How much are average sized single family homes going for in the closer suburbs? (~2000sq ft or so)

Areas like oak park, norridge, niles, park ridge, skokie, etc? It's been several years since I've lived in Chicago.

Wheeling, Mundelein, Buffalo Grove, and Libertyville area also seems a little closer than Gurnee...how do those compare?

I provided no source for my claim, and can't, but I stand by it even so. I'm sure there are many ways it's not, however, and you may diligently track them down, fine... and it could just be one of those unfounded claims made by locals who are proud of their community; however, I'm closer to correct than you seem to think. It's a great school

My mom lives in a 3 bed ranch in Wheeling.... thats over 400K,

Mundelein has some reasonable neighborhoods, but those homes are 30-60 years old, most newer construction there is 280k+,

Buffalo Grove and Libertyville, you need to go with a townhouse to stay under 300k.

120 does suck at times. It is 4 lanes near 94 and they've been doing a lot of construction to improve things this summer. I think there is a long-term plan to open it up to 4 lanes as it heads west, but that would make things even more of a nightmare while the work is going on.

I pay ~$4700 in property taxes on a $185K home that I purchased about a year ago. This is about 2.5% and I believe pretty standard for most anywhere in Lake County. If I remember from my home search, property taxes in the 'burbs of Cook County will, in general, be slightly lower, but not by much. My family that lives in Cook county have been complaining about rising property taxes over the last few years -- it wouldn't surprise me if the gaps in property taxes closed between Lake and Cook. Of course this will all depend somewhat on the specific town and school district you are being taxed in.

Not my intention to track down some stat to prove my point, not at all... I'm not THAT nitty I was just sharing my knee-jerk reaction that I had with you, which like you is based on background knowledge / bias rather than specific data. I went to New Trier myself, so I am coming from a very biased pov myself.

-bigbootch

I grew up in Flossmoor. Great schools, good location, easy train access. Also there's a really good microbrewery at the train station.

But, it's to the south and not that close to everything else. Some of the surrounding communities are good also: Homewood, Olympia Fields, parts of Chicago Heights. Others are starting to get pretty ghetto: most of Chicago Heights, Steger, Matteson, etc...

Also I've heard good things about the Orland Park area which is along a different Metra spur, so it's got good train access to the city, but I don't know that much about it. I do know that those metra trains have a bar car, while the electric line that runs down to Flossmoor doesn't.

Move to DuPage if you wanna settle down a raise a family.

I grew up on the south side, and I have to agree that the whole area is really not an ideal place to live.

If you do want to go south, either go VERY south, or go far west ( Mokena, Frankfurt, New Lennox, Monee, Orland Park, Tinley Park ).

Pretty much everything east of 57 is pretty sketchy now.

Huh? Where did you get this idea from? Its maybe a little nicer than most surrounding cities, plus a good school district and nice downtown area. Its not like its really rich like some of the north shore cities. Kinda sucks for the high schoolers cuz the cops have nothing to do but bust underage parties. Also they love cracking down on the DUI's in Naperville, just don't do it.

Also to the South, Plainfield and Bolingbrook are building up really fast.

I grew up in St. Charles and now live close to there. Depending on where you are in St Charles, it isn't all that close to the train. It's a nice town though. How much are you wanting to spend? They just extended the train line to Elburn and there are some reasonably priced homes on the market there that are sure to go way up in value because of the train line in a few years.

well welcome to the neighborhood, i live in Woodridge. Thats right near Naperville, Lombard, Lisle, Bolingbrook. I also lived in Homer Glen throughout my life until i was 18, which is near Orland Park and Lockport. Went to Lockport High School (Go Porters!). so ya i know the area very well. Every high school in this area is going to be good. Lockport was great and huge and recently renovated, but Homer Glen is the place to live. very nice upper middle class area that is expanding everywhere. More West is Woodridge, Naperville yadda yadda. The entire area is nice, lots of golf courses, in fact my balcony overlooks Seven Bridges Golf course. Anywhere you go you are gonna find a good clean area, the only thing is there is different ranges of housing everywhere you look. the great thing is with the I355 extension being almost complete, anywhere you go will not be that bad of a drive from anywhere else you want to go

Agreed, DUIs are rampant in Naperville. Used to live there, moved to Aurora for more house for my buck. Oswego school district is key, as another poster mentioned. It used to have a bad reputation, but it's growing rapidly into a nice place to live (most areas, anyway).

