Naperville #3 best city in America/Money magazine (Chicago, Wheaton: fit in, real estate)

[SouthNapervilleDad]

Still with the hate FMV?

I still pray for you.

[InformedConsent]

Originally Posted by fairmarketvalue

Agreed. Naperville is highly over rated, if it got the #3 spot! I realize it's an overall rating, but there are many, many suburbs just as properous, better schools (look at the #'s even money mag. reported) and there were many that didn't even make the top 10 that had better #'s where schools, inclome, etc. were concerned. And Naperville expensive? While I see that near the "original Naperville" and downtown, there are much more expensive suburbs out there, not on the North Shore. This includes Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, Downers Grove, St. Charles, etc... I am pretty sure Glen Ellyn and Wheaton both have better school systems and ratings, blah, blah, blah, than Naperville 203 and 204 is no contest!!! Seems to me Money magazine is basing their findings to modern ammenities such as shopping, affordable housing (in the far outer parts of "naperville") and did not consider much else. Also, some parts are far, far away and if you go that far, then agreed, Plainfield might as well be your choice. Plainfield, when smaller, had one of the best school systems in Illinois. I know it has lost it's standing with the explosion of population and building of schools but it's the same for the southern part of Naperville. Don't read too much into Money magazine's findings. Over rated is putting it mildly! Take it with a "HUGE grain of salt" is dead on!

Schools...

K-8 test scores are essentially useless as Illinois has some of the lowest academic standards in the U.S. What you need to be looking at is the College/Work readiness percentage of each school system's graduates according to the ACT, a nationally normed test that is not subject to state BoE manipulations.

The Daily Herald ran a series of articles exploring various aspects of public education in their circulation area (not all suburbs are listed), and high school graduates' College/Work readiness was one of the spotlighted issues.

Comparison chart (the number in the last column is the college readiness percentage - for comparison purposes, the state average is 21% and the suburban average is 27%):
Daily Herald | A decade of school funding (http://www.dailyherald.com/packages/2007/schoollfinance/chapter10.htm - broken link)

Accompanying article:
Daily Herald | Chapter 10: Only 1 in 5 high school graduates are ready for college

My comment on suburban schools...

Some of these communities - given their advantageous demographics, favorable reputations, etc. - should be doing a much better job of educating their students than they currently are. Seems quite a few homeowners aren't paying attention to what they're getting for their tax dollars.

[Steve-o]

Man, Im getting PMs from idiots on here calling me "yuppie" and crap just because I defend Naperville. You know what? Im the furthest thing from a yuppie you can imagine.

Kiss off and die.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

Man, Im getting PMs from idiots on here calling me "yuppie" and crap just because I defend Naperville. You know what? Im the furthest thing from a yuppie you can imagine.

Kiss off and die.

Yeah they have done that to me before also as well as calling me a racist.

Odds are they are trust-fund hipster brats trying to feel like they have some "cred" because they are "fighting the power", "going against the man", and "keeping it real."

The other option is they are losers in life and want to blame their problems on everyone else instead of trying to improve their situation.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

Yeah they have done that to me before also as well as calling me a racist.

Odds are they are trust-fund hipster brats trying to feel like they have some "cred" because they are "fighting the power", "going against the man", and "keeping it real."

Im having mental visions of Che Guevara t-shirts all of a sudden.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

Im having mental visions of Che Guevara t-shirts all of a sudden.

You know what? I am thinking of making Mario Terán T-Shirts. I will give you one comp.

[Anthera]

Originally Posted by fairmarketvalue

Agreed. Naperville is highly over rated, if it got the #3 spot! I realize it's an overall rating, but there are many, many suburbs just as properous, better schools (look at the #'s even money mag. reported) and there were many that didn't even make the top 10 that had better #'s where schools, inclome, etc. were concerned. And Naperville expensive? While I see that near the "original Naperville" and downtown, there are much more expensive suburbs out there, not on the North Shore. This includes Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, Downers Grove, St. Charles, etc... I am pretty sure Glen Ellyn and Wheaton both have better school systems and ratings, blah, blah, blah, than Naperville 203 and 204 is no contest!!! Seems to me Money magazine is basing their findings to modern ammenities such as shopping, affordable housing (in the far outer parts of "naperville") and did not consider much else. Also, some parts are far, far away and if you go that far, then agreed, Plainfield might as well be your choice. Plainfield, when smaller, had one of the best school systems in Illinois. I know it has lost it's standing with the explosion of population and building of schools but it's the same for the southern part of Naperville. Don't read too much into Money magazine's findings. Over rated is putting it mildly! Take it with a "HUGE grain of salt" is dead on!

Money Magazine excluded all of the expensive suburbs, any suburbs that were more than 95% white, and various other criteria. While I think Naperville is a really nice place to live, you have to understand that MM had a very specific criteria, and that many areas some would consider nicer were excluded from consideration.


