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Old 04-30-2010, 10:03 AM
 
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Hi, my family and I might move to Chicago soon. We have 2 young children, and will be interested in renting a 2 bdrm apartment. We need to get a place with good public schools, and good transportation since my husband will work downtown Chicago. Any sugestions??
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Old 04-30-2010, 10:15 AM
 
Location: Denver, CO
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Do you need to be in the city for any reason? Public schools tend to be better in the suburbs, as well as price. Plus, the METRA system is pretty convenient for those who work downtown and reliable too. Do you have a maximum commute time? With the size of the Metro area there are probably literally close to 100 places you can look to find a 2 bdrm apartment with good public schools and access to a train.
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Old 04-30-2010, 10:27 AM
 
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The Chicago Public School system is horrible. You should live in the suburbs. As SJaye said, METRA provides easy commutes into the city, or you could live in a close suburb. what is your budget and commute time constraints?
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Old 04-30-2010, 01:42 PM
 
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I'd like to pay no more than $1000.00 on a rent. My husband doesn't want to spend more than 45 min commuting to downtown. He'll be working at United Airlines headquarters in downtown Chicago. I prefer the suburbs for sure, how about public schools over there??
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Old 04-30-2010, 01:59 PM
 
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My suggestion is to move to a METRA accessible suburb. For $1000 for a 2 bedroom in the suburbs, it is doable but not always advisable for the best apartment complexes. Suburban schools are varied because they are almost exclusively funded by property taxes. School district boundaries do NOT correspond to municipal district boundaries. High school and primary school districts are also seperate for the most part.

It is possible to find a 2 bedroom apartment for that price in middle class suburbs that have good schools. Wheeling comes to mind because Wheeling has a pretty diverse population, diverse apartment housing selection, and a stable tax base for the schools. Other options are south Arlington Heights near the border with Elk Grove Village and the western portion of Schaumburg. These NW suburbs tend to have good schools.

If you increase your rental budget by a few hundred, your options will improve dramatically in those areas and you can move to the better apartment buildings. The buildings for the most part all are considered nice especially by people not from the area, but you may get some subsidized housing (section 8) recipients in there. That's why if you up your housing budget, you can get a nicer place in those suburbs.

I am not as familiar with the western burbs, but others can fill you in on those.
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Old 04-30-2010, 02:26 PM
 
Location: Denver, CO
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As far as the NW Suburbs mentioned by chitown85, I would just say that Arlington Heights may be preferable due to it's train schedule. Wheeling is on a train line with extremely limited train schedule, and no express trains. From Arlington Heights, there is an 8:01 departure that goes express downtown, arriving in about 35 minutes. West Subrubs have two good train lines, the UP-W line and the BNSF line. The problem is that in some of them there is trouble finding parking at the train station, you would have to consider each town separately.
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Old 04-30-2010, 02:37 PM
 
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Wheeling is not a particularly desirable school district. In my mind someone relocating to the corporate HQ location of a globally recognized firm ought to budget a fairly signficant portion of their income to housing especially when they have school aged children. Ideally in such circumstances I would recommend renting a single family detached home in a town that has top notch commuter rail service.

The service on the BNSF offers some of the swiftest express service into the Loop and the schools between Riverside and Naperville/Aurora offer some of the better options.

Similar quality education can be had on the UP North line, from Evanston through Lake Forest.

On the UP West line Oak Park offers an excellent enviroment, as do most of the towns from Elmhurst through Geneva.

The UP NW line has some excellent offerings from Park Ridge through Barrington.

You may also want to consider towns along the Milwaukee District North line from Glenviiew through Libertyville.

The idea of relying on the trains to keep your commute under 45 minutes or so is excellent, and parallels the thinking of many of the people that choose to live in the desirable towns that are included above.

A very safe and suitable rental of the type I would recommend could be had for a bit under double what the OP's stated budget is. I would that unless this is an entry level position their salary would be sufficient to afford such an expense.
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Old 04-30-2010, 03:16 PM
 
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So how does the school system work there? How can I get my kids to go to a good public school? For a few more hundred dollars is it better to rent an appartment or house?
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Old 04-30-2010, 03:38 PM
 
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Every school district in Illinois has pretty rigid attendance boundaries, the house or apartment where you live determines what district will be serving you. Many school districts are also rigid that the various schools that are part of the district only serve children from a subset of the addresses. Less commonly some districts will have schools that are available through some selective admissions process.

In my opinion the benefits of renting a house when you have children and can afford it are numerous. They begin with privacy / safety -- even in the finest of apartments there are people that do not get along with those that live directly above/ below/ adjacent to them and go out of their way to be miserable. In even the most cramped single family home the actual "barriers" against this are much harder to violate and should they be breached police will readily intervene to remedy the situation. Not so in apartments.

After safety issues I thing the biggest benefit is quality of life -- there is no apartment that ever has the play area of a single family home both out of doors and inside the kids can be kids and make noises / act silly in ways that are not acceptable in multi-family living situations.

Additional qualities that come from a single family: ease of cooking what you like when you like without the fear of interfering with neighbors enjoyment of their dwelling. More privacy for mom & dad, as well as more opportunity to share time with your family in a yard outdoors. Far easier use of a car for both commuting and shopping / errands. Complete freedom to choose TV/Internet/telephone providers. Direct control of utilites / HVAC.

More subtle but no less important benefits come from "community integration" -- in the Chicago region very few apartment complexes foster the sense of being part of a Park District, Library, political unit to the degrees that it is easy for some one renting a single family home to feel pretty much identical to a home owner. The interaction you children will have with others is also likely to be much easier in a rental home than in any apartment complex.

Finally, as way of complete disclosure, I must admit that I have been involved in real estate for over twenty years and have been a landlord that specialized in owning / renting single family homes. I did that because I did believe it was good for my tenants and got me a good return on my funds. I do not currently have any rental property and that is because I decided the value I could get were not going to go up enough to make up to make for the continued demands on my time that running such a business presented...
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Old 04-30-2010, 03:53 PM
 
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Given the likely budget of the OP, Wheeling is probably the best value they can get for community and schools unless they find a place in Arlington Heights or even Schaumburg. I would still put Wheeling schools above the other 2 suburbs. There's no way they will find a 2 bedroom in a decent school district elsewhere in the NW burbs. Libertyville, Glenview, Deerfield are out of their price range in the North burbs.

Try Vernon Hills, but a little farther from the city than you want.
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