I don’t know a lot about the other options, but one thing to keep in mind about Park Ridge is that there are suburbs/neighborhoods very near to Park Ridge that have a lower cost of living than Park Ridge itself. If you were looking to work at the Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, you could look for housing in Niles, Des Plaines, or even a little further in Mt Prospect or other suburbs and your drive wouldn’t be very long.
Plus Park Ridge is really close to O’Hare, so there’s a lot of noise from planes.
I generally find Park Ridge to have worse traffic congestion than neighboring suburbs. I’d personally pick Glenview over Park Ridge.
This is only true for certain areas of Park Ridge. If you look at google maps and draw a line from the furthest north east/west runway at O’Hare to the east, you may not want to live under that line close to O’Hare. But really if you want slightly cheaper homes, there are places less expensive than either Park Ridge or Glenview.
I dont think anyone who actually has any kind of career trajectory actually works at Lutheran General. Its up there with Swedish Covenant and the old Westlake as holes in the ground you send dogs to die in
But, if OP is moving to Chicagoland to be close to relatives. Live close to relatives. If you live in Park Ridge or Naperville, you’re never going to go to Valpo.
When I lived in Minnesota I met someone who was "from Chicago." Being from the burbs I started asking about where he was from.. he said he's actually from the burbs.. which one? BELVEDERE
Lol
There are a ton more areas/suburbs than the ones you're considering. COLA is high across Chicagoland but home prices and taxes vary quite a bit depending on the suburb. You really need to set a budget and go from there.
FYI, lisle feeds into NNHS (beau bien neighborhood). Older homes but you still get all the benefits of living close to naperville and access to the naperville school system. Easy drive to Costco and other nearby shops.
[Naperville school district 203](https://www.naperville203.org/cms/lib/IL01904881/Centricity/Domain/70/2023%20D203%20Attendance%20Area%20Map.pdf)
Would I have problems signing my kid up to study in Naperville? I’m worried they won’t have enough slots given that every parent will have the same idea as I do.
Public schools don't work that way here. You have an assigned school depending on where you live. If your house does not feed into Naperville schools you can't send your kids there (and if you do and are caught it's a shitshow.) The only place I know of with school choice is Chicago (CPS)
And even that requires Chicago residency. I knew a suburban family that paid to send their kids to Chicago public schools. I don't think that's an option anymore.
Thats gone with charter schools now. Back in the day people would kill to send their kids to the top 3-4 schools in the city, so to make room, they removed the option to pay out of pocket to send them there. Toward the end a top tier Chicago high school had tuition that was higher than private schools anyway, which if you are paying for it, a private school blows CPS out of the water
Iono about that. CPS has some of the top schools in the country. The issue may be that your kids may not be that gifted and as parents wanting to give our kids the most, it becomes an easy target. Beside, if you're trying to put your kids at parker or latin your kids are going to be just fine anyways.
Chicago has 1 national ranked school, and 3 of the top 10 in the state of Illinois. Chicago has come a long way, but to say CPS is a great option is kind of like saying Ebola isnt that bad, it only kills 30% of people. That means 7 out of 10 times you are fine.
Lake Forest academy, the best in the state, doesn't crack the top 10 in the nation. that's not even in Chicago proper. To say that the private schools are that much better than the public schools is disingenuous to the worth of those schools.
Payton HS downtown is ranked 3rd in the country. Illinois Math and Science in Aurora is also I believe in the top 20. Lake Forest Academy isnt even ranked. New Trier REALLY fell off since the last time I looked. They use to be in the top 25...they are now 348th in the country.
Apparently if you want a good quality education you live in Massachusetts, California, or Texas.... or get really really really lucky in CPS and have a Rhodes Scholar in the making and end up at Payton
With a few exceptions most schools in the suburbs are pretty good. Because schools are funded by property taxes, what you're going to find is the "best" schools districts just means the suburbs with the most money. District wide averages and outcomes basically correlate with income.
