Moving to Chicago
 

We recently moved up to Chicago and are renting while we house hunt. When I got hired here a while back, we decided that me commuting wasn't a good option and of all the base choices Chicago made the most sense (until the Seattle base reopens).

That being said, we have a lot of new hires coming on board and I would like to hear from them as well as some of the old timers as to where we should settle down in Chicagoland.

We are looking for a younger suburb with some diversity, good schools (we plan on having kids), nice downtown, etc. that is reasonably close to downtown. We rent in Naperville now, and although it is nice, it feels a little to isolated.

We have been looking in Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, and Downer's Grove. I'm thinking about expanding the search to Oak Park as well (I hear it has sketchy areas but it's a great location). I don't need to be on the airport blue line.

I know there are older threads that discuss this, but I'm looking for some fresh opinions. Thanks for the input. Go Hawks.

I spent my first year with United in Chicago - one of the suburbs that is - Elmhurst. About a 20 minute drive to the parking lot unless a freight train was pulling into the yard in Bensinville. Loved it - at least the 2 days annually that were perfect weather days. Lots of humidity in the Summer, plenty of mosquitos and yellowjackets. It seemed like once a month some Chicago Alderman was caught jacking up a local business for money. Besides all that, Chicagoland is not a bad place to live.

Millers Pub

I know a UAL guy who's house literally hits the MLS tomorrow in the McHenry area. PM me and I'll try to give you some more info.

Plenty of great areas inside the city as well, complete with the "suburban" feel. Ravenswood Manor and Lincoln Square (not to be confused with Lincoln Park) are two fantastic neighborhoods ridiculously family friendly with great schools, and I would move there in a heartbeat if the wife would let me. Ravenswood Manor especially; you'd be walking the neighborhood completely oblivious to the fact that you're inside Chicago city limits. And you know it's good; Federal Prisoner 40892-424, Rod Blagojevich, called that neighborhood home, and rarely spent any time at the Governors Mansion in Springfield while he sold, I mean held, office.

Outside of the city limits, I also liked Oak Park, as well as Elmhurst. Glen Ellyn, Oak Brook (McD's headquarters) Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills offer some exceptional choices.

I live in Schaumburg, Very nice town with good schools and good Parks.
getting to ORD can be done by I90 east to I 190 or by Higgins Road from the West. About 23 minutes from the airport and the shopping is very good in Schaumburg, Schaumburg, Palatine, Elk Grove areas are great family area as well.

you cannot go wrong with Elk Grove, or Schaumburg area very easy commute great schools.

A decent compromise between city for fun and 'burbs for schools/kids is being close to a Metra line. You might look at Geneva, Batavia or St Charles. All are less than an hour to the parking lot. Schools are almost all good, some are great, try to avoid U-46; it's an amalgam of Elgin, Bartlett, Wayne and a few other towns.
Be aware, annual property taxes will be about 2% of your house's purchase price. All of the collar counties are at or near this rate, Cook is lower.
Enjoy the honest, cheap, effective government !

Please PM with more questions

The WX isn't quite that bad, but everything else you said is accurate :)

And I wave 'HI ROD!' to that a**hole and his cellmate Jeffrey Skilling every time I head to Costco. Bastards.

I live in Ravenswood, and just bought a house there. It's a great quiet neighborhood with lots of new stores/restaurants/bars moving in. You can walk to everything and has public transport options. Plus you're only a mile from the lake and 30mins via train to downtown. I drive or take the bus to the blue line, and can make it in 40mins door to door

The property taxes in IL are rediculous! I live in Shorewood...down by Joliet, and my wife and I are looking for a larger house in this area and a 3400-4000 SF house that we are looking at is $450,000. Not too bad of a price for the house but property taxes are $15K a year. So I have to plan an extra $1300 a month into the payment just for frickin taxes.

Gene's Sausage Shop and Opart Thai. Nhu Lan Bakery. Harvestime Foods. The Brauhaus. Thursday evening street festivals. Germanfest.

