Which area best to book hotel for our house hunting trip? (Chicago: where to stay, rental)

[minhan]

Finally, we decided that we need to have a market visit to decide which area to live for the next couple years. In the list, we have Naperville, St. Charles, Barrington, Inverness... we will also visit Evanston to see how it's like. My husband's office will be in Schaumburg but he doesn't need to go there. He needs to go to airport or on the phone.

Our budget for a rental home is from 1500$ - 3500$. I need to book hotel for our 1 week trip at end of March. I hope it's not so cold for us... it has been so hot over here in the last couple months, lakes are drying up. It might be a shock with the change in weather for us.

Anyway, my husband thought that we should stay in Schaumburg as its in the middle of everything, then we can go up, down, right, left to the towns of interest.

What do you think? Is it still too cold, covered with snow in Chicago that we won't be able to see/feel much?

We have to take this market visit so that we can decide where to stay in our temporary housing / permanent so that my little girl can continue Grade 1 for 10 more weeks.

We will pack and move April 14th... sigh....

[chet everett]

Schaumburg is NOT really in the middle of the areas you have listed BUT I would strongly recommend considering staying there IF there is any expectation that he will need to utilize the office in Schaumburg as any kind of routine point of commute.

The fact is that traffic to/from/around Schaumburg can be quite miserable and staying in a hotel near work will reinforce the challenges that one is likely to encounter commuting to/from work.

I would STRONGLY suggest that if work location will be Schaumburg it makes WHOLE LOT OF SENSE to focus on areas that will be easiest for that commute. That make me SCRATCH EVANSTON COMPLETELY OFF THE LIST as that will be a very difficult commute to not just Schaumburg but also any airports.

I would recommend against many of the towns you have listed for the same reasons -- very challenging commute!

I would instead focus on places in the near NW suburbs like Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect, Park Ridge and maybe some of the towns considered Western Suburbs like Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn or Wheaton. Depending on where exactly in Schaumburg the office is, what the ultimate budget is and overall need to get not to just O'Hare but also Midway it may make sense to at least consider some towns along the BNSF from LaGrange to Downers Grove...

The problem with heading too far west is that decreased densities, longer train commutes and shrinking pools of locally based employment means folks in those areas are increasingly wedded to cars. This clogs undersized roadways and really leads to a vicious circle of more people trying to get up earlier and earlier which just extends the whole crummy "rush hour" period...

When you consider towns that are a little closer and have more folks using trains to get to the Loop you get a lot better quality of life...

[calvin338]

I agree with Chet that Evanston should be off your list, if he's ever to go into the office.

You might take a look at Roselle and Itasca. Maybe even Wooddale. At least the first two will have great schools, a reasonable drive to Schaumburg, a short drive to O'hare, and access to the train if he (or all of you) would like to go downtown.

[minhan]

Oh, wow... such a whole new list of names... I've been reading comments, advices and people at work (like those don't need to go to office like my husband), they recommended Naperville, Barrington, Inverness as they live there.

Evanston is the last of list for us to see / feel life by the lake, so it's fine that it's not a good area for us.

The office is by North Martingale Road. Again, he doesn't need to go to office, once a month perhaps and it doesn't have to be in by 9am.

Oh, dear... now i have to go through the town list again...

The agent has been providing us the search for those towns. Got the tickets booked, need hotel and winter gears. Too bad, the weather in the US is so bad this year, lots of items for my children sizes are out of stock. We will have to buy them from Singapore.

Thanks for your inputs.

[minhan]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Schaumburg is NOT really in the middle of the areas you have listed BUT I would strongly recommend considering staying there IF there is any expectation that he will need to utilize the office in Schaumburg as any kind of routine point of commute.

The fact is that traffic to/from/around Schaumburg can be quite miserable and staying in a hotel near work will reinforce the challenges that one is likely to encounter commuting to/from work.

