Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Illinois > Chicago Suburbs
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 01-05-2010, 10:19 PM
 
Location: Hoosierville
16,935 posts, read 14,263,163 times
Reputation: 11281

Advertisements

I find it quite funny that the poster lopped off the entire south side.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 01-05-2010, 10:23 PM
 
Location: Chicago
15,585 posts, read 27,447,708 times
Reputation: 1761
Quote:
Originally Posted by dinajju View Post
...Anywhere between +/- $300 - $600k would be my idea of an affordable house...
This still leaves options to wide to zero in on without more specific info.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-05-2010, 10:39 PM
 
30 posts, read 161,939 times
Reputation: 16
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chuckity View Post
I find it quite funny that the poster lopped off the entire south side.
I'm not sure why you think its funny. The reasons I chose the area on the map is because my wife wants to live as north as possible (actually Milwaukee, because of her family, friends and work) but I want to live in Chicago (because of my family and work). I have some relatives in the Naperville area and that is as far south as I would be willing to live. So our compromise lead to the map I selected.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-05-2010, 11:00 PM
 
Location: Chicago
38,707 posts, read 102,751,145 times
Reputation: 29967
Quote:
Originally Posted by dinajju View Post
@Drover, skipcromer, Chet, thePR, chisub- Thank you all of you for the replies.

Its too early to say where I'll find a job, I will seriously start looking when I have 6 months or so before the move.

I think IT jobs in Chicago are sort of spread all over, if there is an IT "hub" then I'm not aware of it...
In that case it's too early to really make meaningful suggestions since the area you cover is pretty vast, and yet what looks like a short distance on the map could in reality be a soul-crushing commute. During rush hour it could take up to two hours to get one one end of your map to the other. If you work downtown, that subustantially opens up your options. Our mass transit system is very efficient at getting people from the outer areas into downtown and back. Unfortunately, it's lousy at getting people from a non-downtown origin to a non-downtown destination unless they both happen to fall right near stations on the same downtown-bound train line.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-06-2010, 10:04 AM
 
30 posts, read 161,939 times
Reputation: 16
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drover View Post
In that case it's too early to really make meaningful suggestions since the area you cover is pretty vast, and yet what looks like a short distance on the map could in reality be a soul-crushing commute. During rush hour it could take up to two hours to get one one end of your map to the other.
Yes the area is vast and my logic maybe slightly errored . Here is what ALSO helped select the map. I opened 2 google maps one for Dallas-Fort Worth (where I currently live) and one for Chicago and zoomed in both to the 10 mile elevation (shown at the bottom left of google maps). I know how long it takes to get from one town to another in DFW and I assumed the same for Chicago. I think traffic flow here is heavy but certainly not as congested as Chicago.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-06-2010, 10:31 AM
 
Location: Lake Arlington Heights, IL
5,479 posts, read 12,197,736 times
Reputation: 2847
And if I used your methods of finding a neighborhood first before knowing where my job is located and applied it to Dallas; I could end up living in Fort Worth and commuting to Dallas every day. Or living in McKinney and working in South Dallas near the zoo. Would you be happy with either of these commutes? We are trying to save you the "buyers remorse" of hellish commutes.

Now that being said, if you live in Arlington Heights-say near my Casa at Palatine Road and Rte 83. You can commute south, north and west relatively easy. If you lived in DuPage or Western Cook county and you needed to go north on I-355/290 or I-294, then the commute gets harder because you are going with the commuting patterns instead of opposite.
If you are in Lake county and you need to go south on Rte 83, US 45 or gilmer Road, then you have a commute that is stressful. If you are in Cary or Crystal Lake and need to go towards Chicago, your 2 choices are US 14 or US 12 and you get to enjoy the company of everybody else driving in.
So unless you are going to work from home or give your wife's work location the priority, I strongly suggest viewing this as very prelimanary info and hone in on a house location AFTER you have secured a job.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-06-2010, 10:38 AM
 
Location: Chicago
38,707 posts, read 102,751,145 times
Reputation: 29967
Quote:
Originally Posted by dinajju View Post
Yes the area is vast and my logic maybe slightly errored . Here is what ALSO helped select the map. I opened 2 google maps one for Dallas-Fort Worth (where I currently live) and one for Chicago and zoomed in both to the 10 mile elevation (shown at the bottom left of google maps). I know how long it takes to get from one town to another in DFW and I assumed the same for Chicago. I think traffic flow here is heavy but certainly not as congested as Chicago.
You'd be well-advised to adjust that assumption. During rush hour, even on the cruelly-named "expressways" it takes about 90 minutes to get from one side of the city to the other. I'm not talking the metro area, I'm talking just within the city limits. Don't look to the surface streets for relief either, because relief will not be forthcoming. And the Chicago city limits are smaller than that of Dallas. Imagine taking nearly two hours just to get from one side of Dallas proper to the other, never mind from one side of the whole metro area to the other. That's what you'd be contending with if you drove on the expressways during rush hour. The tollways around the metro area are often better -- but often not.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-06-2010, 11:08 AM
 
28,455 posts, read 84,971,395 times
Reputation: 18725
A couple of points. First I have been Dallas and I know that because of a lot of reasons (from wide roads with mostly wide arterials and hugely overbuilt expressways, to dry weather, to low population density) you can drive FAST from great distances even at rush hour. That does not apply to Chicago. The "rule of thumb" for commutes to stay under an hour is to limit distance to about 20 miles, becuase that is often the average speed for an entire trip in stop & go jam...

The OP asked about "IT Hubs" and while there is not much of a dedicated IT business unlike firms HQed in Red Rock (Dell) or EDS there ARE some specialties concentrations. Financial firms are largely in downtown Chicago, mostly close to train stations and employ a large percentage of IT workers. While a law firm or real estate might have a handful of IT folks the financials have hundreds.

The other big concentration is near the HQ locations of firms in southern Lake Co and northern Cook Co -- between the various firms with major HQs up there there are several thousand IT jobs.

There are some other concentrations out near Lisle/ Naperville, Oak Brook, O'Hare, and Schaumburg too, so you really need to have the job lined up BEFORE you start shopping for a place to live or will be doing a death commute...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-06-2010, 11:12 AM
 
30 posts, read 161,939 times
Reputation: 16
Actually what I was looking to get out of my OP was get a list of towns from the map that ppl thought matched my original criteria. And then I would take that list and individually research the towns. I understand I will need to provide more specifics (at least my work location) for posters to respond effectively.

I am a kind of guy who almost never buys a product or service until I have read customer reviews, because those are true experiences. So all your comments/advices are much much appreciated. Thanks.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-06-2010, 11:15 AM
 
Location: Oak Park, IL
5,523 posts, read 13,891,437 times
Reputation: 3906
We have fewer highway mile-lanes per capita than DFW so expect significantly more congestion. I recommend Metra to all commuters who work in downtown Chicago.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Illinois > Chicago Suburbs

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top