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Thanks for the comments - I'm married, no kids. My wife and I would only live in a new construction home - we don't want a resell home. We don't want to live in Chicago - we're suburbanites and would never live downtown or in a condo.
Price wise, I'd prefer under $500k, but I could do a more if needed to. I've got almost $300k in equity in my home currently. What's the real estate market like in the Chicagoland suburbs? I'd imagine we'd probably live in the home 3 years or so before selling so I don't want to buying a house that I'd lose money on. We'd eventually be moving back to Canada (where we are from).
I don't live in Chicago currently - I'm 2 hrs south in a smaller town.
So this is what we're looking for in a home - new construction, safe area, affordable, reasonable commute to downtown Chicago... seems like train is my best bet. Safety is big in our list. I don't want to be a sketchy place or a place that has crime at all. I don't want to ever be concerned about that.
Naperville parking at train station sounds pretty bad...
Reasonable commute is a big distinction. Your desire for a 500K home with these attributes will not be easy to find (not to mention at least 6K annually in property taxes, more likely 10K or more).
Do you mean 45 minutes, door to door? You are not likely to find new construction in walking distance to the train in a more desirable area.
This home is at least a 20 minute walk from the train, and across a very busy street. You'd be looking at 20 minutes walking, 40 minutes on the train, and then a walk in the city. 4417 Kingston Ave, Lisle, IL 60532 | MLS #09154102 | Zillow
New construction in walking distance to the train in Downers Grove is often over a million. Your commute would be closer to 50 minutes (depending on where you are in the city) with a home like this: 4933 Oakwood Ave, Downers Grove, IL 60515 | MLS #09479499 | Zillow
Finally - if you're looking to move in 3 years, why would you buy a home and have to pay the 6% on transaction fees when you move? 6% of 500K is 30K. That's 10K a year just to own. And if the market goes down, you're looking at a huge loss.
Hopefully this helps - sounds like renting a nice place might be your best bet.
Reasonable commute is a big distinction. Your desire for a 500K home with these attributes will not be easy to find (not to mention at least 6K annually in property taxes, more likely 10K or more).
Do you mean 45 minutes, door to door? You are not likely to find new construction in walking distance to the train in a more desirable area.
This home is at least a 20 minute walk from the train, and across a very busy street. You'd be looking at 20 minutes walking, 40 minutes on the train, and then a walk in the city. 4417 Kingston Ave, Lisle, IL 60532 | MLS #09154102 | Zillow
New construction in walking distance to the train in Downers Grove is often over a million. Your commute would be closer to 50 minutes (depending on where you are in the city) with a home like this: 4933 Oakwood Ave, Downers Grove, IL 60515 | MLS #09479499 | Zillow
Finally - if you're looking to move in 3 years, why would you buy a home and have to pay the 6% on transaction fees when you move? 6% of 500K is 30K. That's 10K a year just to own. And if the market goes down, you're looking at a huge loss.
Hopefully this helps - sounds like renting a nice place might be your best bet.
I'm fine to drive the train station, I don't need to be walking distance to it I don't think I'd do a 20 minute walk to the train every morning anyway. :P
I definitely want a commute under 1 hr door-to-door. I don't think I'd manage that unless my wife worked downtown too.
As for buying, I don't know if we'd move in 3 years or not, depends on how things go I guess - that was more of a ballpark. Renting could be an option I suppose, but only it was a new place. What's the real estate market like for Chicagoland? Are prices increasingly yearly?
Our yearly income right now is about $130k, so we can obviously afford more house, but we'd like to keep it $500k or less unless the house was so particularly amazing in an awesome spot, I wouldn't really want to spend more.
Three blocks in Chicago is insignificant, other end of commute matters more!
Quote:
Originally Posted by nikitakolata
Maybe you don't consider 3 blocks significant, but if you are walking that's an extra 6 blocks of walking everyday. That adds up, time wise. If they go into Ogilvie, you can take the steps down and come out between Washington and Randolph without having to even walk the length of the platform. The time savings while walking would be significant to me. I would rather be on the train for 5 more minutes than add 5 more minutes to my walking time since that is out in the elements vs in a heated/cooled train car. That's just me.
