Living in the city with family....help (to rent, neighborhood)

[Gaylord_Focker]

Last few posts have been sobering. But thanks nonetheless. Cheers

[Vosges]

Honestly, you don’t want to be in CPS. Everyone I know in CPS has either moved to the burbs or put their kids in private schools.

Across the country, I am sure the school ratings will drop at least a point next year as everyone tries to play catch up. So, I would target a 9/10 school and not drop to a 7.

Good luck.

[Vlajos]

I have three kids in CPS. It's not hard to find a good elementary school, but High School is a different story. I have two kids in High School now and we are happy but the process sucks.

[Bitey]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

I have three kids in CPS. It's not hard to find a good elementary school, but High School is a different story. I have two kids in High School now and we are happy but the process sucks.

It IS hard to find a good elementary school after Kindergarten unless you move into a decent neighborhood school boundary. For Kindergarten, every magnet/selective enrollment school has all slots available. After that, only a few come available in the successive grades each year. The OP hasn't said whether his kids are already school-aged or not -- that makes a huge difference in the cost/risk calculation.

[wjj]

Maybe I am missing something, but OP said in their initial post that solid schools and safety were most important. And they have a $600K to $850K budget for a three bedroom house. They could move to say Norwood Park or Edison Park and have their kids go to Onahan/Garvy/Oriole Park/Hitch and then on to Taft. Decent schools by Chicago standards and a pretty safe area to raise a family. But with a budget up to $850K with schools of utmost importance, there is no reason to settle for decent by Chicago standards. That budget could get them into the best schools in the state like Stevenson, Deerfield, Libertyville, New Trier and their outstanding feeder schools. It was quite a while ago, but I grew up in Norwood Park and went to Garvy and Taft. I was always told what great schools they were, and as far as Chicago was concerned, they were. But after expanding my horizons after HS, it became clear that even just run of the mill suburban schools were far better as far as academic and other opportunities. I don't think that has changed much. To me, with schools and safety being most important and that kind of budget, there really is only one option. Move into one of the many great school districts in the suburbs. There are so many choices from more urban to more rural and everything in between far better than all but the selective enrollment schools in the city. Or as mentioned above, live in the city and go private ($$$$) or Catholic ($$).

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Bitey

It IS hard to find a good elementary school after Kindergarten unless you move into a decent neighborhood school boundary. For Kindergarten, every magnet/selective enrollment school has all slots available. After that, only a few come available in the successive grades each year. The OP hasn't said whether his kids are already school-aged or not -- that makes a huge difference in the cost/risk calculation.

We agree, it's not hard to find a good elementary school. Just move into the boundary of one, there are a lot of them.

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by wjj

Maybe I am missing something, but OP said in their initial post that solid schools and safety were most important. And they have a $600K to $850K budget for a three bedroom house. They could move to say Norwood Park or Edison Park and have their kids go to Onahan/Garvy/Oriole Park/Hitch and then on to Taft. Decent schools by Chicago standards and a pretty safe area to raise a family. But with a budget up to $850K with schools of utmost importance, there is no reason to settle for decent by Chicago standards. That budget could get them into the best schools in the state like Stevenson, Deerfield, Libertyville, New Trier and their outstanding feeder schools. It was quite a while ago, but I grew up in Norwood Park and went to Garvy and Taft. I was always told what great schools they were, and as far as Chicago was concerned, they were. But after expanding my horizons after HS, it became clear that even just run of the mill suburban schools were far better as far as academic and other opportunities. I don't think that has changed much. To me, with schools and safety being most important and that kind of budget, there really is only one option. Move into one of the many great school districts in the suburbs. There are so many choices from more urban to more rural and everything in between far better than all but the selective enrollment schools in the city. Or as mentioned above, live in the city and go private ($$$$) or Catholic ($$).

