Help choosing a suburb with some land... (Chicago, Naperville: low income, for sale)

[winchmom]

My husband has decided we should move to an area with a little more space (at least an acre). We've looked at houses west (Geneva/Batavia) and northwest (Barrington/Long Grove) that meet this criteria. Our budget is around $1m, maybe a little over. We need a minimum of 4 bedrooms (3 kids) and I do want a nice house if we are going fairly far from the city. We want a nice family-friendly community.

Anyone advise??

[UnderTheLiveOaks]

Stevenson is one of the top ten public high schools in IL. The high schools in Geneva, Barrington, etc are pretty good, but only the Chicago magnets, New Trier, Deerfield, and Hinsdale Central top Stevenson. It's a very good school.

[nanannie]

Lived in Barrington for years and have had kids thru and in the schools now.Excellent experience with grade school, middle and high school.
I can highly recommend this community for family,space,beauty,park district activities, convinience to great shopping and community events.
I live in Barrington Hills which is 5 acres min in most areas and its often hard to believe we are so close to a major city with the privacy, old oaks,lakes and wildlife. We are very spoiled and it would be hard to live on top of neighbors ever again.
DM me if you have any questions and good luck with your search.

[Paige65]

Originally Posted by CarolinaBredChicagoan

"Getting to be heavily jewish" or not, Stevenson is one of the top ten public high schools in IL. The high schools in Geneva, Barrington, etc are pretty good, but only the Chicago magnets, New Trier, Deerfield, and Hinsdale Central top Stevenson. It's a very good school.

No question that Stevenson is a very good school and would be considered by most every account in the top ten, but the top ten, even twenty are all very good, and Barrington would be among them. Also, as an FYI, Highland Park has a higher average ACT than Stevenson, even though Stevenson has 1.5 low income and HP has 10% low income, many of whom are ESL. All students in IL now take the ACT regardless of their intention to go on to college, so you aren't just looking at college bound test takers, you are looking at entire population.

Suburban school average ACT 2008 (the only three schools on this list with low income at 10% or greater are Barrington, Glenbrook South, and Highland Park):

New Trier 26.9
Deerfield 26
Highland Park 25.8
Stevenson 25.7
Lake Forest 25.6
Hinsdale Central 25.5
Glenbrook North 25.5
Naperville Central 25.4
Libertyville 25
Naperville North 24.9
Fremd 24.6
Prospect 24.6
Maine South 24.4
Barrington 24.3
Glenbrook South 24.3
Hersey 24.1
Neuqua Valley 24.1
Lyons Township 24
Vernon Hills 24
Geneva 23.9

[nanannie]

Good advice on all the schools, but the OPs first request was for some land. Dont think you can accomplish that in the New Trier etc areas and it might be hard to find even in Stevensons. Long Grove is possible but Geneva,Deerfield,Hinsdale? Harder I would say.

[Paige65]

Originally Posted by nanannie

Good advice on all the schools, but the OPs first request was for some land. Dont think you can accomplish that in the New Trier etc areas and it might be hard to find even in Stevensons.

My post wasn't intended to steer the OP toward Winnetka or Hinsdale. I would agree that Barrington is the best place for a good piece of land. The poster I was responding to had indicated that Barrington schools were not up to par with NT and Stevenson, I wanted to negate that with hard data as that may be a consideration of the poster in addition to land.

[sgresident]

we love sugar grove. It is a small community of around 10,000. we have some subdivisions with 1 acre lots and beautiful homes. access to I88 is great! the stafford woods subdivision and hannaford farm subdivision are both premier, custom home developments.

[sammy22]

There's still quite a bit of land available in Long Grove (the wife and I have looked there a few times). Prices are a lot lower than Hinsdale, Deerfield, etc and most of Long Grove is in the Stevenson district. Land is cheaper in Hawthorn Woods but I think that's Lake Zurich schools - but not positive.

My concerns with LG and HW and the reason that we probably won't move there are that 1) well water, 2) possibility of 53 extension (maybe?), 3) far from I94 and Chicago, and 4) most importantly, there is so much land for sale that I think resales would be very tough there - why buy a "used" house when you can build new next door?

Both towns are very pretty though, quite upscale and Stevenson is a great high school. Neither has a true downtown, but if you want a big beautiful house in a more "rural" setting with a big yard and a great school system, you could do a lot worse than Long Grove.

[middle-aged mom]

Anything beyond an acre, anywhere, is going to be well water and septic.

Barrington Hills resides in 4 counties, Cook, Lake, Mc Henry and Kane. You can be close in or way out there. Most of the Hills is minimum 5 acre zoning. There is an abundance of horse property, too.

It's "country" with private lakes, ravines, hills, gently winding private roads, lush foliage canopies, private country clubs and some of the most down to earth people, anywhere.

North Barrington and Lake Barrington are also possiblities.
South Barrington and Deer Park skew newer and one acre lots are common.

There is a real sense of community in the greater Barrington area that you do not find elsewhere. That the overwhelming majority of homes feed into the same school district and common high school and sports activities
distinguishes it from many other communities.

[Lookout Kid]

But two houses and knock one down. Voila! Land!