The pizza joint off of the Rockwell CTA stop...

Damn I miss living in the "Two Five".

(Just not so much this time of year.)

You cannot go wrong with Ravenswood, Lincoln Square and Ravenswood Manor. (That's the area south of Lawrence Ave, west of Ashland and East of Kedzie.)

A few years ago I once heard a statistic that there were about 2000 mosquitos for every warm bodied person in the Chicago area. :D

Nobody mentioned it, so I will. You normally go to work once a week, which allows one to be further out. If kids are in the future that may be a consideration.

There are a fair amount if us up in WI, personally I'd much rather be North of the 'cheddar curtain'.

Oh yah, you betcha (sorry, had to, FIB by-laws). You're exactly right, there are great communities and schools well within comfortable short call range. Wisconsin is a functioning well-governed state.

I guess it comes down to a question of priorities.

We live ( and have for the last 19 years ) in Libertyville. We chose this area when we were a couple years ahead of where it sounds like you are now, at the time we had a 6 month old.

We chose Northern Suburbs over Southern or Western Suburbs because of some family in Wisc. We have friends and family throughout the area, including an Aunt and Uncle in Naperville, and in all our time here we have never regretted choosing Libertyville. I am definitely biased, but Northern suburbs feel less "isolated" to me than Naperville.

Libertyville has been around for a long time and the downtown organization (Main Street Libertyville) prides itself on keeping the original look and feel, while keeping the economy of the tenants going. They have really done a great job and the economy of the downtown businesses has gotten better and better then entire time we have lived here. Great downtown, Great schools, Great for families, big mall and headquarters of Abbott Labs are in the school district which has a huge benefit on the property tax base, so your property taxes are only mildly obscene (600K house and 11K in property tax). It takes just over a half an hour from garage to parking lot for me. Prob about the same distance from downtown Chicago as Naperville, maybe a bit closer. Train stops right in downtown Libertyville, so similiar option to what you have in Naperville on that.

Take a drive up some time for dinner, there are a bunch of restaurants right in downtown. "First Friday" is a big thing with all the stores as well, so if you come up on March 4th (or any other first Friday) you can see the extra goings ons.

Several other Northern suburbs have nice "downtown" areas as well, but are going to be a little more coin. Highland Park, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff are some good examples.

So, as I said in the beginning, it is a question of priorities. If being close to downtown Chicago is your biggest priority, then get out your checkbook and go for it (especially if kids are a few years off) but be prepared to think about moving further out as you have a family and your kids get to be school age. The Western suburbs you listed are prob a little closer to ORD and Downtown Chicago, I don't really think you could go wrong in those areas.

As is the case anywhere, watch the tax bill of different areas, as it can vary widely based on lines that were drawn a century ago for tax purposes. Many of the suburbs didn't do a good job with planning and now have nothing but bedrooms. In Illinois if you are an affluent suburb (as all of the ones you mentioned are) your local property tax will pay almost 100% of the local schools funding. If you don't have some non-bedroom property tax base it will mean a much higher percentage on you property tax. Some of the towns that have been built up in the last 20-30 years out to the West of us pay the same property tax on a house worth half as much as ours, and still don't have nearly as good of schools.

You aren't going to be able to avoid a high property tax bill in any of the areas you would want to live in, just make sure it is not beyond obscene and that you are getting a good school district for the cash you are spending.

Down off my soapbox now! Have fun house hunting and know that you are adding years to your life by driving to work!

Look at the tax history, it's only gone up every year for most places. Even when assessed values have gone down. Welcome to Chicago.

we lived in Glen Elllyn for two years when I started at United… loved it… small town feel and the houses all had character. Commute was pretty quick to airport lot… half the time from Naperville/Aurora area where we lived for 6 months and couldn't stand it. If your looking for the most bang for the buck believe you should target NW of Chicago towards Rockford…

Looking for "diversity"". What kind of diversity. Illegals, gangbangers, lgbt, which is it. Or have you drank the coolaid.