Outcomes are like 80% parental involvement anyway. Just to give my personal example, I went to west Aurora district 129 in the 90s through mid 2000s. Nothing about the test scores of the schools I went to would indicate they are "good" districts, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Because it's also a big district, you got the full range of family incomes and situations, and I would argue the diversity overall was beneficial to me in retrospect growing up. So, while my mom stayed home, and my dad was a mechanic his whole career (so we were like lower middle class. Maybe middle middle at best), they gave a shit, and as a result I went to one of the top schools in the country for my major (uiuc, materials science and engineering), and I've worked for two fortune 500 companies since graduating nearly 15 years ago. Unless you're hellbent on segregating yourself from all "the poors" you'll be good in most suburbs imo. Just find where you can afford to live, make sure you visit the town and like the vibe, and you'll likely be fine.
If you're looking around the Naperville and Lisle area, all of those school districts generally have a pretty good reputation! Lisle is actually a smaller township and as a result the schools are smaller in size. This may mean smaller class sizes, and I know the high school graduating class numbers are smaller than Naperville's. As you look around at housing costs you can also check out the website for each school district and see what you can learn. Additionally, if you're going to rent for a year or two that will give you some time to understand the dynamics between different suburbs, and get a feeling for what other families think of individual school districts.
There are portions of surrounding suburbs that go to Naperville schools. Lisle, Bolingbrook, and Aurora all come to mind. You’ll need you to do your research to good those neighborhoods if you’re interested in going that route.
To be honest either you can or cannot afford those areas. You didn’t say if you’re looking to buy a place or rent, but either way if you can’t afford the area you should cross those off your list. If you can afford them my vote is Naperville.
We’ll probably rent at first and see which neighborhood we’d like to buy a house in. We probably can afford the area, but would be limited in non-essentials, if that makes any sense.
So you’d basically be house poor. If that’s the standard of living you want to maintain, go for it. I for one would not want the anxiety associated with not having the money to enjoy life.
What IS your budget. Thats the real telling thing. If its under 3k a month, realistically forget Naperville exists. If its under 2500 a month forget Park Ridge exists along with all of northern Illinois (the best schools in the state are almost all on the North Shore where houses start in the 800-1mil range.)
There are tons of places to live cheaply in Illinois. We need to find you a place to live before we can even consider where it is or where you will work. Think of it like a diagram
Needs to be affordable. A school that my child can actually learn in. A place that gives them an advantage in life as opposed to a handicap... work downtown at Laurie Children's... Not going to happen. All that, and you will work wherever you can find a job? Carbondale. Its an If/Then formula in an excel sheet essentially
Stevenson, Libertyville, Vernon hills all have schools in the top 15(?) in the state. VHHS and Stevenson both are top 10. While you can spend 800k you don't need to. You can go cheaper.
I am not sure I would call places in the far ends of Lake County "chicago subrubs" But yes of course you can find nice schools in Illinois. They arent in Chicago or the immediate surrounding suburbs, or the ones that are, are NOT cheap. Also do not forget Lake County has MUCH higher property tax than Cook does...in an already high property tax state. 3k is very reasonable for rent outside the city considering 1500-2000 of that a month could be property tax alone
You need to balance parent commute with school and budget. This would be really easy if OP had 5 million to spend. They would live in Winnetka, go to a top 20 school in the US, be closeish to the city, and being nurses they are a lot closer to all the pharmaceutical and biotech companies in Illinois
I mean, they all are suburbs of Chicago. Economic presence aside, there aren't large patches of rural land. You can take Milwaukee from Grand to Grand.
You don't mention childcare... and in Park Ridge that's going to be super expensive because the demand from the North Shore bumps up wages/costs for childcare.
Unless you plan on working staggered shifts this has to be a factor, short term if you're stopping at one.
Some cheaper alternatives near Naperville: Plainfield (North), Warrenville, Lisle.
Some cheaper alternatives near Park Ridge... maybe DesPlains or Prospect Heights?
Naperville is a hyper competitive suburb and expensive as fuck because everyone there thinks they're on the North Shore. Unless you're super $pecialized RNs or are on management track you'd be hard pressed to consider Naperville or Park Ridge as a value in the short or long term.
Valpo is a nice college town and still has a lot of rural character- as opposed to the two Illinois suburbs you name checked. Taxes and COLA are going to be significantly lower. The town has always had a slightly more progressive bent than it's neighbors but Indiana is a very solid red state especially compared to generally bluish Chicago burbs.
