Newly married couple looking for our first home! (buying, prices)

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by Hiruko

Property tax rates are not progressive, and Hinsdale has among the lowest property tax rates in the Chicagoland area.

...this is COMPLETLY true! The other factor is though there are quite a few homes for sale in the greater Hinsdale / Burr Ridge area the reason(s) are not really the same as what is driving down home values in other part of Illinois.

For many decades there was a very solid contingent of very successful commodities / futures / options traders who called Hinsdale home. Many of them got that start “in the pits” that really represented a very gut-feeling / rule-of-thumb, trust you pal / destroy your rival kind of ethic. More than a few of these traders followed in the footsteps of their dads and grandfathers (the last generation included a decent percentage of women too).

What has happened is that basically every last one of them has been made obsolete by electronic systems. There are still a handful of folks “on the floor” but they’re really executing trades that are being orchestrated by, at the very least, a more informed partner sitting in front four or more screens, running at least few dozen pieces of software to ensure that they are not wildly out of sync with the low latency markets.

Just like the way that robots have replaced welders and painters in automotive factories it takes far fewer humans to have the “robust markets” that are key to the volumes that make CBOE / CME (and even Nasdaq / NYSE) what they are.

So the “old war horses” are selling their homes and moving to Florida, or the Carolinas (and maybe picking up a vacation home or two in Colorado or Montana, or some other lovely location that knows how to treat millionaires right instead of telling ‘em they’re obsolete).

Don’t mistake this “end of an old era” with some kind of “doom scenario”. There are still plenty of folks that do rely on the old low latency trading to make them rich, the volume is just going to slid into irrelevance. There are not shortage of younger (and probably more computer savvy older folks...) that work for the low latency firms. They’ve got gobs of cash for the biggest homes they want. And while some of them do seem to prefer hip spots in Chicago itself there are still some that do buy the huge homes in Hinsdale. Heck, if they have more than a couple of kids and want a home that has room for more than two cars there is probably no cheaper area around, especially if one factors private school in Chicago vs top notch public public schools in Hinsdale.
And Hinsdale has no shortage of smart attorneys, physicians, consulting / accounting types, and private business owners to remain a very desirable place regardless of just how much blood J.B. tries to squeeze out of Illinois’ turnips. Frankly if somebody asked me whether it makes more sense to buy a $1M home in Naperville or Hinsdale the answer is stupid easy — Naperville taxes are MUCH higher. Same is true for literally every other town in the state with the possible exception of Oak Brook or Lake Forest and of those only Oak Brook makes sense for a commute to Kankakee, though the trade-off of walkable town and train access (which may not be something the OP cares about at all...) still puts Hinsdale on top. (BTW when I say Hinsdale I also include the portion of Burr Ridge and most of Clarendon Hills as it is served by D181 schools. If the OP really cares about saving ‘even ten minutes’ the obvious target should be the part of those towns that make for best access to the tollway as the obvious path from 294 to the 80/57 function is going to be better than dealing with any trip that involves the more circuitous routing from points west to use the Stevenson or 355 to get to 80 to get to 57. That can add a solid 30 minutes to each of the trip all by itself...

[damba]

Originally Posted by Curly Q. Bobalink

Not yet, but that idea's being kicked around. I say, "great idea", there are way too many folks on the low end, especially in the south suburbs, who are being taxed off of their properties.

For grins and giggles, I checked out a couple of million dollar properties in the Hinsdale area on Zillow. Taxes were in the $20 - 25K range, which was less than I thought they'd be - Illinois aggregate taxes are like 3%, correct? So, you're right, Hinsdale does appear to have a lower tax rate. I think Willowbrook also has a lower rate because it has a lot of commercial property. If I remember correctly, there were about 175 homes for sale in the $1 - 1.1M range in the area from Hinsdale to the northern suburbs.

Anecdotally, my sister sold her home in unincorporated Downers Grove for about $550K in the late 90's. Zillow has it valued for about the same amount today (over twenty years later), and it has been totally remodeled by the guy who bought it (it re-sold a few years ago). If that experience is indicative of future gains for higher-end properties in the western suburbs, one would be better off renting. My own home (completely different price range) is currently valued (by Zillow) at about 20% LOWER than I could have sold it for twenty-three years ago. But that's Zillow, t's "actual" value is quite a bit less. YMMV.

Your DG anecdotal home example doesn’t mean much.

The thread’s about the OP, Curly. She’s not you- she’s not planning on renting, clearly.

[Curly Q. Bobalink]

Originally Posted by damba

Your DG anecdotal home example doesn’t mean much.

The thread’s about the OP, Curly. She’s not you- she’s not planning on renting, clearly.

