I was wondering if I can get some information here.
We are moving to chicago suburbs soon. We can either move to northern suburbs or western suburbs depending on the situation. (There are somethings that will get clear in a couple of weeks)
I have been searching city-data but it has got me very confused. So I thought may be I can get a perspective here from people living in chicago area. We will eventually buy a house there but in the meantime we want to live in the same suburb (renting) where we would like to buy a house to get an idea.
The things we are looking for:
1- Good schools. Even though I think education also depends on parents involvement but we do not want to move in an area where schools may have more bad reputation etc.
2- We do not have a very high budget so we cannot move to suburbs like Evanston or Naperville etc that seemed very expensive.
3 - Drive to Chicago should be 40 to 45 minutes.
4 - I am not sure but is it important to have a good islamic school nearby ???
5 - Would like to live in a suburb where there are some parks etc to take kids to.
It seemed to me that in western suburbs we can get a better house in Bolingbrook or Plainfield. For bolingbrook, there are I think some zipcodes that are served by naperville high school and plainfield high school which seem to have better rating than bolingbrook high school.
Plainfield North high school seemed to have good rating but what I understand from city-data discussion was that Plainfield does not have any industries and the tax may eventually go high now that the housing boom is over.
Have no idea about any northern suburbs except that it seemd like no nice house would come within our budget as they all seemed very expensive. We would prefer to buy a new construction.
I would say go with Plainfield rather than Bolingbrook, even with higher taxes, you will get more for your dollar in terms of housing, and right now there are deals to be found there because the area was overbuilt, but that situation is not going to last for long if you are planning to be there for 5-6 years. you are looking for newer construction which you will have more selection compared to Bolingbrook.
thanks.
What about driving from Plianfield to chicago city ? I might get a job in the city and when I checked the nearest metra station it was at 30 mins drive from Plainfield. Whereas if I put Plainfield to Chciago it comes up as 45 min drive on google maps which can be upto an hour in real traffic I suppose.
I do not see any interstate very close to Plainfield.
And do you have any suggestion for an affordable good suburb with all the above things in the north?
Plainfield is pretty far off from downtown and it would be more than 1 hour in rush hour. I am wondering if you are closer to the joliet line, since aurora line would be further out. But the BNSF aurora has a lot of express trains in rush hour, even though they are packed but it is better than driving.
Thanks.
I checked Joliet and the schools do not have a very high score. I am not sure how much that matters because I have my education from Pakistan but I know my parents tried to send us to a better school within their budget.
Aurora seemed slightly better in terms of school.
I know we are looking for so many things and coming with a limited budget but how important is the school ratings/rankings.
What are the more better suburbs or if that is a long list which are the ones to be definitely avoided.
I was wondering if I can get some information here.
We are moving to chicago suburbs soon. We can either move to northern suburbs or western suburbs depending on the situation. (There are somethings that will get clear in a couple of weeks)
I have been searching city-data but it has got me very confused. So I thought may be I can get a perspective here from people living in chicago area. We will eventually buy a house there but in the meantime we want to live in the same suburb (renting) where we would like to buy a house to get an idea.
The things we are looking for:
1- Good schools. Even though I think education also depends on parents involvement but we do not want to move in an area where schools may have more bad reputation etc.
2- We do not have a very high budget so we cannot move to suburbs like Evanston or Naperville etc that seemed very expensive.
3 - Drive to Chicago should be 40 to 45 minutes.
4 - I am not sure but is it important to have a good islamic school nearby ???
5 - Would like to live in a suburb where there are some parks etc to take kids to.
It seemed to me that in western suburbs we can get a better house in Bolingbrook or Plainfield. For bolingbrook, there are I think some zipcodes that are served by naperville high school and plainfield high school which seem to have better rating than bolingbrook high school.
Plainfield North high school seemed to have good rating but what I understand from city-data discussion was that Plainfield does not have any industries and the tax may eventually go high now that the housing boom is over.
Have no idea about any northern suburbs except that it seemd like no nice house would come within our budget as they all seemed very expensive. We would prefer to buy a new construction.
Will appreciate any input.
If you're considering to move to westerm suburbs then I'll recommend Lombard because it is a very nice suburb and meets almost all your criteria. Downtown is less than 40 mins from here, the schools are decent, there's a mosque and an Islamic school in Villa Park(suburb next to Lombard), parks, mall, zabihah halal meat shops, grocery markets are also closeby.
I would say go with Plainfield rather than Bolingbrook, even with higher taxes, you will get more for your dollar in terms of housing, and right now there are deals to be found there because the area was overbuilt, but that situation is not going to last for long if you are planning to be there for 5-6 years. you are looking for newer construction which you will have more selection compared to Bolingbrook.
Yup...Plainfield is an excellent place to buy a house if you are in the market and the schools are also relatively nice.
If you're considering to move to westerm suburbs then I'll recommend Lombard because it is a very nice suburb and meets almost all your criteria. Downtown is less than 40 mins from here, the schools are decent, there's a mosque and an Islamic school in Villa Park(suburb next to Lombard), parks, mall, zabihah halal meat shops, grocery markets are also closeby.
Send me a message if you need more info.
Lombard would be my first pick also. Im just not sure about the high school that falls in Lombard which is Glenbard East I believe isnt it? Its okay. There are two Islamic schools in the area...one of which is a very nice masjid also.
We had to remove Plainfield from our list :( I really liked all the houses that were for sale there within our budget but it seems like quite a long drive from Plainfield to the city.
We have decided to drive around and see what suburbs we like and then see which ones to research further.
I was going nuts searching all the possible suburbs !!!
Go around Schamburg or Hoffman Estates, I don't think it's that expensive, nice high schools. If you're fine with something like 50-55 minutes from Chicago, towns a bit up north like Mundelein, Libertyville, Buffalo Grove and Vernon Hills are nice places to live. High schools in the area are nice too.