Comments ( 28 )

• I was going to try and make the open house this past Sunday (along with another place right by here that is a few bucks cheaper).
  as a die-hard chicagoan born and raised three generations deep my wife and i have been arguing over if we should do the “flee to the burbs” for the schools. I in my heart dont think i can leave Chicago but I, having gone through the CPS system, really want better for our kids.
  Joseph Sears and new trier are the tops for a double team school district (k-12).

  But a question that i have is the about the people and community here. We are very active in our community and park system where we are at now and would like to continue that in the new area we move to.
  what we are worried about in kenilworth is that we are not the typical, for lack of a better phrase “white bread” people. I come from a lower middle class hard working family, my wife from another country. The wife is the overly tattoo’d girl you can spot every five feet in wicker park/bucktown, our sons god parents are a Gay couple, and some of my friends are “rough around the edges”.
  we want the best for our kids but to stretch our budget to buy a home here we are worried that it might be a nightmare for us in kenilworth. will it?

  we welcome all comments

• Groove77,

  In describing yourself you’ve described more people who live in Kenilworth than you’d suspect.

  My suggestion would be to take a hard look at Wilmette, which is a larger community that’s also very welcoming to a wide range of people. The schools are also great, including New Trier, and you have a broader number of ways to get involved in the community. Also, you’ll get a lot more house for the money in most parts of Wilmette than you would in Kenilworth and can probably find something at a price point you’re more cmofortable with.

  I know quite a few people in Wilmette that can barely afford to live there but do so because of the opportunities it affords their kids. Spend some time in Wilmette and see what you think. I’m guessing you’ll like it and your wife will too.

• thanks Joe,

  Willmete, Glencoe, Highland park are on my wife’s short list. As for me I am stubborn and will only leave the city for a top Elementary/Middle school. (high school we have a many years before we panic).

  this is are biggest worry about a suburban home like Kenilworth: to put us in a 600k home, my wife will have to go back to work, our “out and about” lifestyle will need to be cut back a lot, our stupid spending habits will be cut back oh so much. We wont mind major sacrifices like this for a our little one and future little ones. But if the wife and I our miserable our home will be miserable and that would be just as bad as a bad CPS school for the the kids.
  We are very community involved and for us to be “outcast” or “black sheep” in a new community would suck for us.
  We love where we are at but are keeping our options open, we dont want to short change the kids future or ourselfs.

• The phrase “homes are surprisingly affordable” in the same article where a 599K house is shown. Sorry, but that is not affordable to the average buyer. (And that is not even factoring in the property taxes)

  I did a quick search on 3 Bedroom homes in Kenilworth for under 600K, came back with three results with the cheapest being 490K. (Perhaps all the great deals have already been bought up?)

  Great area though, just not for the average Joe.

• Dan,

  I meant “affordable” only from the standpoint of what people’s perception of Kenilworth is. I realize that’s not a mainstream price.

  Groove77,

  Come up to Wilmette on a weekend and watch some soccer games. Just hang around and talk to people. It’s easy and you’ll get a feel for who lives here and how they react to you and your wife. Stop in at the French Market in downtown Wilmette along the train station. Mingle with the crowd. Visit a few spots in downtown Wilmette.

  A quick search turns up 56 Wilmette homes at $500k and under. Consider buying for $400–500k in Wilmette instead of $600k in Kenilworth. Get a quote on insurance to see how much lower your costs will be when you leave the city. Note the cost of gas in the suburbs vs the city and the sales tax differential and the cost of other items. Etc. etc.

  I moved to Wilmette for my kids after having been a lifelong suburb hater. Never had a moment’s regret.

• Joe,

  Wilmette is sweet area, i would walk around while my car was getting fixed at imperial motors on lake and green bay. (hated going to orloff). one time while waiting i ate my lunch in the park just west of there, dont know the name
  I also frequent the secret beach on chestnut. its usually empty and extremely relaxing.
  the wife and I also stop in winnetka/glencoe, on the way to botanic gardens or raivnia, at those shops on green bay. can never remember the name of the vintage toy store there but we always leave with a bunch of stuff.