From the Chicago Tribune:

To compile its list, Money examined cities with populations between 50,000 and 300,000.

The magazine excluded retirement communities, places where the median income was less than 85 percent or more than 201 percent of the state median, and communities more than 95 percent white. The magazine also did not include towns with high crime rates, declining populations, significant unemployment or long commutes.

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I'm a professional in my thirties with a family, and know MANY other professionals in their thirties with children. But for some reason, none of them live in Naperville or have any plans to move there. The people I know who are moving to the suburbs aren't even considering Naperville, and it's not an issue of affordability. I know several people who grew up in Naperville, but I don't know anyone who is going back. Why is this? What's up with the Naperville backlash among Generation X and Y?

I'm a Gen-Xer who graduated from North. One issue is the fact that many of us have left the state. Another is my age group tends to favor the urban setting. I have a lot of friends that live in Chicago who send their kids to magnet schools. Gen-Xers also like diversity. Naperville is not a diverse place. In fact, the theme song from "Weeds" probably sums up Naperville better than any song I've ever heard. The town has an artificial feeling to many that grew up in the area. It has that feeling to many outsiders today, and it continues.

[Georgia]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

And Im still curious how Naperville is compared with CA. I dont see ANY similarities besides a few stores, thats about it.

I think it was a lighthearted poke at Naperville in resembling Southern California.
This would not be in regard to weather or smog, but the high amounts of BoTox, enhanced breasts, mail hair transplants, and inflated lips.

I for one like Naperville, heck I like and miss the majority of the Chicago burbs, including Geneva, St. Charles, Barrington, and Crystal Lake. I even miss downtown Chicago itself

Well, except for Governor' Blastickittoyataxvictch's taxes. Wow! the horror stories I am hearing from my friends. Gas at $4.45 a gallon, property tax increases, sales taxes, etc.etc., what are you guys doing? Paying for his private jet runs from Chicago to Springfield?

[fairmarketvalue]

Originally Posted by SouthNapervilleDad

Still with the hate FMV?

I still pray for you.

South Naperville Dad,

There is truly no hate, really! First, I was accused of having this "opinion" because I was trying to plug my own community and more importantly, sell my own house in Wheaton. When that was finally proven wrong, as that was never my intention for posting my opinion, I am still baffled as to why you constantly pick out ONLY MY POSTS, and say nothing else or insult no one else over their just as harsh, if not more harsh, OPINIONS of Naperville. What exactly do you have against me and my opinions? There was one thread that tore Naperville apart. I think it was titled "history of Naperville" or something to that effect. I watched and read it, waiting for you to post your "defensive" arguements to all the "bashing" it was given by several posters and you never did. So maybe the hate is on your part?!? Do you hate the fact that we live in Wheaton and think that Naperville is "highly over rated" or just our opinion of that. Facts are facts, which is what I stated in my last post. But please, give your "frustration" of the negetive posts about Naperville to someone else!! Mine are very kind, in compairison.

What denial are you in, exactly, and why so sensitive to anyone saying anything negetive about Naperville? Naperville is most definately over rated, period, and I started a post back in early June, showing my own frustration for people "buying in" to these very types of information, without really digging in. It was frustrating when we were sellers in the real estate market, losing to a house in "far away land" of Naperville, when put on the short list of buyers' selections, never considering anything more than the "house" itself(remember- more "pop" for your $). Those buyers were not buying in the Naperville" that money magazine writes about, but going by the "name of it alone", not realizing what their commute would be to Arlington Hts., didn't consider the lowest rated HS their daughter would attend, and overall, the "misconception" of thinking they had bought in the "Naperville" magazines like MM writes about! They bought where they bought because they got more house, period, and didn't consider the "community" in their choice. We were told this by their agent. It was all about the house.

As stated, there is a reason houses are more expensive, overall, in a community like Wheaton or others I mentioned. Proximity to employment (now more important than ever with gas prices), SCHOOLS, convenience to shopping, and community. The same is true for the "North Shore" being more expensive than our area and the respect I have for that, which is why I would never be offended by the posts that state what is true about that area- it's more expensive for a reason!

The market, lately, over the last year, has been about NONE of these things in many buyers minds. They bought where they could get more house for the money and all other priorities went "out the window". This is changing and buyers are getting back to "studying" why some suburbs are more costly than others and deciding they are worth it. While The original "Naperville"(close to downtown) and dist. 203 is every bit in the same catagory as the rest of these western suburbs I mention, Wheaton included, and just as expensive because of it, the rest of Naperville is not, whether you want to admit it or get upset when someone points it out is really something I just don't care to defend anymore. Just please stop replying to my posts, as if I am the only one who thinks this about "Naperville"- I'm not alone, by any means!

Naperville, as I have stated before, is a great town, great shopping, great resturants, and a fun place to be. But anything else I have said is to defend and question why "Naperville" gets so over rated, in compairison to many other suburbs is, at the very least, warrented.
Thank you!