I would STRONGLY suggest that if work location will be Schaumburg it makes WHOLE LOT OF SENSE to focus on areas that will be easiest for that commute. That make me SCRATCH EVANSTON COMPLETELY OFF THE LIST as that will be a very difficult commute to not just Schaumburg but also any airports.

I would recommend against many of the towns you have listed for the same reasons -- very challenging commute!

I would instead focus on places in the near NW suburbs like Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect, Park Ridge and maybe some of the towns considered Western Suburbs like Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn or Wheaton. Depending on where exactly in Schaumburg the office is, what the ultimate budget is and overall need to get not to just O'Hare but also Midway it may make sense to at least consider some towns along the BNSF from LaGrange to Downers Grove...

The problem with heading too far west is that decreased densities, longer train commutes and shrinking pools of locally based employment means folks in those areas are increasingly wedded to cars. This clogs undersized roadways and really leads to a vicious circle of more people trying to get up earlier and earlier which just extends the whole crummy "rush hour" period...

When you consider towns that are a little closer and have more folks using trains to get to the Loop you get a lot better quality of life...

Hi Chet Everett,

Can you please suggest an area where its near mall, shops and convenient to do our house hunting? My husband won't need to go to office at all.

I just had a look at google map around my husband's office, very close to Marriott hotel and the traffic looks crazy. Agree with you that we should stay away from that area otherwise we stuck in the traffic and won't have much time for our main objective.

Thanks,

[r0lf3cbn]

Schaumburg sounds like a fine place to stay for a one-week visit to go house-hunting in Naperville, St. Charles, and Barrington, with a side trip to see Evanston. There are lots of hotels near Woodfield Mall, which gives you shopping and entertainment for the times you aren't looking at houses, and it's at the junction of two major highways. You'll most likely go to houses in the middle of the day, so the rush hour traffic won't as much as a factor. It doesn't take long to get to Naperville traveling on the highway, and Barrington and Inverness are fairly close.

[dja4260]

I agree with removing Evanston from your list. The farthest east Id look is Morton Grove. It's a nice community with great schools. I grew up in Skokie and currently live in Des Plaines if you need any assistance.

Good luck.

[chet everett]

If you never need to go to office then I suppose it really does not make sense to relocate, right?

If you mean that you won.t need to visit the office on this trip I would recommend staying near Schaumburg as this will help you assess the challenges that commuting from further away will entail.

If you want to avoid the volume of traffic that exists near Woodfield Mall you might consider staying near Oak Brook or Lomabard -- both have malls but they are not as traffic intensive. Yorktown in Lombard has a very nice Westin Hotel that is fairly central / close enough to I-88 &I-355 to ensure easy travel throughout the region. Oakbrook Center is a higher end mall that has a Marriot as well as a Double Tree and other nice nearby hotels that are fairly convenient to 290 via Rt 83 as well as having good access to I-88 & I-294.

If you will need to get to O'Hare or Midway frequently I would not recommend St. Charles or Barirington -- that adds LOTS of travel time compare to Park Ridge or Elmhurst...

[minhan]

Oh, spoke to my husband briefly Chet's suggestions about new places.

I wish I could continue staying here.... sunny, low tax, easy to move around - though Singapore is listed the most expensive city to live in the world but that's only because the survey based on the rich and their belongings!

He doesn't have to go to office but he needs to be in the US to take calls around the world, and he can fly around US for meetings.

Anyway, I just booked us into Marriot Residence Inn in Bloomingdale. I thought that area will be more central to go see Naperville, Elly Glenn, Elmhurst, then go up to see other north towns, but hotel booking can be cancelled. Let me take a look at the hotels that Chet recommended as well.

Thanks for all the inputs.

This website is so helpful for me.

[chet everett]

Bloomingdale is sort of odd -- it is technically pretty central but it is EXTREMELY automobile intensive , to the point where you need to "drive your car to go move your car" -- everything is in in large / midsized strip malls. This leads to LOTS of traffic but at least there is not a lot of offices and the roads are mostly wide with well coordinated stoplights.

You could do worse...