Moving with Kids, looking for neighborhood suggestions

[ChiTownMovin]

Originally Posted by fusillirob1983

I am confused at this point regarding commute. Yes, some of the places from far out can get you to the loop in 30-40 minutes, but you need to factor in getting from your house to the train and the train to your office. I listed places based on a door to door commute. For reference, I'm in Naperville. When I worked downtown my time on the train was 34-40 minutes, but door to door it was 70 minutes. So maybe you can expand a bit if you live a block from the train and work a block from the train, but you likely won't find more diversity as you expand further into the suburbs.

Oak Park and Evanston are more diverse suburbs. I think property taxes are relatively high in both. River Forest the same for property taxes (I haven't seen they're more than Oak Park - they're both high!), but I think less diverse than Oak Park. A friend of mine from the area has said you may be better off staying west of Ridgeland if in Oak Park. This is a second hand account, FWIW.

Point taken regarding commute. I'm trying to expand our criteria by relaxing my commute requirements a bit but the overhead of getting to and from the metra station does seem to account for a significant portion of the time. Seems like it's realistically an hour from any major suburb.

[OKParker]

Originally Posted by ChiTownMovin

Point taken regarding commute. I'm trying to expand our criteria by relaxing my commute requirements a bit but the overhead of getting to and from the metra station does seem to account for a significant portion of the time. Seems like it's realistically an hour from any major suburb.

Only suburban shot you have at a 30 minute commute would be Oak Park (near green/blue/metra), River Forest (very small area near the green/metra), Forest Park (near blue), Berwyn (small area near blue, and metra area). The Green/Blue are much nicer to be near than the metra which is on a less frequent schedule.

Taxes are high everywhere in Chicago and the inner-burbs, but you can get pretty cheap housing in Forest Park/Berwyn at the sacrifice of schooling. OP/RF are great options for everything you've described.

[fusillirob1983]

Originally Posted by OKParker

Only suburban shot you have at a 30 minute commute would be Oak Park (near green/blue/metra), River Forest (very small area near the green/metra), Forest Park (near blue), Berwyn (small area near blue, and metra area). The Green/Blue are much nicer to be near than the metra which is on a less frequent schedule.

Taxes are high everywhere in Chicago and the inner-burbs, but you can get pretty cheap housing in Forest Park/Berwyn at the sacrifice of schooling. OP/RF are great options for everything you've described.

The train is also very fast from LaGrange/LaGrange Park (I think approx 21 minutes spent on the train for express), but it may not be as diverse as he prefers.