Bannockburn - help please (Naperville, Evanston: real estate, 2015, home)

[Ccpfinn]

Wonderful helpful people, I need your insight. We are looking to move (again) and are focusing on lake county and specifically Bannockburn. And I have a bunch of questions for those in the know. I know lake county taxes are higher in general but the sellers real estate agent told us the taxes are lower in Bannockburn than they are in neighboring Deerfield. But I cannot find information to back up her claim. Can someone help me understand why? Both towns feed into the same highschool. Does Bannockburn have a library and a park district? Or do Bannockburn residents use Deerfield facilities? If so do Bannockburn residents have to pay out of district fees? Does Bannockburn have flooding issues? What are the general pros/cons to living in Bannockburn? We really like the idea of a smaller elementary school but can someone give insight on what the schools is like good or bad? And I would appreciate any thoughts about Bannockburn in general. Over the last 50 years lived in Barrington, Buffalo Grove,Evanston, Wilmette, Wheaton, and Naperville and feel lost as we know zero about Bannockburn. Any insight is greatly y appreciated. Thank you!

Ps - I have heard mention of Highland Park and Deerfield high schools merging. Is this true?

[Pseudonym18123]

Bannockburn, along with Riverwoods, are peripheral suburbs to Deerfield. That means that in general, they share the same services (ZIP code, library district, and schools). Maybe municipal taxes are lower in Bannockburn than in Deerfield (don’t quote me on thus), but since it’s in Lake County, the rest of your taxes would still be high. However, I don’t think you need to pay out-of-district fees for most of Deerfield’s services, even if you’re in Bannockburn or Riverwoods.

A major pro with Bannockburn over Deerfield is that there’s one K-8 school, the Bannockburn school. And generally, Bannockburn is considered a stronger feeder school than Caruso in Deerfield. However, Bannockburn also seems to have a larger contingent of low-income students (which surprised me; the Deerfield-Bannockburn-Riverwoods area is pretty rich). If you’re in the Deerfield HS feeder area, I’d recommend Shepard Middle School, though we are splitting hairs here.

Also, Bannockburn has a bit of diversity - the schools have a decent number of Asian and Black students. Meanwhile Deerfield is overwhelmingly white and plurality Jewish (though this is changing). It used to be that Bannockburn and Deerfield were white flight destinations from Skokie and Buffalo Grove, but now even Deerfield and Bannockburn are diversifying. And if you head east to Highland Park and Highwood, you’ll even find more Hispanic residents.

One tangible disadvantage to Bannockburn, along with the parts of Riverwoods and Lincolnshire nearby, is that you’re in the Des Plaines River floodplain. Because of this, home prices are a bit lower than they’d be in the regions away from the floodplain.

Deerfield HS and Highland Park HS are in the same school district, but I haven’t heard anything about the schools merging. I know that Deerfield is considered the stronger high school between the two, and that when NCLB was a thing Highland Park students had the option to attend Deerfield because HPHS didn’t meet APY…although neither did New Trier (or even Deerfield one year for that matter). Some people seem to think HPHS is in decline, but Deerfield HS seems to be fine. It still serves an uber-wealthy contingent of students, and keep in mind that Deerfield and Bannockburn are towns where the wealthiest parents send their students to elite prep schools like Lake Forest Academy and North Shore Country Day (or even REALLY elite prep schools like Phillips Andover).

If you’re looking in Bannockburn, I’d also check out Riverwoods and Lincolnshire. Deerfield HS is great for some, and parts of Riverwoods and 99% of Lincolnshire are fed by District 103 and Stevenson HS. District 103 is arguably the best K-8 school district in the state, and paradoxically, home prices are cheaper in that area. Since you’ve lived in Buffalo Grove, I imagine that you’re more familiar with Stevenson, which draws from a huge geographical area (as opposed to Deerfield), but it’s worth checking out.

If you’re moving for public schools, you really can’t go wrong in Bannockburn, though. Ironically, Lake Forest, which is even richer, has worse public schools, but that’s also because of the siphoning effect. Let me know if you have any other questions!

[Hiruko]

Originally Posted by Ccpfinn

Wonderful helpful people, I need your insight. We are looking to move (again) and are focusing on lake county and specifically Bannockburn. And I have a bunch of questions for those in the know. I know lake county taxes are higher in general but the sellers real estate agent told us the taxes are lower in Bannockburn than they are in neighboring Deerfield. But I cannot find information to back up her claim. Can someone help me understand why? Both towns feed into the same highschool. Does Bannockburn have a library and a park district? Or do Bannockburn residents use Deerfield facilities? If so do Bannockburn residents have to pay out of district fees? Does Bannockburn have flooding issues? What are the general pros/cons to living in Bannockburn? We really like the idea of a smaller elementary school but can someone give insight on what the schools is like good or bad? And I would appreciate any thoughts about Bannockburn in general. Over the last 50 years lived in Barrington, Buffalo Grove,Evanston, Wilmette, Wheaton, and Naperville and feel lost as we know zero about Bannockburn. Any insight is greatly y appreciated. Thank you!

Ps - I have heard mention of Highland Park and Deerfield high schools merging. Is this true?

The property taxes in Bannockburn and Deerfield are going to be roughly the same. Properties in both communities will be subject to the same taxing body responsible for the largest party of the levy: Township High School District 113. Bannockburn might be slightly lower because of higher all-around property values. However, the last numbers that I saw back in 2015 indicated that they were equally as high as Deerfield. Deerfield and Highland Park have the highest effective taxes on the North Shore besides Skokie.

Real estate agents and government officials often mention mill rates when talking about taxes, but the reality is that you're more concerned about the effective rate which cannot be gleaned from looking at tax bills. A quick glance through real estate listings will show that the rates are much higher for equivalently priced properties in Bannockburn over Lake Forest, Winnetka, or Wilmette, for example.

I don't have enough information regarding the other questions. I suspect that the answers could vary substantially depending on the exact location of a particular property within the Village. As you know, communities in Illinois are often haphazardly and irrationally divided between school, park, and library districts. Many places are actually unincorporated or have no park district or they might have three, etc.!