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Original OP here. Guys, what the hell?! I visited the house in Joliet today and although I am prepared to admit it is not at all a town for liberal, hippie 20-somethings, I didn't get any bad vibes from it. It looked really boring and a little run down in areas, but the neighborhood we checked out was actually really pretty and the house IS THE PERFECT house for me. As in, so perfect I might be willing to compromise a bit on the location (a whole foods is only 25 min away) !!
We talked to the realtor about Joliet and he admitted it has "bad area" mainly "on the east side", so my husband and I drove around east of the river and weren't remotely freaked out (certainly not like we were when we lived in Uptown for a year). What gives?! Is there really a gang presence here?
Original OP here. Guys, what the hell?! I visited the house in Joliet today and although I am prepared to admit it is not at all a town for liberal, hippie 20-somethings, I didn't get any bad vibes from it. It looked really boring and a little run down in areas, but the neighborhood we checked out was actually really pretty and the house IS THE PERFECT house for me. As in, so perfect I might be willing to compromise a bit on the location (a whole foods is only 25 min away) !!
We talked to the realtor about Joliet and he admitted it has "bad area" mainly "on the east side", so my husband and I drove around east of the river and weren't remotely freaked out (certainly not like we were when we lived in Uptown for a year). What gives?! Is there really a gang presence here?
Uptown is definitely rougher than Joliet but those Joliet public schools are really tough to overlook even if you don't have kids because they will absolutely destroy resale value.
Original OP here. Guys, what the hell?! I visited the house in Joliet today and although I am prepared to admit it is not at all a town for liberal, hippie 20-somethings, I didn't get any bad vibes from it. It looked really boring and a little run down in areas, but the neighborhood we checked out was actually really pretty and the house IS THE PERFECT house for me. As in, so perfect I might be willing to compromise a bit on the location (a whole foods is only 25 min away) !!
We talked to the realtor about Joliet and he admitted it has "bad area" mainly "on the east side", so my husband and I drove around east of the river and weren't remotely freaked out (certainly not like we were when we lived in Uptown for a year). What gives?! Is there really a gang presence here?
Uptown and Joliet probably have a similar level of crime, actually. Think of Joliet as being about twice the size of Uptown in terms of population (actually about 2.26x, but close enough). It had 11 murders in 2012, and has ranged between 5 and 14 murders over the last decade. Uptown usually has about 1-3 murders per year, but has occasionally spiked to about five or so.
Shootings are not uncommon in Joliet, and gangs are very common. Primarily Hispanic gangs. I would compare it to living near Midway Airport in the City of Chicago... Kind of boring and not bad looking, but just enough crime to make it unsettling and horrible schools.
I can't believe this is even a conversation. The OP has a decent budget for a home, a job in the Loop, is planning to start a family... and wants to move to Joliet.
This boggles my mind. The same way as when I see someone threw down $800k for tear down in Lombard or Itasca. Yass, that actually happens too.
Last edited by holl1ngsworth; 04-27-2015 at 07:55 AM..
Thanks so much for the quick responses. I went into this Joliet visit not expecting much but, I'm head over heels for this home (it's as if someone handed me the perfect home on a platter) for the perfect price and half of the property tax of other towns I've looked at. My mom said, "when you find the perfect house, you'll know". It's good to get a dose of reality from the forum though.
I handled Uptown okay, but I didn't have a car so the sidewalk interaction got to me towards the end. Having a house and a car completely eliminates that. This house makes the notion of staying-in for a weekend exciting! If gang stuff stays on the other side of the river than I'm not bothered, but I'm super concerned about house break-ins so I'm going to look up the data on that. As for schools, it looks like there is only one high rated school and it's magnet which his really pathetic and sad - but I don't even have kids yet so that's far away (and maybe by that time we could afford private?).
Ultimately I'm prepared to make sacrifices, which is exactly what I had to do for a long time in Chicago (living in a disgusting studio in Uptown with my husband was a low point). With regard to resale value, do you mean earning a profit on the house or breaking even? Because, as a millennial, I learned never to expect a profit on a house. It would be great to just get what I paid for back eventually (though we would hope to stay in the house for at least 10 years though).
I can't believe this is even a conversation. The OP has a decent budget for a home, a job in the Loop, is planning to start a family... and wants to move to Joliet.
This boggles my mind. The same way as when I see someone threw down $800k for tear down in Lombard or Itasca. Yass, that actually happens too.
I genuinely appreciate your honesty. Believe me, I wish I could afford more but I DO NOT want to overreach when buying my first house. You're either underestimating my student loans or you're underestimating the property taxes of other suburbs.
I put a lot of priority on what the house looks like, since I work from home and will be spending a lot of time in it. Plus, I've spent my entire twenties NOT putting a priority on what my abode looks like and instead focusing on the location (the city of Chicago) - I'm over it quite frankly.
- You'll have to spend 50 minutes in the car to get to your grocery store.
- You'll have to spend 50 minutes in the car to get to anywhere.
- You'll have to shill out upwards of $10k/year (per kid) for private schools in a few years, destroying any tax savings.
