Southerners moving North

[moderngnome]

You can't go wrong with family friendly in any of the recommended western suburbs. Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, Downers Grove, Naperville - They are all wonderful places to live and raise a family.

I've lived all of my adult life in the suburbs of Chicago. We currently live in Elmhurst, which is why I recommended it. Elmhurst has a small town feel, we have about 42,000 residents. Our downtown is amazing - restaurants, a movie theater (we love York theater!), a grocery store, the public library (this library is amazing!) - several parks. It's all walkable.

Our park district is incredible - they have a ton of programming for anything you'd want your kids to try, from soccer and art to gymnastics and dance. We have two very clean and well life guarded public pools. Since Elmhurst is relatively small, and there is only one public high school - you get a real community feel.

There is nothing like the Memorial Day parade, sitting out in the shade, watching the bands come out from under the underpass, while a train goes by on top = pure Americana.

We have a HUGE St. Patrick's Day Parade. I mean HUGE. So very fun. Dress warm, LOL.

You absolutely can't beat the commute to O'Hare OR the city from here.

Wheaton is great, too - I have friends that live there and love it - but it will add 30 minutes to your commute to O'Hare. You're really going to want to come drive all these communities, and check out the down towns and neighborhoods and see what you like. I also agree with the previous poster that recommended you find your private school first, THEN your house. Commutes in Chicagoland get long fast. O'Hare is short to Elmhurst, medium to Wheaton - but I wouldn't want to drive further than that every day.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by moderngnome

Wheaton is great, too - I have friends that live there and love it - but it will add 30 minutes to your commute to O'Hare. You're really going to want to come drive all these communities, and check out the down towns and neighborhoods and see what you like. I also agree with the previous poster that recommended you find your private school first, THEN your house. Commutes in Chicagoland get long fast. O'Hare is short to Elmhurst, medium to Wheaton - but I wouldn't want to drive further than that every day.

It only takes me 30 minutes total to get to O'Hare from Glen Ellyn, so I don't see how Wheaton could add 30 minutes over Elmhurst unless you are talking about rush hour commute times. But yes, Elmhurst is one of the nicest suburbs that is close to O'Hare. Park Ridge is the other. Arlington Heights and Mt Prospect are nice options too.

[Nector]

Good to know another question. So I am looking at the discussed Western burbs and noticed varying property tax rates. Some 750K homes have taxes in excess of 20K. Seem to be all over the map. From what I gather the property taxes still reflect once higher home values. As the home values dropped the taxes didn't follow. Is that from lack of protesting the amount being taxed? Or is it difficult to have the tax reset with the value of the home? any insight would be great. Thank you!!

[wjj]

Originally Posted by Nector

Good to know another question. So I am looking at the discussed Western burbs and noticed varying property tax rates. Some 750K homes have taxes in excess of 20K. Seem to be all over the map. From what I gather the property taxes still reflect once higher home values. As the home values dropped the taxes didn't follow. Is that from lack of protesting the amount being taxed? Or is it difficult to have the tax reset with the value of the home? any insight would be great. Thank you!!

I can't speak specifically to DuPage County and the west suburbs, but in Lake County (at least where I live), real estate taxes have gone up every year since the real estate melt down despite property values dropping 25%-30%. This is because taxing units (mostly the school districts) simply increased their tax rates to make up for the decrease in property values. So home values eroded while real estate taxes continued to rise (albeit, at a slower rate). The scam now is taxing units proclaiming that they are holding the line on tax rates which, of course just means that real estate taxes will sky rocket as home values recover and the inflated tax rates remain in effect. And so elected officials can proclaim that they froze tax rates and try to lure voters into believing that they froze actual taxes. And due to the rather low math aptitude of most voters, they will get away with it and get re-elected.

[Lookout Kid]

In addition to what wjj said, there can also be great differences between towns/school districts depending on the mix of real estate within the actual taxing district boundaries. For instance, Downers Grove tends to have lower taxes than surrounding towns due to some corporate office parks and retail, while a suburb like Riverside has very little commercial real estate to tax, so it all falls on the homeowners. Suburbs with huge malls and retail districts like Schaumburg or Oak Brook also have lower tax rates.