I have said many times that as I get older the cold weather bothers me more and more -- when I don't wear gloves the pain in my hands can require me actually warm up for 30 minutes or so at work.
That said I do wear gloves basically whenever the temps are below 40, and that seems to mostly mitigate things.
The bigger issue is really what happens in when you walk from at the commute from home to train and then from either of the train stations to offices in Merchandise Mart. The biggest factor is how close your home is to train. The time savings that come from being a mile or less, so that you can walk in under 15 minutes vs driving and parking is HUGE. Of course there are "micro-location" factors too -- if you live in a part of town that does not have sidewalks that is a giant negative. Similarly if you find out that your neighbors are not diligent about shoveling their sidewalks that slows down you commute to / from home as the first / last step too...
Conversely the journey from Union Station or OTC to Merchandise Mart is far more predictable. There are THOUSANDS of people walking along the routes and it is easy to duck into a Starbucks or even just walk through public parts of buildings to warm up a bit. The landlords of all the buildings employ snow removal services to minimize their exposure to "slip and fall" law suits, building maintenance also tossed enough ice melter out to keep things safe even during a snow event.
In short -- OTC vs Unions Station is such a minor factor as to be laughable.
I do agree that depending on the rest of the OP's life circumstance it may be worth considering living inside Chicago -- Merchandise Mart is perhaps the single most well-served "hubs" of the CTA. As such it is increasingly a desirable location for offices.
Of course the same issue of "distance home is to entry station" is precisely why prices in neighborhoods with easy access to CTA have sky-rocketed and it is very likely that the OP will be rather disappointed with just how much they'd have to spend if they want something that "checks all the boxes". If their longer term desires align more with the relative ease of having access to high quality public schools, superior responsiveness of local government, and family oriented recreational activities these are decisions that continue to make nice suburbs attractive...
BTW -- The OP will need to revise either their price or the insistence on "new construction only". Frankly dismissing "resale" homes shows a total lack of understanding of the entire regional market... That sort of lack of understanding will not serve them well.
Last edited by chet everett; 01-19-2017 at 09:20 AM..
I'm fine to drive the train station, I don't need to be walking distance to it I don't think I'd do a 20 minute walk to the train every morning anyway. :P
I definitely want a commute under 1 hr door-to-door. I don't think I'd manage that unless my wife worked downtown too.
As for buying, I don't know if we'd move in 3 years or not, depends on how things go I guess - that was more of a ballpark. Renting could be an option I suppose, but only it was a new place. What's the real estate market like for Chicagoland? Are prices increasingly yearly?
Our yearly income right now is about $130k, so we can obviously afford more house, but we'd like to keep it $500k or less unless the house was so particularly amazing in an awesome spot, I wouldn't really want to spend more.
As Chet mentioned above, the dismissal of resale homes is really going to hurt you here. Many of the most sought after homes (for price and location and amenities) are not new construction. With a resale home, you know what you're getting. With new construction, time has not had the opportunity to wreak havoc on things. As for renting, new construction would be nice, but fully renovated would be just as good.
For door to door under an hour, at Merchandise Mart, you're really going to be looking at Downers Grove or Closer (the closer you get the more expensive it gets, for the most part) on the BNSF / Glen Ellyn or closer on the UP-W line.
For driving to the train station parking is not guaranteed - in Downers Grove there is a 5 year wait for a parking spot. I'm not sure what parking is like in Elmhurst (which is probably out of your price range) but I know people who have not been able to secure spots as early as 8 am.
I strongly suggest living within walking distance of a train station.
For what's the Chicago market like? Who knows what it will do. Prices have been increasing -- does that mean they will continue to do so?
With yearly income at 130K, you'd probably want to put a good chunk of that equity you have into a new mortgage. Even at a 350K mortgage, you are likely looking at 2400 a month for PITI alone.
If you want a more professional opinion, I'm happy to pass along the buyer's agent/ realtor I used to give you some idea of what numbers are really like.
Thanks for the comments - I'm married, no kids. My wife and I would only live in a new construction home - we don't want a resell home. We don't want to live in Chicago - we're suburbanites and would never live downtown or in a condo.
