Info on Lisle (metra, schools, downtown, etc)? Would you live there over Naperville? (Chicago: for sale)

[momsuz123]

We haven't found a lot on Lisle in our searches, so here we are asking about it. We found a nice home for sale - almost too good to be true - so our next question is what is wrong with Lisle? We are looking at possibly sending our kids to a private school for grade/middle. Any advice?

[TempesT68]

Smoking deals in lisle usually means one thing, it's on a floodplain. Lisle is a fairly nice city but boring for the most part.

[JacksonPanther]

I can't speak on the specifics of that particular house...

But as far as Lisle is concerned I have never heard anything bad about it. As a town it's just not as "upscale" as Naperville. Lisle doesn't have a "hip, trendy" downtown area, nor does it have many lot-busting McMansions. Naperville does have a really nice area with tree-lined streets and 100-year-old houses with character - Lisle doesn't have such an area.

All that adds up to lower prices for Lisle. It's still an OK town, very family-friendly.

[chet everett]

The vast majority of low priced homes currently listed for sale are short sales and foreclosures.

There are very few parts of Lisle that are subject to any threat of water damage, in fact the worst flood prone areas, north of Morton Arboretum, have had significant numbers of properties purchased by the Forest Preserve and razed.

Lisle is split between several school districts, the most desirable portions (served by Naperville 203) are considerably more expensive. There are a large number of very large lots / home in the NE section that appeal to folks looking for a more rural site and even a handful of sites SE that are zoned for horses.

The range, from pre-WWII bungalows through GI ranches, to subdivisions that blossomed in the 70's to very recent construction is quite broad for such a relatively low population town.

Defientely worth keeping on the short list...

[rfr69]

Originally Posted by momsuz123

We haven't found a lot on Lisle in our searches, so here we are asking about it. We found a nice home for sale - almost too good to be true - so our next question is what is wrong with Lisle? We are looking at possibly sending our kids to a private school for grade/middle. Any advice?

I always thought of Lisle as being pretty on par with Naperville, Downers Grove, etc although more affordable.

As someone mentioned parts of Lisle are in Naperville school district.

I was recently looking at homes in Lisle myself and though I do like Lisle and would still live there I now have a diff opinion of Lisle, nowhere near as nice as Naperville. When I was looking at homes a lot of peoples yards are "hillbillyish".


What I mean by this is many homes I looked at near the train station on Rt 53 people have all types of junk in their yards, old kids pools, trampolines old cars, etc. I dont really like how Naperville is so picky that you cant even have a fence however there is something to be said for having property standards. You see a lot of stuff in Lisle that would never fly in Naperville not sure if thats important to you or not. Personally I would probably prefer Lisle as I dont enjoy comming home from vacation to find I'm being threated with $150 fines b/c my lawn grew over 4" tall while I was gone, something that can happen in Naperville.

Another thing I just wanted to comment on to illustrate the difference. In lisle near Maple there's a strip mall with a happy ending asian massage parlor, tattoo parlor, liquor store, cigarette store, etc. Naperville just through a fit b/c a hooters type restaurant called show me's is opening up so Naperville would never allow businesses like Lisle does. Like I said I could care less about stuff like this but apparently it matters tos ome people since a few dozen Napervillians were out on Ogden protesting show mes for a week so figured I would mention this difference.


The other thing, I'm not sure about other parts of Lisle, I was specifically looking across 53 from the train station but that whole area I know is a flood plane. Insurance will cost you at least $1,000 more per year b/c of this and I've heard FHA wont loan in these areas.

There is nothing wrong with lisle, it's safe, I personally like it but its not quite as nice as Naperville. Schools arent as nice, libraries and park district programs and city stuff like that isnt as nice. Nothing wrong with the community though it is very nice.

[chet everett]

The Lisle Metra station is in downtown Lisle, on some of the higher ground along the whole of the BNSF. The portion of 53 that crosses indoor Ogden is several miles east of downtown Lisle. Even that portion is not part of any any major water shed.

The various zoning requirements that are enforced by Lisle are virtually identical to those in neighboring towns.

Perhaps portions of unincorporated Lisle are melding together in the previous poster's searches...

[MannheimMadman]

There is nothing wrong with Lisle at all. My fiancee's sister and husband live there. She likes her proximity to work in Chicago via Metra and he likes proximity to his doings at BU. I had a few friends who went to Lisle HS, graduated, went to U of I, and are doing just fine in life. It seems like a quiet town with lots of trees; there's nothing wrong with that.

[momsuz123]

Thanks rfr69 for being so candid about Lisle. What you told me is the "stuff" you want to learn about in cities. Of course, we plan on coming down and looking around the different areas, but Chicago suburbs are huge and tough to navigate when looking for a place - so every little insight helps.
I am sure there are wonderful places in lisle - there is a gem of a house for sale that I would love to have, we will at least go see what the area around it is like.