Chicago Suburbs: A job in Lakeview, Chicago (Naperville, Arlington Heights: apartment, renting)

[janeinsane]

We're moving from Providence, Rhode Island. My Husband got a job in Chicago. So that's where we're moving. We have a budget of 600k. I'm looking for a Somewhat quiet community, An hour or less from his work, with a really good school district for my two daughters (5 and 7).
For a house we want maybe a newer style house with at least 3 bedrooms.
Have any ideas because we would really appreciate it because we are renting an apartment before we buy and I want to get out if it as soon as possible.

[thePR]

With a budget like that and a timetable like that you can choose from a lot of really nice places!

The Western suburbs, maybe Hinsdale, Naperville, Elmhurst , Downers Grove or Wheaton.

For the Northern suburbs, maybe Park Ridge, Arlington Heights or Glenview.

I would look into the Western suburbs first for a newer style, probably Naperville.

[kindrakindra]

Gettting from Naperville to downtown is easy enough, assuming the express train schedule works with your work schedule and you don't go downtown on weekends too often. However, Naperville to Lakeview is a much harder commute.

OP, Lakeview is on the North side of the city, it's a great neighborhood. However, there are very few Metra train stops there. Depending on where he is working in Lakeview, maybe look in Evanston or Wilmette, as those suburbs are serviced by the CTA Elevated Train ("El"). The purple or red lines have numerous stops in the Lakeview area. Similarly, Oak Park has the green line, where you easily head to the brown line north to Lakeview.

If you decide to look in Chicago itself, research the schools first. May I suggest Neighborhood Parents Network for more school info. There are several good to great neighborhood public schools in Lakeview and North Center. Not all of them are good though, so make sure you have confirmed attendance with Chicago Public Schools.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by kindrakindra

Gettting from Naperville to downtown is easy enough, assuming the express train schedule works with your work schedule and you don't go downtown on weekends too often. However, Naperville to Lakeview is a much harder commute.

OP, Lakeview is on the North side of the city, it's a great neighborhood. However, there are very few Metra train stops there. Depending on where he is working in Lakeview, maybe look in Evanston or Wilmette, as those suburbs are serviced by the CTA Elevated Train ("El"). The purple or red lines have numerous stops in the Lakeview area. Similarly, Oak Park has the green line, where you easily head to the brown line north to Lakeview.
If you decide to look in Chicago itself, research the schools first. May I suggest Neighborhood Parents Network for more school info. There are several good to great neighborhood public schools in Lakeview and North Center. Not all of them are good though, so make sure you have confirmed attendance with Chicago Public Schools.

I was going to say this as well. Do NOT go looking in the further out western burbs if you have to work in Lakeview. I-290 and the connections to Lakeview would be murder to drive, and there's no solid public transit. Even if you take Metra, you'd have to walk 3 blocks and connect to the Brown or Purple Line, then probably spend another 25 minutes to get to work. It would be a pretty big hassle.

Naperville to Lakeview would be murder. You'd proabably end up driving cause it's easier, and it would take 1.5 hours each way min with traffic.

[chet everett]

I tend to partly agree with kindra, if the OP / her husband wants to rely on public transit the North Shore suburbs might be better. While I know a Green Line to Brown Line transfer is not expensive or particualrly hard the total trip time to make a big hockey stick shaped commute does not seem like a good reason to consider Oak Park...
Driving it might make sense to consider Park Ridge or Oak Park / River Forest, but depending on where in Lakeview the job is , what the hours are , and what sorts of accomodations the employer has for parking the hassle factor might be too high a hurdle.

A long time ago I had to drive from the western suburbs to the DePaul area and back when the Ogden Ave overpass still existed and the blight along the the west edge of Lincoln Park meant it was sorta fast to zip through I might recommend that as possibility, but now that the geniuses of genterification have filled evry corner with strip malls and cutesy watering holes I would not suggest trying to drive from anything other than a close-in suburb.

In fact, depending on what exactly you mean by "new style house" I might focus on some of the homes in Chicago itself, though honestly $600k will not put you in the "sweet spot" for neww construction in the desirable neighborhoods. Personally I might consider an older home in nice area that is little further out (like say Sauganash...) but the school factor (even the nicer neighborhood schools are likely to be shock coming from a college town...) and other downsides of city living are personal decisions .

Really there are going an unusually tough set of trade-offs to deal with for the OP/ husband working in Lakeview -- surface street and "expressway" congestion will be very challenging coming from even a further out part of the city, cost of family sized newer homes nearby are probably out of budget, schools are going to be tricky -- Illinois has a higher than average disparity in the way local property wealth results in better schools...