Price wise, I'd prefer under $500k, but I could do a more if needed to. I've got almost $300k in equity in my home currently. What's the real estate market like in the Chicagoland suburbs? I'd imagine we'd probably live in the home 3 years or so before selling so I don't want to buying a house that I'd lose money on. We'd eventually be moving back to Canada (where we are from).
I don't live in Chicago currently - I'm 2 hrs south in a smaller town.
So this is what we're looking for in a home - new construction, safe area, affordable, reasonable commute to downtown Chicago... seems like train is my best bet. Safety is big in our list. I don't want to be a sketchy place or a place that has crime at all. I don't want to ever be concerned about that.
Naperville parking at train station sounds pretty bad...
OP, just a thought,
Living in Chicago itself is not in any way exclusive with living downtown or in a condo. There are many parts of Chicago that feel quite suburban.
You will find some housing options on the northwest side that are both very safe and make for a very easy commute to the merch mart. There are also parts of the Northwest side that I think project favorably for appreciation in value. The tough/nearly impossible part will be finding something new construction.
So, I commute to downtown daily from Chicago, but in 7 years have only driven twice. Driving completely sucks, to me at least (1.5 hours due to traffic). The Metra is easy and fast, 30 minutes. Parking can be difficult, but I bike to the train so I have no problems. If you commute earlier it is easy to get parking, but as you hit 7:30 it gets pretty full. My friend walks from Union to Michigan Ave everyday and he loves the walk, it is his daily work out in almost all weather. My building is close to Union, so easier for me. You'd have to decide if you enjoy walking or not, that should help you decide if this is doable or not....thats probably 20 minutes...so, you are at 54 minutes with train and walk to work, without factoring in getting to train.
Naperville is great, but finding new construction under $500K will probably be difficult, unless you go to south Naperville, which increases the commute time.
600k for new construction in Naperville / Lisle / Downers Grove anywhere near the BNSF line is what you would need. If you are willing to be a distance from the stations, then you could hit your 500k budget. Say, Ashwood Heights in Naperville, down around Rt. 59 and 103rd, would work. But it would be a straight shot down rt. 59 to the station; not ideal, but doable.
I'll echo everyone else here and state that driving is absolutely not a sane option.
At the stations, daily parking is avalable - 5th Avenue fills up by 6:45 or earlier. Rt. 59 is not quite so bad, but I don't have firsthand experience.
Living in Chicago itself is not in any way exclusive with living downtown or in a condo. There are many parts of Chicago that feel quite suburban.
You will find some housing options on the northwest side that are both very safe and make for a very easy commute to the merch mart. There are also parts of the Northwest side that I think project favorably for appreciation in value. The tough/nearly impossible part will be finding something new construction.
Good luck.
both the far northwest and far southwest sides of chicago are pretty suburban. I don't know much about the metra, but I know it serves the beverly and morgan park area (both of which feel suburban), whereas neighborhoods on the northwest like edison park have access to the CTA and the blue line.
Most new construction is very expensive. In a place like Wheaton you are talking a minimum of about 750 to 800 k for new construction. There are a few town homes being built along Herrick Rd in Warrenville for around 350 K. Most of the desirable suburbs with reasonable commutes are all built out and don't have new construction. There are teardowns of course that are extremely expensive such as price range quoted above. There may be very small pockets of in fill that are being developed with a few homes here or there but its hard to even find them unless you are in the area. The days of large tract subdivisions being built east of RT fifty nine is pretty much over. Maybe some stuff out near Plainfiield or south or west of Fox Valley Mall.
Maybe some stuff out near Plainfiield or south or west of Fox Valley Mall.
My friend just built new in aurora, west of Rt 59...$850K, I was surprised. Its a beauty of a house, but still. Its tough to find any new Naperville construction around 75th St or north for less than $650K. Get into Plainfield and the OP could find new construction there in his budget, but then the commute gets bad.
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I don't think I'd do a 20 minute walk to the train every morning anyway. :P
Three blocks in Chicago is insignificant, other end of commute matters more!