  We like the north shore, disappointed in the lake of diversity for our tastes, but a great place to raise a family. but to quote myself above “As for me I am stubborn and will only leave the city for a top Elementary/Middle school” with wilmette/glencoe/HP i can find a comparable Elem/middle schools in chicago. (now finding a High school in Chicago is another story).

  this is a big debate in our house, and we go back and forth on all the issues, and when my parents chime in with the whole “your granparents grew up in chicago, we grew up in chicago, and your grew up here and all of us turned out fine” doesnt help my wife argument.

• Groove77,
  We might be neighbors soon… I’ve been agonizing over a possible move to Wilmette for months. The market timing for a house in the $400-$450 range is very good for central Wilmette less than a mile from the Metra stop and I’ve viewed homes I wanted to buy.
  It’s the ONLY suburb I will consider for many of the reasons Joe talks about.

  But the wife and I love our current home in Ravenswood and just had our second kid. Prepping the home and showing with the two kids… well, let’s just say that’s low on the “to do” list. It’s not a situation where we don’t like our place or we’re outgrowing it… it’s more about thinking of what’s best for the future. My wife is in no hurry to jet. For now, our oldest is in line for our local Catholic School in 1 1/2 years (which we are excited about).

  My instincts are good and I just get sick thinking of some of the houses I’ve missed.

  It just seems like the right time. Oh well… I can’t help myself.

• BTW, I like this house. Kitchen is small, but it has other trigger points for my wife… especially the outdoor space and hot tub. I’d like a little more plain grass in the yard for the kids too.

• Eric,
  I hear you, its hard knowing your dollar goes further now concerning homes. For you if you stay and do the private school route your dropping $$$ for two kids now. St. Bens is a good school over by you, but there are better public options out there.
  If we were to put wilmette on our list i would have to put Naperville, Elmhurst, and Mt Prospect higher. more bang for the buck plus cheaper cost of living.

  I am in the same situation as you, its not that i dont like my place or hood, i just dont want to short change my kids future.

  our top 4 on the list are
  *Kenilworth-for the sears and new trier combo (only three homes below 600k)
  *LincolnShire-for the Daniel wrigth/Adai E Stevenson combo (so far out but it gets you out of crook county)
  *River Forest-for its amasing elem/middle schools, bieng close to chicago and the diverity in neighbor oak park (High school on a downward trend)
  *Wheaton-has many good schools (so boring there)

• Groove77,
  Because of my business, the closer to the city the better for me. So, we are a little limited in suburb choice. Plus, in Wilmette I can get close to the lake and Evanston downtown… and it’s just got that certain something that sets it apart from suburbs off the lake.
  As for schools where we are at now, it’s really important to us that the kids can walk to school (with us, or au pair/nanny etc…). So, we are pretty happy with St. Mathias as an option.

  The kids could probably get a “better” public school than our current attendance boundary school, but we’d have to drive and pick-up every day. Not the city lifestyle we want.

  Wheaton…Lincolnshire? Oh, man.

• i know wheaton and lincolnshire are way out for this chicago kid, but the schools man the schools!
  we are leaning towards River Forest to be closer and will make my commute easier than the others.

  who knows at this point we may just stay where we are at and work even harder to make our local school the best. its hard when most of the parents in our hood are not that involved.

• Groove77,

  My CEO went to Oak Park / River Forest high school, as did both of his kids. They all speak highly of it and the kids are now in good colleges.

  A few committed parents can make a major change in a city elementary school. Round up a few more like yourself and make the effort.

• I have not looked at River Forest and for some reason have not considered Oak Park even though we can get the nice house, nice school combo as some frined have done recently.
  I think my gut says if I’m going to leave my duplex in a great Chicago location it will be for a little “exclusivity” of the larger leafy lots of the North Shore (plus keep the lakefront close).

  By the way, I’m copping out on the make the local schools better myself effort. I just don’t feel like dealing with CPS, the boards, the politics (this coming from a political science major). There’s too many diverging interests and policies. Too big of a system. I guess we’ll buy in to a more like minded community when it comes to school, private or public.