Good info, but OP stated he's 3 years away from even having kids. So 7 years away from needing a school district. I wouldn't use that as a big factor. Depending on where you're working find a commute you're comfortable with. Then live there.

You can always find a place to move to as you learn the area and your family needs change. Don't buy a home because ACT scores are good for HS district when you aren't even having kids for 3 years.

Naperville is very crowded/hectic and expensive. Maybe you can rent for 6 months to 1 year and explore the area. Find out what you want to be close to (work / lakefront / downtown / lots of golf courses / poker room) and then look to buy. Home market probably not rebounding that quickly so you can still get a good deal.

I grew up in south burb (Frankfort) and wouldn't rule out Orland Park/Mokena/Frankfort. That's where quite a bit of expansion is going and if I-355 extension goes thru in the next 2-3 years you'll have easier access to western/northern burbs and downtown can be reached by train now.

Good luck.

PS OP mentioned Lisle is only 22k. Not an issue--it's surrounded by Naperville, Downers Grove, Westmont, Woodridge....not like it's a town of 22k in the middle of South Dakota. You have a difficult time telling which burb is which.

I grew up in Homewood. Did you go to HF?

Downers Grove FTW

wow, i didnt realize so many people on here are in the chicago burbs

I'm from Lisle,

I hate Naperville because it is over-commercialized and the kids in the schools there are spoiled brats (like many that went to my school). It's kinda like living in a spin-off of the OC TV show (even though I have never watched it).

I'm a big fan of the Western Burbs. Downers Grove/Woodridge/Lisle are solid choices. To echo what someone else said, Bolingbrook and Plainfield also are really booming - you can get a nice place for a very reasonable price in a good neighborhood.

I had an internship downtown over the summer and commuted everyday via train. Express trains run 35-40 minutes each way from Lisle and there were rarely delays.

From my perspective, the Western burbs are a little less crowded than the NW burbs, so I would pick DuPage/Will Co. to live in.

Sidenote: It's cool to see that my hometown has been thrown around in discussion, usually when I say I'm from Lisle people have a weird look on their face and I have to say "It's near Naperville".

Ok, to prop Lisle more:

OP, Lisle has (according to your demands):

1) Some neighborhoods in Lisle are zoned for the Naperville school district for high school. Most kids go to North, but I believe you can petition for Central. Very good private school in Benet Academy, which is in Lisle. I'm sure the local grade/middle schools are stellar also.

2) Train commute from Lisle is 35-40 minutes via express trains. Lisle has express trains in the morning and evening rush about every 20 minutes.

3) Housing is very reasonably priced. I'm sure it is comparable to the other suburbs (not counting Naperville/Hinsdale/Clarendon Hills)

Arlington Heights FTW. Solid schools, two Metra stops and reasonably priced. Plus you got the ponies. I'm not biased or anything because I grew up there.

Ugh... just say read the 300k price range. You might be hard-pressed to find that in AH.

It's the same in all of the reasonably close to the city northern suburbs. I can't think of a single family home in the Northbrook, Glenview, Winnetka, etc. area that sells for close to 300k. If you're a few years away from having kids, perhaps move to a less expensive area and then move to the northern suburbs when they're old enough to attend school as the northern suburbs have the best school districts in the state (wealth=good schools).

we should probably get a 2p2 Chicago burbs happy hour going somewhere

Batavia has good schools also and it's very close to I88, maybe an hour from the city. I've made the trip in 40 minutes with no traffic.

he could also move to park ridge and be able to be in the maine south district. Park Ridge is fairly affordable and Maine South is an excellent school.

As for his price range, I'm sure he can find something in that range in glenview, especially over by shermer rd.

I live in wilmette right now and grew up here, so I also know the area really well