Nelson Circle in Westmont (Downers Grove, Elmhurst: renters, mortgage, houses)

[neeshera]

We are in the home buyers market and have looked at some nice houses in Nelson Circle in Westmont. It is a beautiful circular subdivision with a pond in the center and lot of openness.

However, in the last two years, we have seen a lot of houses being put up for resale in this subdivision.
Can anyone enlighten us as to why this particular subdivison would have so many properties up for resale?

[chet everett]

Most of the turn over is due to appreciation -- those homes were built / originally sold for a fraction of what similar size homes in better school districts cost.

The same schools that serve that area have considerably more renters and poorer performance than nearby schools -- literally across the way kids go to the MUCH better MAERCKER SD 60, GOWER SD 62, or top rated Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills SD 181...

Once people realized the could sell and with low interest rates step up to much more desirable area without a big jump in mortgage and maybe even flat property taxes it was a domino effect.

They are still nice houses, but the schools are not highly regarded.

[neeshera]

I checked with the school district and was told that the Nelson circle property address lies in the Maercker SD 60 area, so the home schools would be Holmes Elem., Maercker Elem, Westview Hills middle and Downer's Grove High school.

With this information, any more comments are welcome.

The scores for these schools on the greatschools.net website are 7, 9 and 9 respectively which is reasonably good I would say.

[neeshera]

Also, would you say this is a desirable area? We are affording and would not want to land ourselves in any undesirable areas.

[chet everett]

Some people much prefer Hinsdale D86 high schools. Downers Grove High Schools (kids from this area would almost certainly go to the South campus west on 63rd, at Dunham Rd) is considerably larger (by well over 700 in comparing DG South to Hinsdale Central or over 1,200 is comparing Hinsdale South to DG South...).

Homes with Westmont addresses are less desirable than those with addresses in most nearby areas -- I believe this stems from the disparity in performance of the Westmont High School Unit District's High School in comparison to all the other high schools in eastern DuPage...

The safety of the area is fine, it is quiet and mostly convenient. You will have to weigh the trade-offs. Your money would not go anywhere as far in Willowbrook, Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Oak Brook, Elmhurst or Burr Ridge... it might go just as far in Downers Grove, Darien, or Woodridge.