Chicago Area Real Estate Advice

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warpdriv

warpdriv

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Hi Everyone,

I may have a job opportunity in Chicago. So I'm starting to research what area to buy a house. I'm looking for:
* 1/2 acre lot, I need room for my cruisers, trailer, shop, ect
* not far from a rail station. I would like to commute into the town on rail.
* 3,2,2 around 2000 sqft or bigger
* 200k price

Thank you for your help,
 
Got kids? There are places with s***ty schools you might be able to meet those criteria.

If the market has gone down enough in Plainfield you might be able to find something. You're going to drive a ways to get to a train station to ride another 45 minutes into the city.
 
Yes, but we home school. I was looking in Joliet because the route into town has a low number of stops and seems to be more out in the country.
 
He's home schooling...

But joliet is a turd to live in! Id look at west/southwest burbs. as far north as maybe south elgin and as far south as maybe shorewood. The further east you move the more things will cost and the shorter the commute, the farther west you go you will find what you are looking for but the commute will be longer. Id start by looking at train routes and go from there.

The north burbs are expensive and the south burbs are crap.....with expensive, niceness sprinkled in.

Where would you be working?
 
warpdriv said:
I was looking in Joliet because the route into town has a low number of stops and seems to be more out in the country.
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You must be looking at the Heritage Corridor line, yes there are only a few stops but there are only something like three trains in and three out of the city. That sucks, if you miss your train (and that will happen) then you have to wait a while for the next one. I see people in an all out sprint running to that train at Union Station.
 
Metra trains which serve the suburbs have express routes at rush times so the train thing really is not bad even if a line appears to have a lot of stops or is seemingly far away from the city. I use it occasionally and it's like riding a big limo compared to City of Chicago transit or driving yourself in.

I'm by no means a regular contributor to this site, but I've lived in Chicago all my life; at different times South, West, North and in the City. The following towns and areas around these towns come to mind, though the scope of the options available to you is so large it wears me out to think about it. Many more places than this will also work for you.

Round Lake
Wauconda
McHenry
Fox River Grove
West Chicago
New Lenox-Manhattan
Homewood (and if for no other reason, the original Aurelio's Pizza is there, yum)

There will also be a lot in these towns that don't meet your criteria but these places will have some homes with what you are prioritizing.

Good luck. Feel free to PM me if you want to connect to talk about Chicago.

Duke
 
Lots of solid advice here so far. There are some North and NW Suburbs that are reasonably priced but they are farther from the city. The Woodstock, Marengo, Hampshire, area is nice and have a Metra line nearby. Some towns west of Gurnee are decent but the housing prices are a little steeper. Northbrook has some in your price range but lot size is an issue there.

The only thing good that ever came out of Joliet is.....umm, uh,.....you'll have to give me a little bit. I'm having a hard time with that one.
 
Manhattan is the last stop on the Metra Southwest Service line although we only get about 4-5 trains a day, a couple on Saturday and no service on Sunday. I believe Manhattan meets all you your criteria and 1/2 acre lots should not be hard to come by. Towns near there are Elwood, New Lenox (also good), Wilton Center, Frankfort, and Mokena. I personally wold stay away from Joliet unless you really investigate the area first. It has it's good and bad areas. Don't just think about schools but also who your kids will be hanging around with. Some bad influence can be had in Joliet especially depending on the area.

New lenox has both the Metra rock island line and Metar southwest line running through it. Rock Island has many trains 7 days a week and is a short commute from all the towns I listed. Mokena also has their own Rock Island station. Your price might be harder to meet in Mokena, Frankfort, or New Lenox though.
 
Yeah, Northbrook is pretty pricey. There are a few in Wildwood that would meet your requirements(maybe not quite half an acre though), but it is unincorporated so no problem with rigs in the yard. Or you could jump just north if the Ill/Wisco. Border into Sun Prarie and prolly find exactly what you are looking for.
 
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4rnr said:
:eek:

Ill take 2 please.
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Gumby said:
I think Phil missed a 0 in the op's price range.
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racedirt1 said:
Yeah, Northbrook is pretty pricey. There are a few in Wilwood that would meet your requirements(maybe not quite half an acre though), but it is unincorporated so no problem with rigs in the yard. Or you could jump just north if the Ill/Wisco. Border into Sun Prarie and prolly find exactly what you are looking for.
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My buddy who does real estate just picked up a short sale/foreclosure for 250k. Older house in the older section of Northbrook.

Manhattan IL. rocks!! The worlds best St. Pats Parade ever! I don't remember what happened specifically but then that's why I banned myself from whiskey.
 
There are a lot of good size lots in the price range you are looking at but they are usually further out from the city. Typically you would want consider a good school district even if you don’t utilize it (no kids in school or home school) because of resale value. Also look into the county that it is in because the taxes vary quite a bit from Cook to Will and Dupage, I am in Will and you don’t want to know what I pay in taxes. If I had the same house in Cook it would be less.


Duke, I grew up in Flossmoor in the 70’s and 80’s and went the original Aurelio's Pizza all the time; great pizza! Luckily there is another one close by to me now and they are popping up all over the place.
 
Scott_sFZJ80 said:
I am in Will and you don’t want to know what I pay in taxes. If I had the same house in Cook it would be less.
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As far as I know, cook is more. It depends on where you live in Will County. I know University Park and Monee have the highest taxes in Will County.
 
I live in that one lower-valued sub-division in Northbrook. You can buy a 1100SF ranch with a full basement for about $275k now. It's a great area with good people and good schools, plus convenient to everything, but it's not what the OP is looking for.

I would look in the Elgin area and west. Nice big lots and home for right around $300k -- with some even being less.

I guess it all depends on where you have to commute to work at...

did you ever tell us?
 
Thank you everyone for the advice so far. I went to maps.google.com and searched on Real Estate near Chicago, IL. Very cool, that it came up with all the listings.
 
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