Moving in 30 days, Hinsdale or Wilmette or HP? (Chicago, Buffalo Grove: house, neighborhood)

[VBO79]

Hi,
I've been reading years and years of posts comparing North Vs West suburbs for about a year now. I really need to make a call soon. I welcome all opinions!!

We have 650K to buy, my husband will work at the AON building. I have a 5 year old and a 4 year old, we want to live around a lot of little kids with top notch schools. I would love to have a walkable downtown and the ability to walk to the train. I want a terrific parks district.

Hinsdale looks wonderful but .. if I want to take my kids to the beach where do I go? It sounds like a mess if you're not a resident of the north shore. If I want to go to wilmette beach and I pay the 1,000 a year for a non resident parking pass..can my kids go to the swimming beach, or maybe I have to pay more for that to?

I really love Highland Park, I really love the Ravina area but we are Christians and while I certainly welcome diversity, I am worried that HP is about 50% Jewish? Is that a fair guess? Please correct me if I am wrong. Will our house look out of place all decked out for Christmas in Ravinia and does downtown HP have a Santa and Christmas lights?

Wilmette seems to be nice, if we take living by the water out of the equation how does Wilmette compare to Hinsdale? Equal Parks Districts? With little kids we will really use the parks districts and afterschool programs when I go back to work.

[Justabystander]

Originally Posted by VBO79

Hi,
I've been reading years and years of posts comparing North Vs West suburbs for about a year now. I really need to make a call soon. I welcome all opinions!!

We have 650K to buy, my husband will work at the AON building. I have a 5 year old and a 4 year old, we want to live around a lot of little kids with top notch schools. I would love to have a walkable downtown and the ability to walk to the train. I want a terrific parks district.

Hinsdale looks wonderful but .. if I want to take my kids to the beach where do I go? It sounds like a mess if you're not a resident of the north shore. If I want to go to wilmette beach and I pay the 1,000 a year for a non resident parking pass..can my kids go to the swimming beach, or maybe I have to pay more for that to?

I really love Highland Park, I really love the Ravina area but we are Christians and while I certainly welcome diversity, I am worried that HP is about 50% Jewish? Is that a fair guess? Please correct me if I am wrong. Will our house look out of place all decked out for Christmas in Ravinia and does downtown HP have a Santa and Christmas lights?

Wilmette seems to be nice, if we take living by the water out of the equation how does Wilmette compare to Hinsdale? Equal Parks Districts? With little kids we will really use the parks districts and afterschool programs when I go back to work.

Hinsdale is all of that without the lake. When we wanted the lake or beach, we just went to the Montose beach area which was great. Most of our activity with the kids was with the community pool, which we loved. No lake is warmer weather, which I also enjoy. Love Hinsdale's downtown, beauty, schools and location, 20 minutes to everything. The town is always getting better, roads are fixed and new middle school and redone high school which is top notch, and new parking garage downtown. Highland Park is just so far out of the way, and Wilmette has Cook Co. taxes. I am biased because I live in Hinsdale, but have no qualms about living here.

[TeeGee7]

Check out Western Springs. It’s Hinsdale without the attitude, and a little less expensive.

[olive03]

My vote is the north shore, but that's just due to personal preference and being much more familiar with the area. I don't think you can go wrong in any of those towns. I have a friend that lives in Hinsdale and loves it down there.

The only disclaimer that I'll mention is that I have another friend who is originally from Highland Park and she mentioned a couple years ago that she feels like the schools aren't what they once were. I can't give you specifics beyond that. My understanding is that the schools in HP are still very strong.

Regarding living in an area as a Christian where the Jewish population is substantial... It's really not a big deal. I'm on the Long Grove/Buffalo Grove border (District 96) and I'm Catholic. Yes, you have a lot of Jewish residents here (my husband included), but you also have a ton of Christians. There's plenty of room for all faiths. I've never felt out of place when we put our Christmas decorations out. We certainly aren't the only ones.

With all of that being said, your dollar will more than likely go the furthest in HP.

Avg house price below:

Highland Park - $476,391
Wilmette - $694,619
Hinsdale - $858,775


Good luck with you search and welcome to Chicago(land).