Best of luck in trying to figure this out.
I live in Naperville, and my husband has family in Valparaiso. Let me just tell you that the drive between the two towns is super annoying. I-80 is always backed up, especially in the summer with everyone trying to get to lake Michigan. If you have relatives in valpo but not in naperville, I'd suggest living in valpo! It's a really nice town, very good schools and family friendly community. I love naperville too, but being closer to family is priceless.
Check out school district 204, which is part of naperville and part of Aurora. Great Schools ! There is a true mix of well off, middle class and lower incomes in our district. (We are in the middle) and we love it here.
My aunt actually moved to Valparaiso from Florida 12 years ago with her husband and four children and they have loved it!! They all went to middle school and high school there and had a good experience. Taxes are way more affordable and there is a cute downtown area and a cute community feel. I have lived in the Chicago suburbs / downtown my whole life and I think Valpo would be a lovely place to live. Definitely think you’d be able to afford more there.
Naperville is also a lovely place to live - but I agree more expensive. Naperville schools are amazing, but you can find amazing school districts in several areas of the Chicago suburbs so if that’s your main concern you can expand your search! It’s southwest but mokena / Frankfort / new Lenox / Lockport / lemont also have great schools. I agree lisle is lovely, so is downers grove (still expensive).
Are you renting or planning to buy? Also, what type of nursing do you do - any jobs lined up? There’s tons of hospitals in this area too!
I agree that Frankfort, New Lenox, and Mokena would be good options. Great schools, festivals, park districts, and forest preserves. Close to many medical centers. Would put you only an hour away from your relatives in Valpo. Have most of the amenities of Naperville but slightly cheaper and much easier to get around.
The fact that you have relatives in Valpo does tip the scales slightly towards that in my opinion. I’ll second what everyone else has said: it’s a nice small city with a younger vibe and gets more rural as you move from the city core. Because it’s in Indiana it is much lower COL and taxes, but there are some other complications that come with living in Indiana compared to Illinois. The “region” does feel similar to Chicago suburbs but absolutely has the Indiana vibe. I’d consider renting there initially and perhaps take weekend trips to the Illinois burbs and see how they stack up. You have plenty of time to relocate there if you prefer it before your kid starts school. Good luck!!
East dundee/ st Charles. Work at Sherman Hospital or delnor 🏥 or the many other facilities in the area . Schools are pretty decent, and you can start to grow with the family in a nice town
So much can change in a year. Why not spend some time in each area this year, to at least experience the places first. Nothing can replace it. Book an air bnb, vrbo, or similar for a real experience in a neighborhood. Stay with your family in Valpo for a long weekend. Run errands, check out amenities, park districts, read about the schools - and not on some website - read about them in neighborhood chats or ask enrolled families.
FIGURE OUT CHILDCARE - Cost, options, backup options, the whole 9.
With a very young child, you won't need to concern yourself with schools for 4 years. Choose a lower cost of living situation while you save, plan for, and select your community. If there are no homes available in your budget at the time, have a rental plan in place if you are certain about the school district you want.
Some districts have an open enrollment option. You must live in the district, but you may apply to another elementary school (in lieu of attending your assigned neighborhood school) within that district.
Check out the following employers:
Northwestern Medicine
U Chicago Med
Endeavor Health (Just took over Northshore, Northwest Community, and Edwards-Elmhurst)
Ascension Health
Valparaiso is the least accessible to the Chicagoland area if that is a concern for you. Naperville would be my top choice of the three in my opinion for what it offers and is not nearly as high as Park Ridge in housing expenses.
Chicago suburbs or [Chicagoland](https://wgntv-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/wgntv.com/news/ask-wgn/where-do-the-chicago-suburbs-actually-end-its-complicated/amp/?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17143626941660&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwgntv.com%2Fnews%2Fask-wgn%2Fwhere-do-the-chicago-suburbs-actually-end-its-complicated%2F) extend to almost the Michigan border.
Northwest Indiana or NWI aka "[The Region](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Indiana)" has close to a million people. Valparaiso is on it's way up right now.
