Chicago suburbs for hispanic family? Upper middle class (Naperville, Evanston: middle-class, rent)

[winecountry12]

Hello
My husband will be relocating with his job to Chicago from LA, we are looking at various areas/suburbs Glen Ellyn/Wilmette/Evanston so on, we have a 2 yr old son. I am from the midwest and I am an all american girl so to speak but my husband is half mexican and half guatamalan.

We are an upper middle class and educated family wanting a family oriented and safe suburban area where we will rent for one year before we decide to buy a home. We currently live in Newport Beach.

Are the towns or suburbs mentioned above would they be welcoming to a hispanic male .....or are there any other towns you suggest I look in to, we want easy access to city. Coming from LA it is so diverse this is not an issue but I was curious about Chicago.


Thanks for your input.

[Dressy]

They seem to be all hispanic to me.

[sydbarrett]

As long as you have the money to live in the town and upkeep your property, just about any suburb will do for you.

[Jandur]

West Chicago is about 50% hispanic and there are some upper-middle class hispanic families if that is important to you. That being said West Chicago has some nice parts, but it's not as nice as Glen Ellyn or Evanston etc.

[chet everett]

Honestly this sort of question has come up before and though there are few towns with a visible / prominent upper middle class Latin American contingent neither is there any reason to seek out an area that had large numbers of lower income Hispanics. West Chicago would fall into the latter category.

I would choose any suburb that will give you the best combination of quality schools and commute options to work. If work is downtown and you can take Metra that is hard to beat. Some of the best train service in the region is on BNSF line, towns from Riverside through Naperville would compare favorably with the three towns you've listed.Similarly the schools along the BNSF are generally very well regarded. Depending on price range you might find that you get more in some towns and less in others, generally the towns where you seem to be getting "less house for the money" have offsetting pluses such as better performing schools, nicer amenities. Frankly the same factors would be encountered in most other towns such as Glen Ellyn where the prettiest homes on the quietest streets might be listed at three or four times the most modest home in a less desirable part of town.

A funny thing happens at some price points when you compare some towns like Evanston and Wilmette -- given the relative desirability of broadly likely qualities (such as schools, curb appeal, convenience) at both the high end of the price range and the lowest end Wilmette tends to represent a better value than Evanston. This may have to do with relative negatives that come with Evanston's most affordable neighborhoods, the relative desirability of higher end properties in Winnetka over Wilmette and some biases on the part of sellers in Evanston -- for those in "upper middle" end of pricing there just is a limited supply compared to the "meat" of the Wilmette market being more stratified...

[MarieL13]

I would also suggest checking out Oak Park. It has great access to downtown (Metra line, El lines, and near I-290), good public schools, and is known for being being diverse and progressive.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Jandur

West Chicago is about 50% hispanic and there are some upper-middle class hispanic families if that is important to you. That being said West Chicago has some nice parts, but it's not as nice as Glen Ellyn or Evanston etc.

Recommending West Chicago to someone shopping the North Shore is like suggesting to someone who has visited a Mercedes, Audi and BMW dealer to make the Hyundai dealer his next stop.

Like someone else suggested upthread, if you have the means to support the upper-middle-class lifestyle and you follow the basic social norms, nobody will care that your husband's melanin takes on a slightly darker tint.

[Jandur]

Originally Posted by Drover

Recommending West Chicago to someone shopping the North Shore is like suggesting to someone who has visited a Mercedes, Audi and BMW dealer to make the Hyundai dealer his next stop.

Like someone else suggested upthread, if you have the means to support the upper-middle-class lifestyle and you follow the basic social norms, nobody will care that your husband's melanin takes on a slightly darker tint.

The north side of West Chicago is pretty rich for what it's worth and I was pretty clear that it's no Glen Ellyn

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Drover

Recommending West Chicago to someone shopping the North Shore is like suggesting to someone who has visited a Mercedes, Audi and BMW dealer to make the Hyundai dealer his next stop.

Like someone else suggested upthread, if you have the means to support the upper-middle-class lifestyle and you follow the basic social norms, nobody will care that your husband's melanin takes on a slightly darker tint.

Agreed. Unless OP really, really needs a lot of upper class hispanics I would go for the nice more diverse suburbs.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Jandur

The north side of West Chicago is pretty rich for what it's worth and I was pretty clear that it's no Glen Ellyn

Where is this "rich" side of West Chicago? I realize there's a tiny sliver of newer development that's in the St. Charles school district and the former "horse farm" area along Smith Road, but that area also happens to be whiter than a French surrender flag. At that point they might as well live in one of the closer suburbs they were looking at in the first place.