Relocating to Illinois

[holl1ngsworth]

I don't know who would recommend Elk Grove or Schaumburg if you're looking for a great school district with Metra service. There isn't even a Metra station in Elk Grove, and Schaumburg's station is rather inconvenient to the more central parts of the town.

I wouldn't ignore the advice that has already been given on this thread. The people that have responded have a lot of experience with that part of the northwest suburbs and gave sound recommendations, especially Cubssoxfan with the school districts to zero-in on.

If your budget is <$1600/mo for a 3 bed, Arlington Heights will be out, but you should still exhaust options in Palatine, Buffalo Grove and Mt. Prospect before considering Elk Grove or Schaumburg. The former have great schools and solid access to transit, the latter have average schools and poor access to transit.

Arlington Heights, Palatine, Buffalo Grove and Mt. Prospect are frequently included on "Best of..." lists that rank towns according to criteria that includes schools. I've never seen Schaumburg or Elk Grove included on such lists.

Here are AH, Palatine and Mt. Prospect included on Movoto's "10 Best Cities in Illinois" list from late last year:
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

And Buffalo Grove was the only town in Illinois to be included on the "Best Places to Live 2013" list published by Time/Money Magazine:
Best Places to Live 2013: #46 Buffalo Grove | Time

[Lookout Kid]

I know there are a few decent elementary districts in Schaumburg and Elk Grove Village, but you really got better advice from Cubsoxfan and the others on this forum. Elk Grove Village in particular is.... Well, it's known more for logistics operations and warehouses than any sort of quality of life. And airport noise! Yikes.

Schaumburg is just kind of blah... It's mostly known as the home of the Woodfield Mall, but most of the housing within Schaumburg is one of three types of 1960's-70's houses--raised ranch, split level, or single-story ranch...often repeated at various intervals up and down the block. There are a few newer subdivisions (1980's-2000's) with more varied and upscale housing, and I have to think that they will retain value more than the older parts of town--which are hard to differentiate from Roselle or Hanover Park.

[cubssoxfan]

Elk Grove and Schaumburg are OK. But when comparing schools, most will agree that Hersey, Prospect, Fremd and even Buffalo Grove are better than Schaumburg, Conant and Elk Grove High Schools. I don't know why people say stay away from Palatine?! Probably because they are probably thinking of the "barrios' along Rand Rd/Rte 12 and don't stop to think of the south side of town that feeds into Fremd HS.

[wjj]

I think a threshold question might be where in AH is the work location north/south wise. AH covers a lot of real estate. AH goes from Lake Cook Road on the north all the way south to I 90. That is a long way. If the work location is in the business parks south of Dundee between AH Road and 53 you might get a different answer vs if the work location is in the businesses along Algonquin Road well to the south. Or if it is kind of in the middle by the race track.

BTW, I agree about the comment regarding Palatine getting a bad rap sometimes. The south half of the village that feeds into Fremd is first rate in every way. Unfortunately, there are a few very bad areas on the north end that feed into Palatine HS that taint the entire village in some people's minds (but those areas really do have a significant negative impact on PHS). It's a shame because most of Palatine is a very nice place to live.