- You'll likely have a hard time finding friends who are similarly employed and similarly ambitious.
- You'll actually have to occasionally think about your safety (aka why bother with a move to burbs?).
- Your current friends won't want to make the trip out to see you. And I don't blame them.
- It's just a house. Just a house in a terrible location.
- The "mantra" is so overdone I never thought I'd have to utter it myself, but here goes: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!
Don't plan on being able to move in a few years, or whenever you think it might be convenient. Buy a place you could live in forever if you had to. Buy a place as though its the single biggest investment you will ever make.
Last edited by holl1ngsworth; 04-27-2015 at 08:17 AM..
- You'll have to spend 50 minutes in the car to get to your grocery store.
- You'll have to spend 50 minutes in the car to get to anywhere.
- You'll have to shill out upwards of $10k/year (per kid) for private schools in a few years, destroying any tax savings.
- You'll likely have a hard time finding friends who are similarly employed and similarly ambitious.
- You'll actually have to occasionally think about your safety (aka why bother with a move to burbs?).
- Your current friends won't want to make the trip out to see you. And I don't blame them.
- It's just a house. Just a house in a terrible location.
- The "mantra" is so overdone I never thought I'd have to utter it myself, but here goes: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!
Don't plan on being able to move in a few years, or whenever you think it might be convenient. Buy a place you could live in forever if you had to. Buy a place as though its the single biggest investment you will ever make.
These are all very valid points, and vital to consider. I would like to counter-point a bit though:
-Assuming the house passes inspection, I don't think we would "plan" on moving again for at least 10 years (hopefully longer?).
-I'm used to spending 45 minutes to an hour getting "anywhere" because I've known nothing but public transport since I moved to Chicago. Spending an hour in a car vs an hour on the L sounds like a luxury.
-We drove to the closest Whole Foods to see how far it was and it only took us 25 minutes (La Grange) - this is how long it takes me to take the El to the closes Whole Foods in Chicago. This time/distance also doesn't bother me as growing up my family always drove about that far for the nicer grocery stores. I couldn't live without a Whole Foods though so it's big plus just to have one near. There is a Mariano's 28 minutes away, and a Jewel about 10 minutes away. Yes, in Chicago my local grocery store is a 10 minute walk away, but guess what? I'M SICK of lugging home my groceries three days a week, rain or shine.
-It did take us an hour to get from the city to Joliet (and vice versa), but I still consider that close for living in a suburb? It's definitely at the outer limit, but we still felt like we could drive into the city on weekends if we wanted (traffic bordering the city sucks of course, but you'd get that coming from any suburb).
-Heritage Corridor Metra takes an hour to get to the city (doable). I'm thinking of starting a new thread on this particular tract of the Metra though, I'm curious if it's reliable, as I know it only runs during rush hours.
-We have absolutely no friends (my husband has work colleagues he'll have a beer with after work every now and then). We've literally never invited anyone over our apartments. Ever. We're each other's best friends and we're home bodies.
Does no one see any hope for Joliet's future at all? Has it improved in the last 10 years? I don't expect it to hipster-ize or anything but I wouldn't want to see it tumble much further downhill. That said, as it is now I could see myself living there (sacrificing hipsterdom of course). Again, the tree-lined neighborhood was really pretty.
These are all very valid points, and vital to consider. I would like to counter-point a bit though:
-Assuming the house passes inspection, I don't think we would "plan" on moving for at least 10 years (hopefully longer?).
-I'm used to spending 45 minutes to an hour getting "anywhere" because I've known nothing but public transport since I moved to Chicago. Spending an hour in a car vs an hour on the L sounds like a luxury.
-We drove to the closest Whole Foods to see how far it was and it only took us 25 minutes (La Grange). This doesn't bother me as growing up my family always drove about that far for the nicer grocery stores. I couldn't live without a Whole Foods though so it's big plus just to have one near.
-It did take us an hour to get from the city to Joliet (and vice versa), but I still consider that close for living in a suburb? While driving, we definitely felt like we could drive into the city on weekends if we wanted (traffic sucks, of course but you'd get that coming from any suburb).
-Heritage Corridor Metra takes an hour to get to the city (doable). I'm thinking of starting a new thread on this particular tract of the Metra though, I'm curious if it's reliable.
-We have absolutely no friends (my husband has work colleagues he'll have a beer with after work every now and then). We've literally never invited anyone over our apartments. Ever. We're each other's best friends and we're home bodies.
Does no one see any hope for Joliet's future at all? Has it improved in the last 10 years? I don't expect it to hipster-ize or anything but I wouldn't want to see it go further downhill.
...with safety
...with good schools
...with a sane commute
...with vitality and venues for entertainment
...with public services that actually justify having a tax bill
...with a Metra schedule that will allow your DH leave work early on occasion
...with a Whole Foods, or better yet an outdoor farmers market with locally-sourced fares
...with residents that smile
The premise of this thread seems crazy.
You could move to Minneapolis, each make 2x salary, have a 15-30 min commute and a $200K house in a neighborhood filled with liberal people with $60K master's degrees.
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