Possible Relocation from Arizona to Bloomington - Need some help/advice (Chicago: apartment, leasing agent)

[rbarra82]

Hi,

Our family might be relocating from Arizona to Bloomington in the near future and we are looking for advice on the Bloomington area.

There will be myself and my wife, and our three daughters ages 10, 6, 3. I currently work in Insurance will make roughly $40 - $50k. My wife is a stay at home mom, but may look for part time work once we get to Bloomington.

Our budget for housing needs to be around $1000 - $1300 and minimum three bedrooms

Here is what we are looking for help with:

1. Best Area for families in Bloomington for home / apartment rental
2. Good Schools and zip codes

Any other advice would be appreciated and welcomed.

Thank you in advance for the help

[rbarra82]

Please bump to the top...still looking for help

[Drover]

In the absence of finding any useful information here, search around for a realtor who is also a rental leasing agent, assuming you intend to lease. A competent one should have all the answers you're looking for.

[linicx]

The twin cities Normal and Bloomington share a common street, and the Bloomington city bus serves both communities. Normal is a few short minutes from the insurance companies. It is also home to a new Amtrak Station. It is very easy to go to Chicago for the day. Normal is home to Illinois State University. ISU has nice awards for its campus of 20xxx students, and its university high college prep school; it always has a waiting list. The Actuary school at ISU is one of only 13 in all of North America. For a little school it does a pretty good job.

B-N is nice area to raise a family. Peoria is the largest town in the area. Collectively these two areas have about 500,000 residents. Besides a dozen grocers, four malls, and a dozen shopping centers, you can also find Costco, farmer's markets, Asian markets, natural foods, deli, fish markets and butcher shops, but no Trader Joe's. There are plenty of things to do and events nearly every weekend. Other than contentious weather from time to time, it is a good place to live and raise a family. The cost of living is reasonable. The only children's hospital that treats more patients than Children's Hospital of Illinois -Peoria is in Chicago.

There is a house on Saratoga in Normal. It is a 4 bedroom, 3 bath with central heat and air, and an attached 2 car garage. The washer and dryer is furnished, and the yard is fenced. $1300. There is a 3 bedroom townhouse on Crystal with 2+1/2 bath for $1295.

I will send you a name and a number.