• Joe Z,

  OP/RV High School has always been good it the last 7 years its been on a decline and the last three its having gang problems. but it still is a good school and can turn around.
  we have a few parents rounded up already, but we are really positioning ourselves to get the little ones into the magent school i went to. Oh how life’s priorities change with rug rats 🙂

  Eric,
  i hear you about dealing with CPS, it was my moms full time job, the hoops, phone calls, meetings, just to get me in good elemetary school, (high school was worse).

  the lake front in the north shore is nothing like chicago, yeah the carve out sections for the residents but its mostly private property.

• Don’t forget to factor in the relatively higher, as a percentage of sales price, property taxes in most suburbs that were mentioned here.

  In Chicago you will pay about 1.1-1.3 percent of purchase price as property tax. Obviously that varies greatly based on neighborhood and voodoo reassessments which even the insiders can’t understand. I’m too lazy to look, but my guess is that in some of those suburbs mentioned the taxes are relatively higher.

  The downtown Chicago area still provides a tremendous tax base for the rest of the city.

  There are some great public schools in the city with attendance boundaries in good neighborhoods. The Southport corridor. The area around St. Ben’s church and some others I’m not familiar with.

  I don’t have any kids, at least any that acknowledge me as their father, but if I do I think the greater Ravenswood area is arguably the best neighborhood in the city to raise a kid. Some good public and private schools. Excellent public transportation. Plenty of neighborhood amenities like pancake joints, top rated restaurants and everything in between. Decent amount of diversity. Good density, but not as dense as parts of Lincoln Park or Lakeview.

  I live in Uptown because I value the proximity to the lake and the occasional street brawl, but if I had any kids I think I would channel my inner Horace Greeley and head west.

  Don’t give up on the city yet. There are trade offs to everything, but the city does provide excellent options in the price ranges that were mentioned.

• For an outstanding introduction to Ravenswood, I recommend our visit and revisit there with Prudential Rubloff’s Eric Rojas. Another “don’t miss” is Sudler Sotheby’s Chris Moran‘s walk through Ravenswood Manor and Ravenswood Gardens, including the Waters Elementary School grounds.

• Interesting addition to IP’s tax note above. In SW Evanston the houses are similar to West Rogers Park but much cheaper (100k or more for comparable’s), however the taxes are between 1/4 and 1/3 more in Evanston, with (some) poorer basic services like snow removal – city sold it’s stock of salt to NU at end of season only to be slammed by a big storm with no salt on hand. I don’t think the schools alone are worth it (proud CPS grad).

• IP,

  Yes, plenty of good CPS attendance schools. Blaine, Bell, Burely, Hamilton, Alcott etc… far enough east for us. But properties similar to mine are $100K more minimum with higher taxes. Forget a house from me in any of those districts. You can barely get a decent three bedroom condo in Blaine for $400K let alone stuff two kids in one.

  For our family,Ravenswood does offer us the best combo of city life, amenity, huge parks and affordable private schools nearby (we are going Catholic, but many people who need a secular private school are looking at bigger bucks) and housing options. We are not crazy about the attendance boundary schools.

  As a nice single family home becomes possible in the near future, we’ve already decided we would not move anywhere else in the city. We love it here. We just spent another awesome evening walking Lincoln Square’s commercial stretch. Pure city bliss. Great neighbors.

  However, there is always the “what’s best for the kids” and at this exact moment in time, I can get a nicer house in a better school district in Wilmete that would be awesome for the kids and close enough to the city for my business.
  So, I have to window shop at least… right?

• Eric,

  I just can’t imagine your kids riding the city street in with their bikes after school, once they get old enough to ride alone of course.

  One thing that always strikes me about the Northside neighborhoods of the city is how few teenagers you see. All weekend long you can witness strollers moving up and down the city block, however when it comes to teenagers there are much fewer of them strolling around Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square, Lakeview, Roscoe Village, etc.

  Has anyone else noticed a lack of teenagers compared to the suburbs?

• Dan,
  It’s obvious that alien life forms feed on our city’s teenagers. Am I the only one who knows these things?

