Chicago suburbs vs NoVa Real Estate Market

[Anonymous]

Is Chicago (suburbs) a more or less expensive market than NoVa? I know this is a DC forum but taking a chance that someone here came from Chicago as ppl move to the DMV from all over. Very randomly looking at a job in Chicago - just a distant possibility now nothing certain at all. IDK Chicago enough to know where to look to gauge prices. In N. Va. we’d be looking for a townhouse, 3 bed/3 ba, probably 2000 sqft and with a one car garage; not interested in super old housing stock but 90s onwards is fine. So here we’d look at suburbs like Vienna and probably be in the 800-900k range. What would be comparable in Chicago - nice suburb with good schools but need not be like Bethesda or McLean? Higher or lower pricing? I know taxes are higher but that’s about all I know.

[Anonymous]

Housing prices will be much lower. You can get into the north shore suburbs for much less than what you'd pay for an equivalent location here

[Anonymous]

Do not move to the Chicago area. Been there done that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Housing prices will be much lower. You can get into the north shore suburbs for much less than what you'd pay for an equivalent location here

“Get into” yes. But OP wants a newer house and lots of the housing stock is pretty old. And it’s expensive now.

[Anonymous]

Chicagoland is significantly cheaper, but yes property taxes are higher. There are some really beautiful towns out there, and Chicago as a city trumps DC by a mile. Look at places like the North Shore (older housing stock), Glenview, Northbrook, Arlington Heights. Naperville in the west.

Do be aware of the winter. It gets cold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do not move to the Chicago area. Been there done that.

Why do you say that? My instant negatives are winter and northern state taxation but other reasons?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not move to the Chicago area. Been there done that.

Why do you say that? My instant negatives are winter and northern state taxation but other reasons?

Weird blanket statement. The Chicago area can be a fantastic area to raise a family. Stunning city, and some very beautiful towns and suburbs throughout. Sure, it's not for everyone, but that's for you and your family to decide.

[Anonymous]

Op here - just to clarify I’m not against older housing stock if it provides the space we need, is well maintained and somewhat beautiful. Like I see older housing stock in Richmond that I think is great and very worth looking into (if I had some reason to be in Richmond) but I see the 1940-60s, 1000 sqft brick homes near me in Arlington which I assume are going for 900k-1mil now (IDK haven’t looked at a listing lately), and it’s like nope I’d rather have a cookie cutter TH further in the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is Chicago (suburbs) a more or less expensive market than NoVa? I know this is a DC forum but taking a chance that someone here came from Chicago as ppl move to the DMV from all over. Very randomly looking at a job in Chicago - just a distant possibility now nothing certain at all. IDK Chicago enough to know where to look to gauge prices. In N. Va. we’d be looking for a townhouse, 3 bed/3 ba, probably 2000 sqft and with a one car garage; not interested in super old housing stock but 90s onwards is fine. So here we’d look at suburbs like Vienna and probably be in the 800-900k range. What would be comparable in Chicago - nice suburb with good schools but need not be like Bethesda or McLean? Higher or lower pricing? I know taxes are higher but that’s about all I know.

I mean, with that budget you could live in a place like this https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1334-Arbor-Ave-Highland-Park-IL-60035/4908106_zpid/ in the gorgeous, leafy suburb of Highland Park (former home of Michael Jordan and other celebrities), with excellent public schools. Depends on where you're working though and what you want your commute to look like. But you'd be solid with that budget and there are a lot of options.

[Anonymous]

It's the property taxes that are the barrier to getting in. While the housing prices are lower, their taxes are sky high.

A $900K house in Naperville for example has a property tax of $20K. A $900K house in MoCo would have around $10K in property taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's the property taxes that are the barrier to getting in. While the housing prices are lower, their taxes are sky high.

A $900K house in Naperville for example has a property tax of $20K. A $900K house in MoCo would have around $10K in property taxes.

Yes, very high taxes and keep in mind that Chicago is large and sprawling. If you're used to being "close in" in NOVA or MD and commuting to DC, you're going to be surprised at what's considered an inner ring suburb in Chicago. It takes A WHILE to drive through whatever suburb you choose, the number of other suburbs to get to the Chicago border, then you have to drive through all of outer Chicago to get downtown. If you are commuting by train, that may be a different story... but keep in mind that the Metra only runs once an hour. And you'll probably want to stick to Metra and not the L; a friend in Chicago tells me nobody takes the L anymore since Covid began and it's just a crime free for all on the L trains.

[Anonymous]

We really enjoyed living in Oak Park (and yes, housing is significantly less expensive) but our $400k condo was $12,000 a year in taxes and people we knew were paying $20-30k a year in taxes on their homes.

[Anonymous]

Like the north shore.
Oak park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Chicago (suburbs) a more or less expensive market than NoVa? I know this is a DC forum but taking a chance that someone here came from Chicago as ppl move to the DMV from all over. Very randomly looking at a job in Chicago - just a distant possibility now nothing certain at all. IDK Chicago enough to know where to look to gauge prices. In N. Va. we’d be looking for a townhouse, 3 bed/3 ba, probably 2000 sqft and with a one car garage; not interested in super old housing stock but 90s onwards is fine. So here we’d look at suburbs like Vienna and probably be in the 800-900k range. What would be comparable in Chicago - nice suburb with good schools but need not be like Bethesda or McLean? Higher or lower pricing? I know taxes are higher but that’s about all I know.

I mean, with that budget you could live in a place like this https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1334-Arbor-Ave-Highland-Park-IL-60035/4908106_zpid/ in the gorgeous, leafy suburb of Highland Park (former home of Michael Jordan and other celebrities), with excellent public schools. Depends on where you're working though and what you want your commute to look like. But you'd be solid with that budget and there are a lot of options.

but the property taxes on that home are about $20k/year. So need to factor that in too. So if your budget would be $750k in NoVA, you'd have to adjust it way down in Highland Park to get a similar PITI. (Lake County--where HP is--has particularly and egregiously high property taxes, fwiw). When we moved to IL, we learned quickly that you should look at budget through the lens of monthly payment, NOT purchase price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Chicago (suburbs) a more or less expensive market than NoVa? I know this is a DC forum but taking a chance that someone here came from Chicago as ppl move to the DMV from all over. Very randomly looking at a job in Chicago - just a distant possibility now nothing certain at all. IDK Chicago enough to know where to look to gauge prices. In N. Va. we’d be looking for a townhouse, 3 bed/3 ba, probably 2000 sqft and with a one car garage; not interested in super old housing stock but 90s onwards is fine. So here we’d look at suburbs like Vienna and probably be in the 800-900k range. What would be comparable in Chicago - nice suburb with good schools but need not be like Bethesda or McLean? Higher or lower pricing? I know taxes are higher but that’s about all I know.

I mean, with that budget you could live in a place like this https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1334-Arbor-Ave-Highland-Park-IL-60035/4908106_zpid/ in the gorgeous, leafy suburb of Highland Park (former home of Michael Jordan and other celebrities), with excellent public schools. Depends on where you're working though and what you want your commute to look like. But you'd be solid with that budget and there are a lot of options.

but the property taxes on that home are about $20k/year. So need to factor that in too. So if your budget would be $750k in NoVA, you'd have to adjust it way down in Highland Park to get a similar PITI. (Lake County--where HP is--has particularly and egregiously high property taxes, fwiw). When we moved to IL, we learned quickly that you should look at budget through the lens of monthly payment, NOT purchase price.

Not to mention that your driving commute would be close to 90 minutes each way. Maybe 80 minutes if you're lucky.