It is what it is, forewarned is forearmed. Look, if her husband is transferring from the Giants to the Bears, then God Bless, the OP has money to burn. If he's making $200K working at a law firm as the New Guy, I'd be more cautious, but it's their dime, not mine.

But as you say, I've never been in a position to throw seven figures at some bricks and mortar, (and still eat), so my outlook is going to be different. I'm probably overly cautious because a friend's cousin, who I hung out with as a kid, moved to San Diego twenty years ago and started buying rental property with her husband. The more overpriced it became, the more they leveraged and purchased. Every time I asked about her, my friend would go on about how well they were doing. In 2008 when the market turned, they went belly-up and lost everything, and Uncle Sam let them walk away and stiff the banks (and you and I). I'm not against buying expensive real estate, just not in Illinois, with all of the baggage that's hitting (and will likely get worse if the economy turns south). As you say, it all depends on their situation. You are a cheerleader, and I'm not, nothing wrong with that. We'll see how it turns out in a few years.

[Trotlinda]

I would look around Plainfield, IL you can get a very nice house 5 bed 4 or 5 bath for around 400,000. It’s only about an hour from Kankakee with an easy commute and great school system and about 45 minutes from Schaumburg. It’s also about 40 minutes to Chicago if you would like to shop.

[damba]

Originally Posted by Curly Q. Bobalink

It is what it is, forewarned is forearmed. Look, if her husband is transferring from the Giants to the Bears, then God Bless, the OP has money to burn. If he's making $200K working at a law firm as the New Guy, I'd be more cautious, but it's their dime, not mine.

But as you say, I've never been in a position to throw seven figures at some bricks and mortar, (and still eat), so my outlook is going to be different. I'm probably overly cautious because a friend's cousin, who I hung out with as a kid, moved to San Diego twenty years ago and started buying rental property with her husband. The more overpriced it became, the more they leveraged and purchased. Every time I asked about her, my friend would go on about how well they were doing. In 2008 when the market turned, they went belly-up and lost everything, and Uncle Sam let them walk away and stiff the banks (and you and I). I'm not against buying expensive real estate, just not in Illinois, with all of the baggage that's hitting (and will likely get worse if the economy turns south). As you say, it all depends on their situation. You are a cheerleader, and I'm not, nothing wrong with that. We'll see how it turns out in a few years.

More unrelated anecdotes which have little bearing on what the OP needs.

[Curly Q. Bobalink]

Originally Posted by damba

More unrelated anecdotes which have little bearing on what the OP needs.

This is really cool, I never had a stalker before. But I hate to break it to you, no matter how badly you want to go out with me, I am unavailable, my heart belongs to another. I just hope we can still be friends, though. If we couldn't be friends, I just don't think I would want to live any more.

[damba]

Originally Posted by Curly Q. Bobalink

This is really cool, I never had a stalker before. But I hate to break it to you, no matter how badly you want to go out with me, I am unavailable, my heart belongs to another. I just hope we can still be friends, though. If we couldn't be friends, I just don't think I would want to live any more.

Don’t quit your day job.

[Chicagoisthebest]

Do Bourbonnais or orland park or elmhurst

[MartinLewis]

Originally Posted by amym786

Hello!

I'm moving from NYC and my husband lives in Schaumburg. We are looking for a 5+ bedroom (his parents and younger brother are moving in with us ( )
He currently works in Kankakee (hopefully for the next 2 years max) but wants to stay near his cousins in Schaumburg and really doesn't mind a long commute. His current commute is 1.25h each way but I'd love to have him less than an hour from work.
It is super important to belong to a great school district and live in a newer construction home.
Our budget is around 1m.
Any advice for us?
Areas I love: Burr Ridge, Oak Brook, South Barrington
He wouldn't care, he would spend 1m in Bloomingdale if the house was nice but I think its a total waste!
TIA!

If you're still looking for this type of property let me know! I've some property for sale!

[ChiGuy2.5]

Originally Posted by kitty_nina1

I wouldn't buy ANYTHING right now. I wouldn't even move here right now.
Read the papers and read the news.
Our entire neighborhood is on the market it seems. A good neighborhood that we hand picked when moving here.
Our property taxes are up with home valuation up, but the property value is down!
People around here are offloading million+ homes for half the price. Losing hundreds of thousands on them.just to get out of IL.
Lots of people in our local FB group are very angry. Some have their property tax bills up nearly 40% with property values down, way down.
Politicians want tax $$ to fund unnecessary projects and their pockets (pensions),with socialism galore.
Be prepared to lose money.

Well this post didn't age well. To buy a home in the burbs at 2019 prices would be a STEAL compared to today's prices. I hope the OP ended up buying.