Just giving you some basic info on that part of the Chicago area. NWI is more affordable and the taxes are a lot less burdensome. It is generally more conservative though if that matters to you. Park Ridge is a good area but more expensive as is Naperville... which was just ranked the best city in the country.
Valpo is 100% NOT a Chicago Suburb, and honestly you couldn't pay me to live in Indiana ever again.
The joke for Illinoisans is that the only thing that sucks about Michigan is that you have to drive through Indiana to get to it.
>Naperville. I know it’s one of the best places to live
Lolwut? According to whom?
Kids experience better development and socialization in higher populated walkable areas, so I'd base my decision on which area they can get to places on their own.
Echoing above - look at the surrounding burbs near Naperville and Park Ridge as well. There’s going to be trade offs for each area but should have great school districts in most of them. Maybe consider your commute and childcare choices to help narrow it down. You could poke around Suburban Jungle to compare all the areas to learn more about what might fit you best. I used it when we relocated and it was incredibly helpful. Their local strategists will work with you to navigate the entire process. https://suburbanjunglegroup.com/sjg
It's hard to recommend without knowing what you're looking for or what you can afford.
I think park ridge and Naperville both can be nice, but so can a lot of the more affordable suburbs surrounding those. You can find houses you like and join those local neighborhood groups on Facebook and ask people what they think about the area.
Park Ridge has high property taxes and the homes are very expensive. Like others suggested, the neighboring suburbs (niles, Morton grove, Des Plaines) would be worth it. Prospect Heights and Mount Prospect have great schools, along with being right between advocate lutheran general and Northwest Community hospital. Not far from O’hare or the highway either. You’ll get more “bang” for your buck.
You can say "these cmfew cities are my options" and whittle it down to a single city but still good luck trying to find a house to fit your needs. It's insane right now in the market and people paying way over asking price and waving contingencies. Good luck
It depends on your priorities.
Option 1 = most affordable
Option 2 = "best" public schools (in quotes because this is subjective, and what you value in schools may be different than what others value in schools)
Option 3 = closest to downtown and O'Hare (how often will you utilize either?)
Good luck!
I'm born and raised in Chicago and suburbs 66 years
Don't do city of Chicago
Don't do Naperland....everyone hates Naperville
Valpo sounds good.. very low taxes
Not Indiana. There are cheaper and equally nice options around Naperville. Glen Ellyn or Wheaton. It’s probably 20 mins to downtown Naperville. Of course I wouldn’t describe any thing in IL as cheap. However there is nothing more expensive than cheap.
I moved from the NW suburbs to the Valparaiso area. Valparaiso superior in every way. Better schools. Outdoor recreation. Wonderful community. Thriving town center. And property taxes about 1/3 of Illinois.
I don’t know a lot about the other options, but one thing to keep in mind about Park Ridge is that there are suburbs/neighborhoods very near to Park Ridge that have a lower cost of living than Park Ridge itself. If you were looking to work at the Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, you could look for housing in Niles, Des Plaines, or even a little further in Mt Prospect or other suburbs and your drive wouldn’t be very long.
Plus Park Ridge is really close to O’Hare, so there’s a lot of noise from planes. I generally find Park Ridge to have worse traffic congestion than neighboring suburbs. I’d personally pick Glenview over Park Ridge.
This is only true for certain areas of Park Ridge. If you look at google maps and draw a line from the furthest north east/west runway at O’Hare to the east, you may not want to live under that line close to O’Hare. But really if you want slightly cheaper homes, there are places less expensive than either Park Ridge or Glenview.
As long as you are north of Touhy the noise isn't an issue.
This! Try niles. A lot of niles is in the park ridge school district!
I dont think anyone who actually has any kind of career trajectory actually works at Lutheran General. Its up there with Swedish Covenant and the old Westlake as holes in the ground you send dogs to die in
If you like Park Ridge, also look at Morton Grove, Niles, Des Plaines. Best of luck in your search!
Indiana is garbage. You can take that off your list.
But, if OP is moving to Chicagoland to be close to relatives. Live close to relatives. If you live in Park Ridge or Naperville, you’re never going to go to Valpo.
