapest and Libertyville is the most expensive.

[knitgirl]

Originally Posted by moderngnome

I dream of living in Atlanta or Dallas and buying a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom, 2 car attached garage for $300,000.

But then you'd had to live in Atlanta or Dallas without a lot of the things you love about Elmhurst and Chicago.

[moderngnome]

Originally Posted by knitgirl

But then you'd had to live in Atlanta or Dallas without a lot of the things you love about Elmhurst and Chicago.

I'll manage I just look at how much I pay each month for my mortgage + property taxes - and how much I would pay in Dallas or Atlanta, and how much I would have left to save for college/travel - and I'll find a way to adjust to life without Portillos

[Paige65]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

What I love:

-My kids can walk or bike to school, parks, a large swimming pool.
-Lot's of kids around playing outside in groups.
-I have great neighbors. I'm convinced it's the best neighborhood in town.
-Glen Ellyn has a nice, charming downtown area that we can walk to, including a movie theater, restaurants, bars, shops, a library, and other amenities
-The tree-lined streets and rows of beautiful houses provide an an aesthetically pleasing backdrop.
-Glen Ellyn is one of the more hilly suburbs out there.
-Lot's of community festivals and activities--feels like a distinct town with its own identity, not part of a large metro area.
-The Illinois Prairie Path and Great Western Trail run through town.
-We have an incredible park district with tons of activities. 30 parks for 27,000 residents.
-Access to forest preserves, lakes, and nature is greater in this corner of DuPage.
-Access to shopping in Oak Brook, Yorktown, Wheaton....
-The Metra stop is close to my house--providing quick, easy access to the heart of Chicago.

What I dislike:

-Cost of living, primarily property taxes.
-Traffic on I-290 for those times I want to drive in to the city.
-A culture of status seeking and entitlement that seems rampant in well-off enclaves.

Swap out a few of the Glen Ellyn specific references and replace them with the Green Bay Trail, Ravinia Festival, Lake Michigan, and different shopping centers, and my list is about the same as Lookout Kid's.

Not mentioned as a negative on his list, but that I would add to mine is winter weather, even though I've lived in the midwest most of my life, save college.

[holl1ngsworth]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

What I love:

- My kids will soon be old enough to walk or bike to school, parks, a large swimming pool.
- Lot's of kids around playing outside in groups.
- For all intents and purposes, we live in a crime-free area. (Wheaton and Glen Ellyn)
- I have great neighbors. I'm convinced it's the best neighborhood in town.
- Wheaton has a nice, charming downtown area that we can walk to, including a (soon to be restored) circa 1925 movie theater, restaurants, bars, shops, a library, Mariano's and other amenities
- The tree-lined streets and rows of beautiful houses provide an an aesthetically pleasing backdrop.
- Wheaton is one of the more historic suburbs out there.
- Lot's of community festivals and activities--feels like a distinct town with its own identity, not part of a large metro area.
- All the branches of the Illinois Prairie Path converge in downtown Wheaton.
- We have an incredible park district with tons of activities. 54 parks for 54,000 residents. Totaling more than 800 acres.
- Access to Cantigny, forest preserves, lakes, and nature is greater in this corner of DuPage.
- Access to shopping in Oak Brook, Yorktown, Glen Ellyn....
- The Metra stop is close to my house--providing quick, easy access to the heart of Chicago.

What I dislike:

-Cost of living, primarily property taxes.
-Traffic on I-290 for those times I want to drive in to the city.

I like Lookout Kid's list too... so I'll happily hijack it for Wheaton.

[knitgirl]

Originally Posted by moderngnome

I'll manage I just look at how much I pay each month for my mortgage + property taxes - and how much I would pay in Dallas or Atlanta, and how much I would have left to save for college/travel - and I'll find a way to adjust to life without Portillos

And you would have to pay me sh!tloads to live in either of those places, and it's not because they don't have Portillos. It's a good thing we don't all want the exact same things.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Paige65

Not mentioned as a negative on his list, but that I would add to mine is winter weather, even though I've lived in the midwest most of my life, save college.

I left that one off on purpose. I won't say that the weather is ideal here, but I chose several years ago to not let it bother me, and that change of attitude has gone a long way.

[4122]

Originally Posted by knitgirl

And you would have to pay me sh!tloads to live in either of those places, and it's not because they don't have Portillos. It's a good thing we don't all want the exact same things.

Apparently there's also a portillo's in California, a portillo's in Merrilville Indiana, and a few in Arizona. I wonder if they're as good as the Chicago ones.

[moderngnome]

Originally Posted by 4122

Apparently there's also a portillo's in California, a portillo's in Merrilville Indiana, and a few in Arizona. I wonder if they're as good as the Chicago ones.

It's the same owner. I have a friend that moved to Phoenix from Chicago and she waited and waited for Portillos. They finally got it about a year ago.

[MSchemist80]

I'll pretty much echo what the other posters have said.
What I like
-Family here
-Bikeable roads/infrastructure in many areas
-Decent jobs available. If I could get a comparable job someplace in the southern USA I'd probably be gone. However, I'd probably need to take my salary and literally cut it in half as well as loose benefits.

What I hate
-Government. If we could just fire everyone and rebuild the state and local governments from scratch that would probably be the best option and would go a long way towards improving the quality of life for most residents.
-weather it would be nice if we could copy and paste SoCal's weather here
-Traffic I have kind of a reverse commute from the west to near north subburbs so the Tollway most days is pretty decent even if it costs me $800 a year. Public transit isn't an option for me and most people have it much worse.