Check out LaGrange Park. It has one of my favorite suburban downtowns, great schools & the architecture is amazing.

Libertyville, Glenview, Northbrook, Vernon Hills all nice.

But if I could, I would follow I-94 north of IL and into Wisconsin......

I'm most likely going to move to southern WI for the drive to ORD (taxes), any recommendations for places to check out? Is Lake Geneva or Burlington a good location or how about the west or southern Milwaukee suburbs? I will have kids in school and want to have a couple acres.

Not to jack the OP's thread too much, but it already sorta went there. Long time lurker but wanted to ask the same about living in WI and being based out of ORD. Wife and I are both from Milwaukee area and being back by family is a serious consideration as we start having kiddos and I'm out of the Navy.

Looking specifically at Wauwatosa and making the drive down I-94. Is that reasonable? Where else in SE WI are people living and making the drive into ORD?

If you can stay near the I-94 corridor, your travel will be fairly easy, even to the employee parking lot.

Lake Geneva (great area).... you could use US Rt12 to IL53, to I-90... rt 12 traffic sucks, lots of lights. Other option is WI-50 east to I-94. less stressful, but might still be a longer ride.

For comparison, you can take I-90 west towards Rockford and get into WI... the IL/WI boarder is about 90 min to the lot there.

A lot of nice options near Madison too, but a longer drive. easy, but something you may not want to do more than once a week. about a 2:15hr drive if memory is good.

If Naperville feels isolated to you, try Evanston, about 20 minutes north of the city on the lakeshore. That's probably the best mix of diversity/good schools/city living you'll find. Like Oak Park, some areas are better than others. Expect to pay more than the O'Hare suburbs, but if square footage is not your biggest priority, that may be the best place to have a more urban/sub-urban experience.

Totally reasonable. They are lots of ORD pilots that make the drive.

And if you don't feel like driving there is also an express bus to ORD that I know several pilots use.

Wisconsin Coach Lines | Cities We Service to Airports

Very reasonable thought, as has been said. Think about reserve and short calls, 2.5 hrs to show and 3.5 to push as well as 0545 departures. It seems like lots of folks live south of about a Milwaukee-Janesville line.
Comments?

I grew up in downers grove. Great area pretty much all over dupage county. Pm if you have questions about the western burbs.

A lot of great advice on here, thank you!

For those of you who moved to Illinois, how many of you would leave if you had the chance? I've been looking at Houston and thinking that it would be a better move financially. I'm not sure that I want to give Illinois 5% in income tax for the privilege of living here...

3.75%... for now. Even if it was 5%, which it may go back to, that's pretty inexpensive for state income tax (most of our hub states have higher state income tax rates, obviously excluding TX).

What will really get you attention is the property taxes. Another issue with the state of Illinois is the state is in a terrible financial crisis with no end in site. A pension obligation they can't come close to meeting and grows every day. They have no idea how to solve the problems and the folks that are running the show are not fixing the problems other than raising taxes. Many people that can are leaving the state of Illinois.

I live in the village in Tosa and drive regularly to ORD. The drive is easy....usually 1:15 and at most 1:25 unless it's bad winter wx.

Thanks! I'll file that away.

Six figure income? Illinois wants you - uh, I mean needs you.

Ranking the States by Fiscal Condition | Mercatus

Speaking of WI, there are a handful of us in the Elkhorn/Lake Geneva/Williams Bay area, making the drive down. It's usually a once a week venture to ORD.

I've never been impressed with the Houston area. Bizarre or even non-existent urban planning, nice areas next to completely blighted areas and an economy built primarily around the energy sector - which is headed downward. I'm sure you know some places are inexpensive for a reason.

If you're willing to pay Houston property taxes... Just move to Chicago. The extra 3.75% state income tax will be only a slight overall increase for a way better location.

It was 5% for a short time, state legislature put a sunset on the increase which expired.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2015/01/27/americas-fastest-growing-cities-2015/#569eec2a6158