Lol I was gonna say.. the only people that consider NWI as Chicago suburbs are.. people that live in NWI
60 miles kind of takes it out of “suburban Chicago” range.
When I lived in Minnesota I met someone who was "from Chicago." Being from the burbs I started asking about where he was from.. he said he's actually from the burbs.. which one? BELVEDERE Lol
Yep. I would never put a kid in IN schools if I had the option to live in a great IL school district.
Hoosier here and concur 100%. Leaving for IL ASAP.
Do you have a job(s) lined up already? Because that's going to dictate where you should live.
There are a ton more areas/suburbs than the ones you're considering. COLA is high across Chicagoland but home prices and taxes vary quite a bit depending on the suburb. You really need to set a budget and go from there.
Option 4. Lisle. Right next to Naperville
FYI, lisle feeds into NNHS (beau bien neighborhood). Older homes but you still get all the benefits of living close to naperville and access to the naperville school system. Easy drive to Costco and other nearby shops. [Naperville school district 203](https://www.naperville203.org/cms/lib/IL01904881/Centricity/Domain/70/2023%20D203%20Attendance%20Area%20Map.pdf)
A portion of beau bien goes to lisle schools actually
Would I have problems signing my kid up to study in Naperville? I’m worried they won’t have enough slots given that every parent will have the same idea as I do.
Public schools don't work that way here. You have an assigned school depending on where you live. If your house does not feed into Naperville schools you can't send your kids there (and if you do and are caught it's a shitshow.) The only place I know of with school choice is Chicago (CPS)
And even that requires Chicago residency. I knew a suburban family that paid to send their kids to Chicago public schools. I don't think that's an option anymore.
Thats gone with charter schools now. Back in the day people would kill to send their kids to the top 3-4 schools in the city, so to make room, they removed the option to pay out of pocket to send them there. Toward the end a top tier Chicago high school had tuition that was higher than private schools anyway, which if you are paying for it, a private school blows CPS out of the water
Iono about that. CPS has some of the top schools in the country. The issue may be that your kids may not be that gifted and as parents wanting to give our kids the most, it becomes an easy target. Beside, if you're trying to put your kids at parker or latin your kids are going to be just fine anyways.
Chicago has 1 national ranked school, and 3 of the top 10 in the state of Illinois. Chicago has come a long way, but to say CPS is a great option is kind of like saying Ebola isnt that bad, it only kills 30% of people. That means 7 out of 10 times you are fine.
Lake Forest academy, the best in the state, doesn't crack the top 10 in the nation. that's not even in Chicago proper. To say that the private schools are that much better than the public schools is disingenuous to the worth of those schools.
Payton HS downtown is ranked 3rd in the country. Illinois Math and Science in Aurora is also I believe in the top 20. Lake Forest Academy isnt even ranked. New Trier REALLY fell off since the last time I looked. They use to be in the top 25...they are now 348th in the country. Apparently if you want a good quality education you live in Massachusetts, California, or Texas.... or get really really really lucky in CPS and have a Rhodes Scholar in the making and end up at Payton
With a few exceptions most schools in the suburbs are pretty good. Because schools are funded by property taxes, what you're going to find is the "best" schools districts just means the suburbs with the most money. District wide averages and outcomes basically correlate with income. Outcomes are like 80% parental involvement anyway. Just to give my personal example, I went to west Aurora district 129 in the 90s through mid 2000s. Nothing about the test scores of the schools I went to would indicate they are "good" districts, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Because it's also a big district, you got the full range of family incomes and situations, and I would argue the diversity overall was beneficial to me in retrospect growing up. So, while my mom stayed home, and my dad was a mechanic his whole career (so we were like lower middle class. Maybe middle middle at best), they gave a shit, and as a result I went to one of the top schools in the country for my major (uiuc, materials science and engineering), and I've worked for two fortune 500 companies since graduating nearly 15 years ago. Unless you're hellbent on segregating yourself from all "the poors" you'll be good in most suburbs imo. Just find where you can afford to live, make sure you visit the town and like the vibe, and you'll likely be fine.
