need help picking "suburb" to move to! (Chicago: condo, home)

[chicagoclone]

I recommend elmhurst to anyone who can afford it. we got priced out and had to move but it has a ton to offer. good schools. great park district/library/downtown area. perfect location.

[teamrn]

I'm thinking of Glen Ellyn, Geneva, St. Charles, Mount Prospect and Cary might have what you're looking for. Barrington, Algonquin, Lake in the Hills, Lakewood area also provide quick acess to Wisconsin while still giving good school districts and parks. If you want to be further in towards, but not inside the city, Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights are nice communitites. Evanston is a good solid community, but might be a bit far from Wisconsin.

Though I've never been there, I've heard some really nice things about Bollingbrook, and it is centrally located if your husband has ALL of Illinois and ALL of Wisconsin. An older, established community can be found in Hyde Park or Lincoln Parks; though congestion can color the experience,

However, I'm guessing that by now you've found a home and are happy wherever you are. We just relocated to Norfolk, VA from Huntley, IL, and before that I lived in many suburbs and the city-25 years.

Best of luck,
Annie

[chaas82]

Check out Algonquin. Nice, rapidly growing. Bascially no crime, great schools, upscale. Boulder Ridge is a suburb in Lake in the Hills, right next to Algonquin. Probably has some nice houses for your price range, and it's a gated golf community. Houses go up to the 1M range.

http://www.chicagorealestate-bw.com/...s.asp?Area=156

[jon62781]

What about a southern suburb??

I'm going to start working in Olympia Fields. Any suggestions?

[OakBrookMom]

In your price range you will have no trouble in any of the areas you mentioned. Naperville's schools are great but there are other suburbs that have good schools too. As a realtor (let me know if I can help you if you don't have a realtor yet) and a mother of 3 I would never choose Lombard or Addison over Glen Elynn or any of the other towns you mentioned in your price range simply because the schools just aren't the same caliber.
On Naperville's south side in your price range you should be looking for a community with a pool and a home with a 3car garage. If you want to keep your taxes down, don't buy new construction like Ashwood Creek (14K for taxes), think Tall Grass or Ashbury (9-10K for taxes) or White Eagle (10-11K for taxes). By the way all of those areas are really nice and have swimming pools - White Eagle has a golf course and a more executive feel. Naperville price values are strongly influenced by the subdivision.
Geneva's Mill Creek subdivision is home to the highest ranked elementary school in Kane County according to Chicago Magazine. Mill Creek is a community made up of smaller subdivisions linked together. Last week I showed a home that was on the same street as a park within walking distance to one of the community swimming pools with 4BR,2.5BA, 3car garage for 499K. Mill Creek also has a golf course. Eagle Brook is another community in Geneva I would recommend. In St. Charles there are many areas you could afford. Geneva has a train to the city within their downtown. St. Charles and Geneva would be much more affordable if you were looking for old and charming than Glen Elynn or Naperville with Naperville being the most expensive. The Lake Elynn area of Glen Elynn is beautiful but pricey. But although I love Glen Elynn, if you are covering Illinois and Wisconsin by car, I would probably lean towards St. Charles or Geneva for their close proximite to 39, I-90, I-88 and 47, followed by South Naperville for its proximity to both I-55/I-80 & I-88. It really depends on how much time you will spend in Chicagoland and Milwaukee and how much time will be devoted to the rest of both states, if it is equal time or more to the latter, please consider following my advice and let me know if you want help.

[gardener]

Olympia Fields is close to my neighborhood. You did not say whether or not you were looking for a home ,apartment,condo etc. Renting?Buying? Size?How far are you willing to commute from Olympia Fields? Drive?Train? Really need this before I could help direct you to location. Another point,Need to be close to a hospital?Or is that the employment you will be engaged in? It makes a difference.

[osgoodfarms1973]

Originally Posted by alj626

We're relocating to IL from Seattle for my husband's job and need to start house hunting! He will be covering all of WI and IL (usually by car) so we are shopping the suburbs. We're looking at homes online but it is hard to get an idea of the communities. Any thoughts on Glen Ellyn, Lombard, Addison? St. Charles and Geneva? Naperville? We've heard about the great schools in Naperville (and the traffic and congestion!) but were wondering about south Naperville where you still have the address but looks closer to Bolingbrook on the map! I know I'm all over the place but we're going house hunting next week and need to have a place to start looking! Any input would be helpful. (We're looking in the $500,000-$600,000 range, 1 child, one on the way...)
Thanks!

Hi there,
Just a thought, I don't know if you have ever lived in the midwest before, but as some friendly advice, I don't advise broadcasting what your husband does for a living, or the price range of the house that you wish to buy. As there are a lot of sicko's out there. As far as area's near chicago, Lakeforest is a good one. I would suggest using a professional real estate agent to assist you in your relocation. That way, your family's privacy is kept. You aren't going to be in Washington anymore, time to think about what big city people in the midwest are really like.
Good luck on your search.

[Drover]

Yeah, she'll be really easy for some sicko to pick out from the 10 million people that live in the area. They'll just skip right over all the multi-million dollar homes in the area and zero right in on her...

What the hell does this have to do with the Midwest anyway? Do we have a monopoly on sickos here or something? You think Seattle is some kind of naive cow town?

[CoachTom]

A town similar to Naperville is Libertyville. Great schools, restaurants, shopping and all the other amenities you would expect in that price range. It's probably a quarter the size of Naperville and is pretty built out. You would be about an hour closer to Wisconsin.

An interesting sub division, on the northern border of Libertyville and Grayslake, is Prairie Crossing. This is a conservation themed project, it is meant to resemble a small farm/rural village. The homes are large with wood plank siding. They have front and wrap around porches, most garages are located in the rear of the homes along alley ways. I believe the idea is to encourage neighborliness. There is a beautiful county forest preserve that abuts the sub division. I think there is still a cooperative farm in the subdivision, with a weekly farmers market.

Prairie Crossing also has it's own charter school that seems to be doing quite well.

There is Metra station within walking distance. The developer (the Ryerson Family) is also building commercial property and condos in the subdivision.

A previous poster had mentioned Lake Forest. This has always been, to me, the crown jewel of the Chicago area. Very old money. You would not get nearly as much house for the money.

[NSH]

Originally Posted by jon62781

What about a southern suburb??

I'm going to start working in Olympia Fields. Any suggestions?

Lots of good choices, Tinley Park, Orland Park, Homer Glen are the stars of the south suburbs. Olympia fields is ok to live too, but schools and shopping are not as good as Tinley/Orland/Homer.