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The results of the school report cards and conversation with any of the few parents/ families that have direct experience with more than one school in D181 should reassure you that there is no reason to limit your search to one attendance area, further the district technically allows folks to enroll in any school so long as doing so would not result in overcrowding. You should consider all areas of D181 as equally desirable from an educational perspective. Of course there are some differences in the kinds of housing available in the various parts of Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills, but I doubt that there is much consistent variation in regards to what is available on the market at any given time.
I agree that you should not over pay for a home. The value of the entire property will need to be supportable with recent sales data or else your lender will not underwrite a mortgage -- for over priced homes this can be an issue, though working with a qualified local real estate agent ought to alleviate most of those fears.
As I also said, if you do make contact directly with local real estate offices that helps then set the stage for folks that come in wanting to list for a high asking price -- the "feedback loop" that some sellers have missed out on is critically important to be filled with REAL buyers and not just shoppers. If your "hard limit" is $xxx,xxx or $x,xxx,xxx it can make a HUGE difference in the psychology that agents use to help sellers come down to a realistic level...
From the perspective of having a lovely, low traffic, variety of lot sizes, home styles perspective both Hinsdale and the D181 portion of Clarendon Hills have lots to offer, but I also know people that love their homes in Western Springs, Oak Brook, Lagrange, Naperville, Downer's Grove and other towns like Park Ridge every bit as much. Similarly if you find a better value in a North Shore town there is no reason not pursue it as your home.
Why not look into Clarendon Hills or Western Springs? I think if you really love the feel of Hinsdale then you'll also really like the feel of Glen Ellyn. In Glen Ellyn you might even be able to look at some new construction in your price range. Wheaton is also a good area. Glenbard West and Wheaton North are very reputable schools, that offer a comparable atmosphere to Hinsdale. Check out Find All the Homes for Sale & Experienced Real Estate Agents | Redfin it makes home searching very easy. Also, have you looked into any Northern suburbs?
Personally, in that price range I'd strongly prefer Wilmette or La Grange to Hinsdale. And if distance isn't a factor, Highland Park has a really nice downtown with homes in that price range.
Why not look into Clarendon Hills or Western Springs? I think if you really love the feel of Hinsdale then you'll also really like the feel of Glen Ellyn. In Glen Ellyn you might even be able to look at some new construction in your price range. Wheaton is also a good area. Glenbard West and Wheaton North are very reputable schools, that offer a comparable atmosphere to Hinsdale. Check out Find All the Homes for Sale & Experienced Real Estate Agents | Redfin it makes home searching very easy. Also, have you looked into any Northern suburbs?
Fair question. We're definitely open to Clarendon Hills, and maybe Western Springs (although frankly, I'd like to get completely out of Cook County if possible).
Our situation is this: my wife's parents are in Lansing, IL (no comment), and her brother and sister-in-law (with 2 kids) are in Mokeena (again, no comment). Therefore, to be a little closer to them, we'd like to stay in the Western suburbs. We considered the north, but it would take over an hour and half to get to and from the in-laws on a weekend or for them to come to us if we need them to babysit. So the northern burbs are not a realistic option (if they were, we would definitely be in Wilmette, probably west of Green Bay around St. Joseph).
Our No. 1 priority is schools (imagine that). We figure that if we're paying $12k+ in taxes, why would we settle for anything but the best in schools (and this is meant as no disrespect to any schools in LaGrange, Clarendon Hills, and Western Springs or the surrounding areas -- they are really good schools).
Our No. 2 priority is commute. We have 2 very young kids who will be either at daycare or at home with a nanny. My wife does not want her commute on the train (door to desk) to be more than 35-45 minutes so, in case something happens and she needs to be home, she's not a slave to the milk-run train schedule.
Regarding the first point, the thing we have to get over is the misguided perception that, if we're not sending our kids to a blue-ribbon school, they're not getting a quality education. That's just not the case. But it is something that we think about all the time. This is why my wife is so hung up on the Madison school in Hinsdale. What she doesn't want to do is live in an otherwise great town, spend a lot in property taxes, and then choose to send the kids to a private school (we can do that in the city). Faced with the economic reality of not being able to afford a house in which we're in love in Hinsdale, it's something with which we're going to have to deal. In the meantime, however, it's a hard impediment to get over.
If I had my druthers, we would move to LaGrange, find a great house close to downtown and the train, and be happy. But the problem with that area (or least closer to the train) is that there are mostly older homes there -- our taste is a little more contemporary.
So we're at a huge inflection point. Do we: (1) just pony up and buy a house in Hinsdale, even though we may not totally love it (and with the expectation that we'll "move up" in about 5 years); (2) pull the plug on Hinsdale entirely and focus more on Western Springs (we're Catholic, so that wouldn't be a problem) or LaGrange; (3) look at somewhere like Riverside, where we would be close to the city, get a great house, spend a lot in taxes, but send our kids to private school; or (4) continue to rent in the city for another year and do the same thing next year? I think No. 4 is out, because the rates will definitely go up in the third quarter. No. 1 kills me.
We're by no means complaining. We realize that we're both very lucky to have great jobs and to be able to afford a $900k house. So we're not looking for sympathy. At the same time, we have to manage our expectations, which have been hugely disappointed based on the currently available housing stock in Hinsdale. But we'll manage.
There is absolutely no reason to think the designation of a particular school in an otherwise TOP NOTCH district like 181 as "Blue Ribbon" was anything more than the staff (particularly the principal) of that school taking the initiative (with the approval of the Superintendent) to fill out the necessary application and submit the required documentation. Really. I have direct knowledge of the process and I assure you that any of the schools in D181 are every bit as excellent a place for the kids that attend.