I am leaning towards heeding your advice. I probably can't live in the city and go private while remaining fiscally solvent. Or I don't want to honestly as that may mean I have to drive the kids to a distant place for school.

[personone]

Originally Posted by wjj

Maybe I am missing something, but OP said in their initial post that solid schools and safety were most important. And they have a $600K to $850K budget for a three bedroom house. They could move to say Norwood Park or Edison Park and have their kids go to Onahan/Garvy/Oriole Park/Hitch and then on to Taft. Decent schools by Chicago standards and a pretty safe area to raise a family. But with a budget up to $850K with schools of utmost importance, there is no reason to settle for decent by Chicago standards. That budget could get them into the best schools in the state like Stevenson, Deerfield, Libertyville, New Trier and their outstanding feeder schools. It was quite a while ago, but I grew up in Norwood Park and went to Garvy and Taft. I was always told what great schools they were, and as far as Chicago was concerned, they were. But after expanding my horizons after HS, it became clear that even just run of the mill suburban schools were far better as far as academic and other opportunities. I don't think that has changed much. To me, with schools and safety being most important and that kind of budget, there really is only one option. Move into one of the many great school districts in the suburbs. There are so many choices from more urban to more rural and everything in between far better than all but the selective enrollment schools in the city. Or as mentioned above, live in the city and go private ($$$$) or Catholic ($$).

Completely agree. This is what I mentioned. Chicagoland has some of the best and most diverse and beautiful collection of suburbs in the nation. With great schools and easy access to the city without having to worry about schools, safety, and providing access to lots of greenery and nature. The Metra can easily get you into the city for all the amenities of city life.

If you want to be in a border suburb close to the city, with that budget, you could look at a pretty nice home in Evanston or Skokie, and technical be in the suburbs with better schools and less safety concerns, but be in a quasi-Chicago neighborhood that directly borders the city and still feels like Chicago.

To the OP- is your job mobile (through teleworking) or does your current job have an office in Chicago? Or are you just wanting to find a job here so you can move here (if your in a profession like healthcare-related where you can move almost anywhere)? Depending on whether you will be going to an office and where that will be within Chicagoland will have a huge impact on where you want to live. Unless you can telework full time and live anywhere, commutes can be brutal (pre-Covid times). It's already tangibly started to uptick in terms of commuting traffic and things are starting to get back to normal. By the time you move, it will probably be similar to pre pandemic times, which is pretty bad commuting-wise. Although if you have a hybrid schedule and only have to physically be in the office 2 days or so, a long commute may be bearable.

[nap1313]

How old are your kids and how many do you have, OP? There are definitely a number of good neighborhood elementary schools in north side neighborhoods, like a poster above me with kids in CPS said. The west loop also has a good neighbor school as well as some 3 bedroom places in your range, but you’ll probably be looking at a condo or an older townhome. $1000 assessments can be pretty common in some older condo buildings, but that is anomaly in a townhouse community.

Start with the CPS School Locatorhttp://https://schoolinfo.cps.edu/sc...tor/index.html. It will show you attendance boundaries.

Level 1+ is the highest and then it goes down to Level 1, and so on and so forth. I would try to stick with Level 1 and 1+ schools.

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by nap1313

How old are your kids and how many do you have, OP? There are definitely a number of good neighborhood elementary schools in north side neighborhoods, like a poster above me with kids in CPS said. The west loop also has a good neighbor school as well as some 3 bedroom places in your range, but you’ll probably be looking at a condo or an older townhome. $1000 assessments can be pretty common in some older condo buildings, but that is anomaly in a townhouse community.

Start with the CPS School Locatorhttp://https://schoolinfo.cps.edu/sc...tor/index.html. It will show you attendance boundaries.

Level 1+ is the highest and then it goes down to Level 1, and so on and so forth. I would try to stick with Level 1 and 1+ schools.

Two kids. One would be in 4th or 5th grade when we make the move. The other in college. Sounds like the odds would be stacked against a decent city move.