• Dan,

  Lack of teen’s in the city is due to the lack of any local CPS high school that is acceptable. so at that age the parents flee to the burbs. The only good CPS schools are test in schools that are extremely difficult to get into. (trib had a good article of a girl trying to get in payton prep).

  so these supper smart kids that get into these test in schools are so busy studying there is no time to be outdoors. some of the rest are infront of a tv or playstaion. then the rest of the rest are being eaten by mars space folk!

• Hi Groove77,

  In full disclosure, I am YoJoe’s daughter and just ran into this post. I grew up in Wilmette and was happy that my parents picked Wilmette over other suburbs. I understand your concerns about the elementary schools and I just wanted to give you a view of someone who grew up in the Wilmette School District.

  I went to Romona Elementary in west Wilmette and from that experience, I think that I had a leg up from some of the Kenilworth kids, while still getting a great education. When transitioning to New Trier, I knew more of the kids that I was going to high school with and this made the transition to a bigger school so much easier for me.

• thank you YoLittleJoeDaughter,

  good point on the transition thing, new trier is a huge school so from a small tight-nit elem to a huge High school can be a shock.
  We are planning on going to a open house in River Forest this weekend we may swing by Wilmette for one too if there are any i our price range.

• Dan,
  If you are in the northwest like Norwood Park, Edison Park, Jefferson Park, Portgage Park and around the retail in those areas… you probably see more “typical teenagers” in your mind hanging out. They are in YMCA, church, park district, high school programs… they work a lot too. I grew up playing with my cousins around Harlem/Irving Plaza and in Portage Park while teens.

  In Lincoln Park, Lakeview and the like, Groove77 is right. There are few spots in the good schools and houses are just too expensive. The parents with teens in “hot” neighborhoods that I know are pretty well-to-do most of the time. A handful in these parents with modest incomes in typically more expensive neighborhoods are Chicago lifers who had kids get into the Paytons and Northside preps by testing (or go to Catholic School). One family friend had three kids go through magnet schools (one got into Payton, but decided to go to Lane Tech while his sister was in the first graduating class of North Side Prep). Another lifer friend’s youngest daughter graduated from Payton last year.

  Also, if you want teenagers, just stand outside Amundson High School in Ravenswood at 3PM. Or Lakeview High… or Lane Tech, or Lincoln Park High. It would be an interesting sociological study to track what these kids do after leaving their high school doors.

• Why no love for Evanston!? It’s a great Northshore community, a shorter ride on the Metra to downtown and has good schools. We moved there this summer from the city, partly due to the fact we wanted a “city-like” burb, some diversity and not as many LandRovers cruising around the neighborhood (like you’ll find just north of Evanston). Sure, the taxes are a bit higher, but it’s a strong school system. We’ve really enjoyed it so far, especially the friendliness of the neighborhoods.

• JGM,

  I like parts of Evanston a lot – especially the area around Central St just west of Green Bay.

• I visited the new Winthrop Club high-rise in Evanston earlier this week. We’re still editing the footage from that visit, but maybe some of our videos will spark some discussion about the city (if it doesn’t start up in this thread first).

• Groove,

  I wouldn’t worry about not fitting in. I lived in that area for a few years after growing up in Chicago. I moved from Wicker Park (20+ years ago) to Glencoe. If you recall Wicker Pk. 20+ years ago, it was slightly rough around the edges. I basically went from a little bit of a war zone to Mayberry.

  Like anywhere, most people were very friendly and a few were judgmental. I didn’t let the few snobs bother me though. In fact, I was rather amused by those who were slightly jaded. The reality, however, is that I’ve run across similar personalities in the city.

  We moved there because we were thinking of having kids and we wanted them to have a better education. I too went to through the CPS system and I didn’t want my kids to have a similar experience. As it turns out, we didn’t have children so after three years we decided to return to the city. The north shore is nice, but honestly I was a little bored. If I ever returned to the burbs, which I doubt I will, I’d probably consider Evanston. It’s a nice mix of people and there is some nightlife.

  If I were you, I wouldn’t sweat it. I’ve had friends who grew up in Chicago during the 60s and 70s, experimented with all sorts of things and relocated the burbs so that their kids could have a decent education. They love it and they’ve made friends with their neighbors who have been life long suburbanites.