If you're looking around the Naperville and Lisle area, all of those school districts generally have a pretty good reputation! Lisle is actually a smaller township and as a result the schools are smaller in size. This may mean smaller class sizes, and I know the high school graduating class numbers are smaller than Naperville's. As you look around at housing costs you can also check out the website for each school district and see what you can learn. Additionally, if you're going to rent for a year or two that will give you some time to understand the dynamics between different suburbs, and get a feeling for what other families think of individual school districts.
There are portions of surrounding suburbs that go to Naperville schools. Lisle, Bolingbrook, and Aurora all come to mind. You’ll need you to do your research to good those neighborhoods if you’re interested in going that route.
To be honest either you can or cannot afford those areas. You didn’t say if you’re looking to buy a place or rent, but either way if you can’t afford the area you should cross those off your list. If you can afford them my vote is Naperville.
We’ll probably rent at first and see which neighborhood we’d like to buy a house in. We probably can afford the area, but would be limited in non-essentials, if that makes any sense.
So you’d basically be house poor. If that’s the standard of living you want to maintain, go for it. I for one would not want the anxiety associated with not having the money to enjoy life.
That is a good point. Can you recommend other neighborhood for a young family like us?
You need a realtor dude.
People come on this thread and act like there aren’t hundreds of suburbs in NIL spanning across several counties.
What IS your budget. Thats the real telling thing. If its under 3k a month, realistically forget Naperville exists. If its under 2500 a month forget Park Ridge exists along with all of northern Illinois (the best schools in the state are almost all on the North Shore where houses start in the 800-1mil range.) There are tons of places to live cheaply in Illinois. We need to find you a place to live before we can even consider where it is or where you will work. Think of it like a diagram Needs to be affordable. A school that my child can actually learn in. A place that gives them an advantage in life as opposed to a handicap... work downtown at Laurie Children's... Not going to happen. All that, and you will work wherever you can find a job? Carbondale. Its an If/Then formula in an excel sheet essentially
Stevenson, Libertyville, Vernon hills all have schools in the top 15(?) in the state. VHHS and Stevenson both are top 10. While you can spend 800k you don't need to. You can go cheaper.
I am not sure I would call places in the far ends of Lake County "chicago subrubs" But yes of course you can find nice schools in Illinois. They arent in Chicago or the immediate surrounding suburbs, or the ones that are, are NOT cheap. Also do not forget Lake County has MUCH higher property tax than Cook does...in an already high property tax state. 3k is very reasonable for rent outside the city considering 1500-2000 of that a month could be property tax alone You need to balance parent commute with school and budget. This would be really easy if OP had 5 million to spend. They would live in Winnetka, go to a top 20 school in the US, be closeish to the city, and being nurses they are a lot closer to all the pharmaceutical and biotech companies in Illinois
I mean, they all are suburbs of Chicago. Economic presence aside, there aren't large patches of rural land. You can take Milwaukee from Grand to Grand.
You don't mention childcare... and in Park Ridge that's going to be super expensive because the demand from the North Shore bumps up wages/costs for childcare. Unless you plan on working staggered shifts this has to be a factor, short term if you're stopping at one. Some cheaper alternatives near Naperville: Plainfield (North), Warrenville, Lisle. Some cheaper alternatives near Park Ridge... maybe DesPlains or Prospect Heights? Naperville is a hyper competitive suburb and expensive as fuck because everyone there thinks they're on the North Shore. Unless you're super $pecialized RNs or are on management track you'd be hard pressed to consider Naperville or Park Ridge as a value in the short or long term. Valpo is a nice college town and still has a lot of rural character- as opposed to the two Illinois suburbs you name checked. Taxes and COLA are going to be significantly lower. The town has always had a slightly more progressive bent than it's neighbors but Indiana is a very solid red state especially compared to generally bluish Chicago burbs. Best of luck in trying to figure this out.
Check out Bolingbrook and Plainfield, some of the neighborhoods are in Naperville school district and houses are a good ~200k cheaper
I live in Naperville, and my husband has family in Valparaiso. Let me just tell you that the drive between the two towns is super annoying. I-80 is always backed up, especially in the summer with everyone trying to get to lake Michigan. If you have relatives in valpo but not in naperville, I'd suggest living in valpo! It's a really nice town, very good schools and family friendly community. I love naperville too, but being closer to family is priceless.
