Hi Mama's I need some advice. We are currently living in the suburbs of Chicago and we have to move. My husband works downtown and currently has an hour commute. We have 2 kids who attend public school. I work from home so that isn't too much of a problem for location for me. So my question is: move downtown where we can possibly pay more or farther out into the suburbs where our budget is limited? We are looking to rent now while we save for a down payment.
TIA
update: It looks like we are going to be heading closer to the city.
Hi,
My husband and I own a 2 flat in Western Springs. The bottom unit is available for rent. It has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a basement with private laundry and has been remodeled in the last 6 months. The location is in close walking distance to the Western Springs downtown and Metra station.
Western Springs has wonderful public schools and a great park district and pool!
Private message me if you are interested in renting.
Cidny
If you come to the city, I would recommend Old Irving Park or Portage Park...great area for kids, houses with yards, neighborhoods, etc. Good Luck!
Move where you can afford to live comfortably and yet, closer to his work. If you strap yourself into a place, you'll end up hating it. Go someplace where you can be comfortable and happy. Check out the schools and ask neighbors about the schools and area.
Does he work near the Metro line? Can he take the train in at times? That might help relieve some of the stress of sitting on the Dan Ryan or the blasted Eisenhower.
You want to live near enough that you can live comfortably and where the children will get a good education.
We live in Beverly on the South side. We are in East Beverly, in one of the top school districts in the city and has been named a "hot spot" for young families in newspapers and magazines. We have beautiful houses, often with nice, large yards, plenty of nice parks and low property taxes. The metra train runs right through here, and there is a stop within walking distance of any place in the neighborhood.
I have lived in this area all of my life and went to the local public school. We have many friends with young families who have relocated here from other areas in the city and suburbs.
There are a bunch of houses here for rent too, since the real estate market is slow.
Downtown would be unbelievably expensive and not very neighborly, so I wouldn't suggest it.
Anyway it looks like you have gotten a lot of info yo start your research! Good Luck!
Hello Tia,
We live iat the edge of Chicago, near Cumberland and Belmont, right next to River Grove & Elmwood Park. My husband can walk to the River Grove Metra Station in about fifteen minutes, and he works downtown. We buy a monthly parking card from River Grove at 15/month, and the monthly train pass costs about 95/month. The comfortable middle class homes for sale here are plentiful, and are reasonably priced, due to the downturn in home sales. Public schools here are okay, but I think any suburban school would be better.
Franklin Park has great public schools, and the Metra runs through the middle of it. There are lots of comfortable nice middle class homes there for sale. They have a wonderful library that links up with many of the other suburbs, too.
Hi - we made a family decision to be in the city. Felt the trade-offs were worth the additional family time and frankly the taxes in the city are way lower than what we encountered looking in the suburbs. Children are 3rd grade and 5th grade. We are in old town, love our neighbors. Schools can be tricky, you have to put some work and research into it, but CPS has opened some AMAZING schools under the Renaissance 2010 initiative. There are also great neighborhood schools and charters. Get on their website and check it out.
There are many great family friendly neighborhoods in Chicago and great neighborhood schools. I'm in Edgewater - 20 minutes to downtown on EL.
Great neighborhood schools, park, lakefront, restaurants, grocery, libraries.
Then you can get really close to city in some of the surrounding burbs. I have friends who live in Oak Park, Berwyn, Evanston, Skokie. All have short commutes via EL into city and live in awesome neighborhoods.
I'm sure you already know how many good school districts there are in the Chicago suburbs, so fortunately, there are a lot of great communities that you may love. I'm from Texas originally (no public train system), and so the Metra system is something I believe is fantastic. I commuted on the train downtown from our home in Western Springs for 3 years before our kids were born, and I loved it. It provided natural preparation and decompression time before and after the professional part of my life.
We made proximity to downtown a priority, because Chicago is an amazing city, and we didn't want to miss out on shows, restaurants, the lake and museums. We also wanted to be able to go on vacations without it including a horrible trip to the airport. That's how we ended up here: 5 minutes to the train, 30 minutes to O'Hare, 30 minutes to downtown, 20 minutes to Midway. We've been here 16 years, and absolutely love it. I'm glad we put so much thought into where we would want to be in the long run.
I suggest sitting down with your husband and making a list of your important priorities and lifestyle preferences. Some of those lists of "Best Places to Live" in the magazines may help you think of things you'd otherwise overlook.
Good luck! I hope you find a great place to put down roots for your family!
oak park for sure...the metra, the el and the eisenhower all run through oak park and great schools, great neighborhoods and a great small town feel right next door to chicago.
Riverside is worth checking out. Kind of a hidden gem with a historic small town atmosphere. It has some of the best schools in the state and is a 20 minutes metra ride to downtown. There houses range from $300K to over a million.
If space is important to you...then I'd move farther out to more for your money.
