Moving to Illinois from Washington State (Chicago, Peoria: real estate, rentals, crime)

[baseballdad06]

My wife and two kids and I are looking to re-locate to Illinois. My two kids are 8 and 6. Life is just too fast in the northwest and the ability to actually save money keeps getting tougher. Whats important is to continue to raise our kids in a good place with good values. We have some family in peoria which is an area we are targeting. We want to rent at first perpahs for a year or two until we can find the city that fits us. Whats important is good schools, safe clean neighboorhoods, looking to spend maybe 800 or so.. 3 or 4 bedroom home.. My wife and I will be working from home so commuting really isnt an issue. Whats important is good public schools, Family type neighboorhood.. a safe area. My Question is how does a family from out of town get set up with a rental? (Looking for a smooth transition) I have been looking on craigslist and the PJStar. Looking for contacts... but curious if there are any other suggestions? Its a bit early to be looking as we are looking to make the move in July after our kids are out of school. Its a scary move, to up root our family so i am simply trying to cover all my bases (homework).. We are excited about this new chapter in our life..

Any suggestions or advise would be really really appreciated..

Thank you!!

[linicx]

What you find in Illinois is real estate taxes are higher in the city than in the county as is rental housing. It has been my experience that if the winter is bad the county roads are worse and you need a 4x4 to get through the drifts. Some of our past winters have been absolutly brutal.

One of the things you must consider is the distance from a hospital. Peoria has the only Children's Hospital of Illinois that is a St. Judes Midwest Affiliate Research Hospital. Peoria also has 4x more physicians than the national average. The outlying towns are 15-50 miles from Peoria.

Peoria is a town set in a county that is 628 square miles therefore there is space for kids to grow. The Peoria Park District is the oldest in the state and it is a 2010 Gold Medal winner. Peoria as a city tends to be progressive, and because it is a river city it tens to be more diverse with more family evens. Peoria Heights is a village in Peoria County. It has a good school sytems that offeres a smaller student to teacher ratio. Your taxes support 2 public schools K-8 and 9-12.

Robein has a good K-8 system. It is a small community located between East Peoria and Washinton on US 24. Finding a rental in this school district will be tough. Washington, Eureka Farmington, Dunlap and Morton are also good areas to raise kids.

Hospitals are locaed in Eureka, Peoria, Pekin, Canton. If you move farther out you will find one in Havana, Bloominton, Normal etc.. Eureka is midway between Peoria and Bloominton. Havana is midsay between Springfield, Bloomington and Peoria.

What you find is if you are within 30 miles of Peoria this is where you be the majority of your free
time for the shopping and events. It is hard to avoid unless you go to Bloominton or Springfield.
If I had school age children, I would probably choose Eureka because of the services. It has a good hospital and Eureka College.

On the other hand, if your wife works from home and an a stabel intnernet connection it needed, I would stick to Peoria Heighte and get AT&T. By and large rural intenternet is sketchy, expensive and unreliable regardless of where you live. Been there, done that and am doing now in rural Illinois.

Where you ultimately live hinges on your needs. Generally speaking you find more doctors and an EMT near a hosptial in rural areas than you do in non-hospital areas. IF you live in a county seat - rural area - then you will find more services than in a non- county seat.

I lived in most of the towns at one time or other in the past 50 years. I like to think I understand the general area fairly well.

IF you were in Peoria you could pick up a phone book and find a rental agency, but. you are not. If you do not object I will see what type of help I can find for you. The good news is you have time on your side. I will forwarn you that July and August are hot months in which to move. Reserve your rental truck early.

[baseballdad06]

Thanks a bunch for the reply.. It is much appreciated for the time you spend in your response.. So it sounds like AT&T and Comcast are the High Speed internet providers in the area?

[katiem8]

I'd suggest Morton or Washington or Dunlap. All three are within 15 min of Peoria & have GREAT public schools. DO NOT send your children to Peoria Public Schools (district 150) if you can at all avoid it. Morton & Washington are both really safe areas. Kids can ride their bikes around town & be safe & you won't worry. Maybe another year or two before your kids have that much freedom tho lol I believe Dunlap is very much the same as well.

As for getting setup w/ a rental before you move I would suggest calling a real estate agent from whichever town you are looking in. I know most of the real estate agents in Morton deal w/ the rentals or know what houses or duplexes are for rent in town.

Good luck!

[linicx]

Originally Posted by baseballdad06

Thanks a bunch for the reply.. It is much appreciated for the time you spend in your response.. So it sounds like AT&T and Comcast are the High Speed internet providers in the area?

Yes, but. My experience with cable in rural America in three different states was not good - especially when it comes to national carriers. The other option is satellite. It is extremely expeinsive and you have the speed of dial-up. The email and surfing is still tansmitted via satellite.

AT*T and Comcast both shape traffic as they continue to attempt to throttle P2P downloads I had both in rural areas. AT*T was down for 2 hours one time in 4 years due to weather. I cannot say the same for cable. What I can say for cable is if you find a small family owned ISP, you will get wonderful no-nonsense support.

[katiem8]

i've had comcast for 4 years now and had no problems w/ it. i have had wireless the entire time too. my parents have had mtco for probably 10+ years and had no issues w/ them. in fact they have been so happy w/ it they didn't switch to comcast (even tho it was less expensive) b/c my mom & sisters were taking online classes for college and they trusted mtco reliability. mtco is in Morton & a lot of the smaller towns around here (maybe more places, i'm just not sure b/c i've never looked into it personally). comcast is everywhere and it's fairly decently priced for cable & internet together.

[bulldawg1594]

schools on the north side of peoria seem alright.

[katiem8]

dunlap north of peoria is good. north side of peoria is no different than anywhere else in peoria now. the neighborhoods are better but peoria has closed so many schools that kids from all over peoria go to any school now. richwoods used to be the good high school in peoria but it is no different that any others now. the kids from the south side & the housing projects get bussed up to richwoods every day now. just look into it and definitely ask about kids being bussed in or transferred around the district. also, if u do end up in distrct 150 ask about where the new boundaries will be drawn. they are closing more schools so they will be redrawing the boundaries of each school's home area again so ask what it will be by the time your kids will actually be attending school.

[nene87]

You are picking a nice area because Chicago is expensive and the crime is bad.
How about trying springfield you could get a house there for probably 800 a month and try sticking to the suburbs they are nicer, cleaner, and have a low cost of living.

[myabcworld]

As a real estate agent in Central Illinois area, I would suggest, Washington, Dunlap or Morton area because of their schools reputation. However, the rent are much higher than other area. With $800.00 budget, it will take time to find, not easy. I have the list of all the rental available in these areas, but with $800.00 budget, I don't see any at the moment. Sometimes, there would be some that are available in Peoria but school district is not good. If you want, I will keep you updated if I see any rental available in good school districts. Good luck with your search and please let me know if I can be any help in the future.