If you want "contemporary" there are really a tiny number of them in the area, and even in Oak Brook (where the schools are arguably higher rated) they are neither common nor particularly attractively priced. Parts of Oak Brook are a short drive to Hinsdale's Metra station and daily fee parking is an option.
The elementary schools in Western Springs are quite good, but again there are even fewer contemporary homes.
Riverside's elementary schools are quite desirable, and the academic success of RB High is quite high, some prefer its smaller size to LT. Students that are well prepared and come from backgrounds of academic success are NOT at a disadvantage when applying to competitive colleges and universities. There is no reason to seek private high schools from an academic perspective. Housing that would qualify as "contemporary" or even in the now classic "Prairie Style" is quite expensive in Riverside and tax burdens can be just as oppressive (if tnot more so) as in Oak Park ...
I would have no reservations about recommending expanding your search into areas that would NOT add appreciably to your commute time to either work or family. By staying close to the tollways / motor corridors you would be able to get to either Lansing or Mokena with perhaps 15-20 minutes of additional travel if you were starting from either Park Ridge, even less from Elmhurst. Neither town is well known for an abundance of contemporary architecture, though some is present.
If your desire is truly contemporary the greatest concentration of these is probably in / near Lake Co, with Highland Park coming to mind, but that would add considerably to both work and family commute times...
That is excellent advice, and much appreciated. I guess I probably should have qualified my post regarding "contemporary" housing as "any house that I don't have to stick an additional $200k into when I'm already paying $800k." A home that is 70 years old that has been updated (with a basement) in the past 10 years or so is definitely an option. In fact, some of the places that I originally pulled up in Riverside were built in the 1920's.
I think you might be pleasantly surprised by how well maintained most housing in the area is. Obviously if the seller thinks "value is in the land" and they are hoping for $600k or more and really don't want you to look too critically and things that may not have been touched in the 5+ years mom has been in a nursing home -- that is NOT what you are looking for.
I know there are currently some well renovated homes in both Hinsdale and the parts of Clarendon Hills served by D181 schools that ought to serve you well that are well under your price ceiling. It is unlikely that these homes will have the tricked out home theaters and spa baths that seem to be common at the prices north of $1M, but these are solid homes with very nice kitchens, updated mechanical systems and mostly troublefree years ahead...
Check out the Ogden and Cossit Elementary attendance areas in La Grange. For $800K you should be able to find a completely rennovated home--or new construction. La Grange Park has a few new construction homes that replaced teardowns in the Harding Woods neighborhood you might also like (this is the area just north of downtown La Grange). Just make sure you know the attendance boundaries for the good elementary schools and stay comfortably in the middle in case they shift around.
If you want to avoid Cook County, your commute is going to suffer. Outside of maybe Naperville, Downers Grove is unique in DuPage County in that it has a great express train schedule from the Main Street station, and there are many new homes that replaced teardowns. The schools are considered good by most people, but you're not going to have the super awesome flawless test scores you'll have in Hinsdale. I happen to think this has more to do with the types of kids in the schools than the actual quality of the schools, but there's really no way to prove this. It's still an upper-middle class community for the most part, but there are some truly middle class residents in Downers Grove who may not have the KILL KILL KILL Type A mentality of your typical Hindsdale Central or New Trier parents. Personally, I'm alright with that. I'm not sure the successes of other kids in Hinsdale will necessarily rub off on your kids more than it would in Downers. In fact, some kids freak out in that kind of pressure cooker.
Last edited by Lookout Kid; 04-28-2010 at 01:21 PM..
What basis do you have for calling any school a "pressure cooker"? The majority of students at Hinsdale Central do better than the majority of students at either DGN or LT, the reasons for this are quite varied and undoubtedly is influenced by the preparation of the students but also reflects a paucity of underprepared students, an abundance of resources and a climate where performance well above the norm is standard and has been for decades.
Believe me, the families that I know with students currently enrolled at HC would be hard pressed to name any parents that would fit into the caricature you are attempting to draw...
Believe me, the families that I know with students currently enrolled at HC would be hard pressed to name any parents that would fit into the caricature you are attempting to draw...
To pretend that Hinsdale and Winnetka are just mayberry with higher home prices and test scores strikes me as disingenuous. The upper class Chicago suburbs are uber competitive compared to other areas of the midwest, including everything from material status symbols to the sports leagues to the parking spaces at the mall. And the "top" schools seem to feed off this high pressure culture.
To be fair, I am much more looped in socially to the New Trier alum network than the Hinsdale Central alum network. But I do know a few Hinsdale Central grads, and their tales of high school always strike me as very similar to the New Trier experience. Many kids thrive in this culture in terms of career success and social networks. But I've also known multiple New Trier alums who cope with their parental pressure long in to adulthood by using drugs and going to weekly therapy sessions.
I really believe that hyper-involved Type A parents are quite common at both of these schools. And to me, this is the major reason for the higher test scores. And perhaps there is some economic Darwinism at work. But how will your own children do? And will they do better at a "top" school than they would at a merely "very good" school? It's really hard to say. I think most of it depends on the parents themselves. And genetics.
Obviously at some point a school's quality really starts to matter. So where is that point? Even a kid with brilliant involved parents will struggle in a school filled with low achievement and distractions like gangs. But the differences between top suburban school districts are subtle. And I'm not convinced it's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate costs to get in to the "best of the best". Why not save that money for Harvard later on?
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