[ChiSki340]

I would put Wilmette at the top of the list of you really want to be by the water. However, your housing options might be limited to west of Hunter Rd. (West wilmette) if your budget is $650K.

Hinsdale is a great town but I don’t really see their parks and schools being any better than Wilmette’s.

As for HP, the Jewish presence there is noticeable. My Christian friend who lives in HP talked about how his house is the only in his neighborhood with Christmas lights. The HP Jewish community at large tends to be either Reform or secular, and they certainly aren’t going to care if you’re Christian or treat you poorly. That said, there are schools in HP where Jews are a significant majority, and the town has a lot of families that have been living there for generations.

[Hiruko]

Originally Posted by VBO79

Hi,
I've been reading years and years of posts comparing North Vs West suburbs for about a year now. I really need to make a call soon. I welcome all opinions!!

We have 650K to buy, my husband will work at the AON building. I have a 5 year old and a 4 year old, we want to live around a lot of little kids with top notch schools. I would love to have a walkable downtown and the ability to walk to the train. I want a terrific parks district.

Hinsdale looks wonderful but .. if I want to take my kids to the beach where do I go? It sounds like a mess if you're not a resident of the north shore. If I want to go to wilmette beach and I pay the 1,000 a year for a non resident parking pass..can my kids go to the swimming beach, or maybe I have to pay more for that to?

I really love Highland Park, I really love the Ravina area but we are Christians and while I certainly welcome diversity, I am worried that HP is about 50% Jewish? Is that a fair guess? Please correct me if I am wrong. Will our house look out of place all decked out for Christmas in Ravinia and does downtown HP have a Santa and Christmas lights?

Wilmette seems to be nice, if we take living by the water out of the equation how does Wilmette compare to Hinsdale? Equal Parks Districts? With little kids we will really use the parks districts and afterschool programs when I go back to work.

I'll reapproach this later as someone intimately familiar with the area. But, frankly, I stopped at the whole Jewish/Christian thing for now. That was too much.

[VBO79]

thanks for all your thoughts, maybe which schools in HP are predominately Jewish is a better way to present the question. I lived in NYC for years and have many wonderful Jewish friends but I don't want my kids to feel like the odd one out in HP...maybe thats the adorable Ravinia or Braeside schools that are predominately Jewish. But..maybe HP schools are slipping... yet still very good. HP parks district looks great too.

Wilmette vs Hinsdale is the other big question, I am looking at a house in wilmette just east of lavelace park near wilmette ave and central park ave. I think this area is "east" or even middle wilmette. I just dont know how often we'd use the water... we are water people but maybe I just imagine wilmette beach being a busy very urban beach vs a neighborhood beach????

Someone mentioned Western Springs and LaGrange ... I just feel like the "it" communities really have these amazing park districts that I love. I do like the nice walkable downtown.. "town square". It sounds like wilmette and hinsdale have comparable downtowns.

While these park districts at many of these towns seem terrific... what do the teens do in these area when the age out of the park district stuff? I wonder if the go to the beach...but the beach is only 2 months out of the year.

[TeeGee7]

Get the kids into club sports and high school sports. Both Hinsdale Central and Lyons Township have great sports programs. My kids did club soccer and gymnastics when younger, and in high school (LT) did soccer, gymnastics and tennis.

[TeeGee7]

New Trier in Wilmette is also a great high school. Loyola Academy in Wilmette (my alma mater) is my recommendation if you want to give your kids a Catholic education through 12th grade.

[reppin_the_847]

Originally Posted by Hiruko

I'll reapproach this later as someone intimately familiar with the area. But, frankly, I stopped at the whole Jewish/Christian thing for now. That was too much.

Can't completely blame them. This country likes to pride itself on its Judeo-Christian heritage... I was raised Catholic, but a lot of Christians would say my lifestyle is possibly more similar to that of a secular heathen than a truly God fearing individual lol. That being said just for the sake of my heritage, culture & my folks, I do have some pictures of Jesus in my residence & an Ashkenazi Jewish gal who I was seeing at one time (from the most affluent suburb of Detroit aka Bloomfield Hills) managed to squirm upon seeing it. She was literally triggered. How do you explain that? Well, she is kinda nuts & possibly a borderline psych case, but I digress. Heheheh