Moving from the UK to Chicago suburbs - help (Oak Park: lease, insurance)

[unionjack1]

Hello,
We are currently living in the UK but are looking to move over to Chicago next August for 2 - 3 years ( due to husband's work commitments). Having never visited Chicago previously, it is extremely dificult to decide where we should contemplate looking to live.

We have 2 children currently aged 8 and 6 years old who, I believe, will be in elementary schools. The education system in the states is very different to that in England and I am not entirely sure at what age the children move up to middle school.
We ideally want an area with excellent public schools and a safe, family friendly neighbourhood. We are not particularly religious, enjoy lots of outdoor activities and eating out, cinema etc and would prefer somewhere with parks nearby.

After reading several forums online it seems that Northern suburbs like Wilmette, Oak Park, Highland Park, Winnetka may be suitable ?

We are all coming over to Chicago in October to look around the area and hopefully look at schools and houses -obviously it would be a great help if I knew now where I should concentrate on and then have time to organise visits to designated schools.

If anyone could help with ideas of specific schools and areas, we would be very grateful.
Many thanks in advance

[knitgirl]

Where will your husband be working? Chicago has a huge metropolitan area and his work location makes a big difference. What is your budget? The suburbs that you've listed are all very nice. Your children are elementary school aged. Children start grade 1 at age 6, middle school generally starts at grade 6.

[unionjack1]

Hi
Thanks for replying - my husband's office will be in Chicago itself however, he will only have to commute once a week so the distance is not such a major issue. Our budget is about $600k

[sunnyandcloudydays]

Originally Posted by unionjack1

Hi
Thanks for replying - my husband's office will be in Chicago itself however, he will only have to commute once a week so the distance is not such a major issue. Our budget is about $600k

assuming his work may have a hr dept that can put you in contact with a professional to help you with your process.

Have you considered just getting into a lease vs. buying a home?
As you probably are aware this market has been battered and who knows where things will be in 2 or 3 years from now

There are plenty of options right now for an executive style home in every part of the Metro

stands to reason if you have a large budget hiring a consultant can probably save you a costly error

[chirack]

Ok if his office is downtown, then you want to be near a Metra station so that he does not have to drive. If his office is elsewhere in town then it makes a huge difference as to where you should live(i.e. you could set up a nasty commute by living in far northwest burbs but his office is say on the far south side of Chicago. ).. No one would want an 1:30+ commute even once a week.

Another thing to worry about is that not all of the children in a town may go to the same school or be in the same school district. Where you live in the town can be critical sometimes in terms of this.

Besides good education what sorts of things do you want in a burb? Oak Park for instance is a very urban diverse(in terms of race) burb right on the border of Chicago. It is a great place for a short trip downtown or for reasonable drive to most parts of the City. It is well served by public transportation. Where as Wilmate is further away, not near any expressway but does have a Metra stop. Wimate is less urban than Oak Park. Both have good schools and it really depends on what you are looking for in terms of a burb wither you would choose one over the other.

[flo12345]

Originally Posted by unionjack1

Hello,
We are currently living in the UK but are looking to move over to Chicago next August for 2 - 3 years ( due to husband's work commitments). Having never visited Chicago previously, it is extremely dificult to decide where we should contemplate looking to live.

We have 2 children currently aged 8 and 6 years old who, I believe, will be in elementary schools. The education system in the states is very different to that in England and I am not entirely sure at what age the children move up to middle school.
We ideally want an area with excellent public schools and a safe, family friendly neighbourhood. We are not particularly religious, enjoy lots of outdoor activities and eating out, cinema etc and would prefer somewhere with parks nearby.

After reading several forums online it seems that Northern suburbs like Wilmette, Oak Park, Highland Park, Winnetka may be suitable ?

We are all coming over to Chicago in October to look around the area and hopefully look at schools and houses -obviously it would be a great help if I knew now where I should concentrate on and then have time to organise visits to designated schools.

If anyone could help with ideas of specific schools and areas, we would be very grateful.
Many thanks in advance

Hi,
your post is quite interesting for me, as I've also planned to move to the Chicago area (but from Germany) and I'm a little wondering how you can purchase a house? Do you already have a credit history in the US?
There are pleny of different things you've to take care about (like automobile insurance, what school district, checking account, ....).
The advantage you've is, that your family can speak English perfect, what should be quite helpful i guess.
I've planned to send my kids to English lessons and hope they will pick up some words....
Attached a link concerning the education system in the US:

Education in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[chirack]

Originally Posted by flo12345

Hi,
I'm a little wondering how you can purchase a house? Do you already have a credit history in the US?

Barring the wisdom of doing so(I would lease for a year or two no matter what the housing market was doing and esp. in this housing market.) You can purchase a house cash.

You only need credit history if you need to fianance something. The typical down payment would be about 10-20% and sometimes a high as 25%(for a jumbo loan). At 10% $60,000-80,000 would be enough to buy you a condo. At 20% 120,000 would be enough to buy a house in a less fashionable part of town. $200,000-$300,000 would be enough to buy you a nice place in most burbs. Only the most expensive burbs have house for 500K+.

[Freedom Rings]

Welcome to the Chicago Burbs'! Good to have you! Bring more people, the more the merrier. I can't think of anything better. I love this country!

[il_blguy87]

the fact that your family speaks english as first language is already perfect. I am myself from Poland and did not start learning english on everyday basis until my father got papers and got me here with my mom at age 17. The biggest challenge? Not culture shock (since Poland is culturally very similar), not us credit, no problem getting DL, even less with education. Its just making friends especially with Americans (politely speaking just anybody). I was able to make friends little bit easier with Polish but it has its advantages and disadvantages with the latter really big if you hang around your country men who did not quite assimilate. Its been always sad for me to try to get to know new people or getting to know them and then shortly after getting blown off (no text calls, no phone calls back, no fb messages) just horrible experience.

The fact that I am gay (and Polish) and went to schools attracting lots of conservative folks from suburbs (Dupage) and all around from small towns in Midwest was not too helpful either.

I won't get too much deep into it but its been pretty depressing and really bad. After few years, now I am doing better and hanging on. I have made one friend but need more friends. Unfortunantly right now I am stuck in a small town in middle of nowhere where its hard but as soon as I find a better job closer to big city, I will be in better position. I add to this that in Chicago, I had awesome talk therapist who started to make difference with my language but when I started with him I shortly got fired from a job and had to find another one where currently I am.

Some people think that the language has nothing to do with making friends, just character but trust me it has impact. If people don't understand you too well or have to listen to you harder they'll treat you like alien from Mars.