Where should I live in the Fox River Valley? (Chicago: low crime, attorney)

[CPAGuy]

I'm an attorney and will be relocating from Michigan to Chicago to work for my firms office in Elgin. I have 2 kids under age 4 and a wife that doesn't work. We will be looking for a house in the $400k to $450k range.

Main priorities are as follows:
- Good school district (seems like all surrounding communities have this)
- Good area for my wife socially (happy wife = happy life)
- Friendly community not overally obsessed with "looking wealthy", etc.
- Within 30 minute drive of Elgin
- Not TOO rural of a setting. (Don't want to go west of the Fox River)

We are in our mid 30s and are college educated professionals but very grounded and down to earth. I've read alot on this board about upity, money focused attitude in these areas and frankly it concerns me. Is that overblown?

We are looking at Barringtons, Geneva and St. Charles. Any thoughts on these areas or suggestions for others?

[gardener34]

Are you on the east side or west side of the river. I would try and get a home on whichever side of the river you will be working on. Cause it can be a pain to cross, not too many bridges. I would go for st. charles or parts of south elgin that have st. charles schools. You will have no problems with the schools or finding anything in that price range. You will really like it out here. Kane county has excellent forest preserves and st. charles has a great park district. And there are many bike paths in the area.
St. charles is a very diverse housing stock, where there are multi million dollar homes along with many nice smaller cheaper homes as well. It will fit your bill.
Also, I know many people who live in the subdivisions along route 31 (sorry can't remember their names) going through south elgin. They like it a lot - they have st. charles schools. They are even closer to Elgin than st. charles is.
Just be wary of anything in unincorporated areas of st. charles township. Zoning can create problems for residents.

[chet everett]

I think the folks who talk about "upity money focused" folks are not worth worrying about.

I also suspect that "social" community feel is 90%+ the result of the individual(s) involved. Similarly whether you are talking a very large community (like the whole city of Elgin) or your own little cul del sac it is pretty silly to even attempt to quantify 'friendly'.

While I can understand the desire to try to suggest that some of these things are more likely in one area over another, the fact is there is little correlation between one person's interpretation of these very subject things and measurable data...

I can say that the while there are many areas west of the Fox River that are actually less rural than some area to the east, the adding commute hassle of crossing the river MAY be worth focusing on from a commute and even day-to-day shopping/errand perspective.

I can also suggest that while it may seem like "all the surrounding communities" have good schools districts the data shows that there are some areas with schools that have objectively better performance than others. I strongly suggest that in deciding which high schools make the grade it is best to rely on the US News broad categories.

Good Luck!

[Steve-o]

Crystal Lake or Algonquin sound good for you. Definitely lots to do, not as showy as St. Charles or Geneva, very low crime, easy access to Elgin and the highways. Theyre both West of the Fox River, but I think you'd like them a lot, check em out!

[sgresident]

I was going to suggest the burlington area, but you said not west of the river. west is best!!!

[TennisDD]

I would look at Geneva/St. Charles. I am biased living in Geneva, but both have very unique/charming dowtowns with tree lined streets. St. Charles caters toward more of a younger crowd(20s/30s), while Geneva is more of a mayberry feeling that caters towards older individuals and does have a metra.
Again being biased, I think the Fox Valley offers the best quality of life in the burbs. The only downfall is that we are smack in the middle of interstate 88 and 90, so getting to downtown Chicago does take longer that other burbs closer to the highway.

[gardener34]

Algonquin is a far commute to elgin.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by gardener34

Algonquin is a far commute to elgin.

If you live near Randall, its about 20 minutes, which IMO isnt bad at all.

[gardener34]

yeah going down randall wouldn't be bad. I know along 31 it is a big pain.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by gardener34

yeah going down randall wouldn't be bad. I know along 31 it is a big pain.

Actually, if you live south of Algonquin Rd., Rt 31 is a breeze into Elgin.