Recent thoughts on Chicago burbs

[Anonymous]

Look at La grange.

[Anonymous]

do you have kids? need public schools? budget? max commute time?

[Anonymous]

It's hard to compare DC suburbs to Chicago suburbs. Chicago suburbs are mostly town-based, rail-centric, grid pattern, and most are built around their own "downtown" core and each with their own identity. Whereas DC suburbs tend to be neighborhoods of houses with twisty-turny streets separated by main arteries...very different urban (suburban?) planning. There is no real equivalent to Rosslyn, Clarendon, DTSS, etc. in the Chicago suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for? Where will you work and how do you plan to get there?

Basically looking for Arlington/Takoma Park in Chicago. Job would be a transfer and office is downtown. I would take the train.

Arlington and TKPK are really quite different. You should be more specific.

Yup. And Arlington is not monolithic either. FWIW, our soon-to-be DIL is from Naperville. She has many happy memories of growing up there. When we visited, it reminded me of Reston. It's a perennial "Best Place to Raise Your Family" winner in publications like Money. She and DS live in the Roscoe Village neighborhood of Chicago -- that might be more what you're looking for, OP. Lots of cute bungalows and other modest houses (though many are renovated within an inch of their lives), friendly neighbors, walk to the train and commerce (including Wrigley), quick drive to other neighborhoods with more restaurants.

[Anonymous]

Rogers Park.

[Anonymous]

Do you have kids that you'd want in public schools?

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Wilmette. No one moves there for vibrant nightlife or a bustling dining/retail scene. West Wilmette is ugly, but people disregard the ugliness because they want to be in the New Trier school district. People move to the east side because it is walkable to the train for an easy commute downtown, the houses are beautiful and spacious, it's right by the lake, and there are restaurants and shops to walk to in downtown Wilmette. You won't find shopping malls or big box stores like Target or Home Depot there -- that's part of the appeal.

Evanston- yes, there are seedy and dumpy parts. But there are ugly parts of TKPK and Arlington, too. Evanston can be rather stratified. Dumpy apartments just a mile down the road from $2 million dollar homes by the lake.

Oak Park- yes, the closer you are to Austin the scarier it gets. The best neighborhoods are west of Ridgeland and north of the train tracks. Taxes are outrageous there, yes.

It sounds like the city may be more your speed.

[Anonymous]

I would look in the city except:

I’m really not at all familiar with Chicago so don’t know what blocks to avoid.

We need the public schools.

Spouse wants a backyard and parking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for? Where will you work and how do you plan to get there?

Basically looking for Arlington/Takoma Park in Chicago. Job would be a transfer and office is downtown. I would take the train.

Arlington and TKPK are really quite different. You should be more specific.

I mean, I like bits of Arlington and around it, like Westover, Falls Church City. I’m not a fan of Ballston (kind of like Evanston). I appreciate the quirkiness and little mom and pop feel and yoga studios of Takoma Park. So TP and FCC together would kind of be my ideal. I’m not in love with neighborhoods made up of just giant houses (Great Falls, Potomac) and don’t like really busy downtown/industrial areas (parts of Arlington).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would look in the city except:

I’m really not at all familiar with Chicago so don’t know what blocks to avoid.

We need the public schools.

Spouse wants a backyard and parking.

What is your budget? I grew up on the North Shore but lived in a couple different Chicago neighborhoods (Lincoln Park, Wicker Park)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would look in the city except:

I’m really not at all familiar with Chicago so don’t know what blocks to avoid.

We need the public schools.

Spouse wants a backyard and parking.

What is your budget? I grew up on the North Shore but lived in a couple different Chicago neighborhoods (Lincoln Park, Wicker Park)

Budget would be around $4000 a month I guess? Again, taxes are high in places like Oak Park, so that would be split pretty much 50-50 between actual mortgage vs taxes.

[Anonymous]

$4000 a month is also factoring in another $300-500 a month for schools on top of that. Currently paying around $500 for nursery school and counting on public schools because we don’t want to spend $20k a year on privates.

[Anonymous]

My brother lives in Glen Ellyn and I’d move there in a hot second. They’ve got a new custom build, lovely yard, great elementary school (the district is 4 ES and 1 MS), tons of other young families as friends, and the downtown is so cute. It reminds me of Vienna (where I live), but 10x better! In normal times, he commutes to the city via train. Taxes are high, but I think he gets a lot for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking for? Where will you work and how do you plan to get there?

Basically looking for Arlington/Takoma Park in Chicago. Job would be a transfer and office is downtown. I would take the train.

Arlington and TKPK are really quite different. You should be more specific.

I mean, I like bits of Arlington and around it, like Westover, Falls Church City. I’m not a fan of Ballston (kind of like Evanston). I appreciate the quirkiness and little mom and pop feel and yoga studios of Takoma Park. So TP and FCC together would kind of be my ideal. I’m not in love with neighborhoods made up of just giant houses (Great Falls, Potomac) and don’t like really busy downtown/industrial areas (parts of Arlington).

Check out La Grange. Sounds right up your alley. Good mom and pop feel, lovely old homes with some teardowns mixed in, 30 minute commute to the loop, good public schools. It's a popular stop for city dwellers who want more space. Elmhurst is similar -- little college there gives it some additional vibrancy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I took a preliminary trip to Chicago as I am considering moving. I had some quick impressions of suburbs. I’ve lived in DC (Cleveland Park, Columbia Heights/U Street) as well as in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.

Evanston: I expected to like it more. Lots of dumpy/seedy parts. Beautiful houses near the lake, but of course those houses are $2mill to start. Downtown has lots of retail but again wasn’t very attractive. Housing was surprisingly expensive here. Is this because of the University or it’s proximity to the lake? Took absolutely forever to get to and from Chicago.

Wilmette: There’s nothing here! All houses, row after row with no retail. Western part had dumpy houses, exactly what I’d pictured the Midwest to be - tiny ranch homes from the 50s or 70s with jacked up roads and flat land. Eastern part had larger and more well kept houses, but there was absolutely zero retail. I drove the main strips and saw two hardware stores, a get, a dog washing place, a mail shop, and a sushi restaurant. Walking around, I didn’t see anyone under the age of 55.

Oak Park: beautiful houses in the central part of Oak Park. The western bits were surprisingly seedy as you got closer to Forest Park. Austin Blvd and further east started looking more like Jersey and Harlem. Coming from Silver Spring and Arlington/Falls Church City, I expected Oak Park to be more in your face liberal. It did have some BLM signs, but not like the DMV. I didn’t see any prayer flags up, for example. I’m surprised at the number of houses here sitting on the market when it’s the only suburb I’d consider living in so far. Is it the high taxes?

I think your assessment is really weird. Personally I think Evanston is really beautiful and has several attractive business districts. In my opinion Wilmette also has a nice downtown did you just not see it? There are tons of kids in wilmette even if you didn’t see them on your walk.

I agree with the other poster who said La Grange is really lovely.