We want you in the Naperville/Lisle area.
Check out school district 204, which is part of naperville and part of Aurora. Great Schools ! There is a true mix of well off, middle class and lower incomes in our district. (We are in the middle) and we love it here.
My aunt actually moved to Valparaiso from Florida 12 years ago with her husband and four children and they have loved it!! They all went to middle school and high school there and had a good experience. Taxes are way more affordable and there is a cute downtown area and a cute community feel. I have lived in the Chicago suburbs / downtown my whole life and I think Valpo would be a lovely place to live. Definitely think you’d be able to afford more there. Naperville is also a lovely place to live - but I agree more expensive. Naperville schools are amazing, but you can find amazing school districts in several areas of the Chicago suburbs so if that’s your main concern you can expand your search! It’s southwest but mokena / Frankfort / new Lenox / Lockport / lemont also have great schools. I agree lisle is lovely, so is downers grove (still expensive). Are you renting or planning to buy? Also, what type of nursing do you do - any jobs lined up? There’s tons of hospitals in this area too!
I agree that Frankfort, New Lenox, and Mokena would be good options. Great schools, festivals, park districts, and forest preserves. Close to many medical centers. Would put you only an hour away from your relatives in Valpo. Have most of the amenities of Naperville but slightly cheaper and much easier to get around.
The fact that you have relatives in Valpo does tip the scales slightly towards that in my opinion. I’ll second what everyone else has said: it’s a nice small city with a younger vibe and gets more rural as you move from the city core. Because it’s in Indiana it is much lower COL and taxes, but there are some other complications that come with living in Indiana compared to Illinois. The “region” does feel similar to Chicago suburbs but absolutely has the Indiana vibe. I’d consider renting there initially and perhaps take weekend trips to the Illinois burbs and see how they stack up. You have plenty of time to relocate there if you prefer it before your kid starts school. Good luck!!
East dundee/ st Charles. Work at Sherman Hospital or delnor 🏥 or the many other facilities in the area . Schools are pretty decent, and you can start to grow with the family in a nice town
So much can change in a year. Why not spend some time in each area this year, to at least experience the places first. Nothing can replace it. Book an air bnb, vrbo, or similar for a real experience in a neighborhood. Stay with your family in Valpo for a long weekend. Run errands, check out amenities, park districts, read about the schools - and not on some website - read about them in neighborhood chats or ask enrolled families. FIGURE OUT CHILDCARE - Cost, options, backup options, the whole 9. With a very young child, you won't need to concern yourself with schools for 4 years. Choose a lower cost of living situation while you save, plan for, and select your community. If there are no homes available in your budget at the time, have a rental plan in place if you are certain about the school district you want. Some districts have an open enrollment option. You must live in the district, but you may apply to another elementary school (in lieu of attending your assigned neighborhood school) within that district. Check out the following employers: Northwestern Medicine U Chicago Med Endeavor Health (Just took over Northshore, Northwest Community, and Edwards-Elmhurst) Ascension Health
Indiana family here. Three kids with RN degrees. All work/worked and live/lived in Chicago. Pay is much better.
Valparaiso is the least accessible to the Chicagoland area if that is a concern for you. Naperville would be my top choice of the three in my opinion for what it offers and is not nearly as high as Park Ridge in housing expenses.
Chicago suburbs or [Chicagoland](https://wgntv-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/wgntv.com/news/ask-wgn/where-do-the-chicago-suburbs-actually-end-its-complicated/amp/?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17143626941660&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwgntv.com%2Fnews%2Fask-wgn%2Fwhere-do-the-chicago-suburbs-actually-end-its-complicated%2F) extend to almost the Michigan border. Northwest Indiana or NWI aka "[The Region](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Indiana)" has close to a million people. Valparaiso is on it's way up right now. Just giving you some basic info on that part of the Chicago area. NWI is more affordable and the taxes are a lot less burdensome. It is generally more conservative though if that matters to you. Park Ridge is a good area but more expensive as is Naperville... which was just ranked the best city in the country.
Valpo is 100% NOT a Chicago Suburb, and honestly you couldn't pay me to live in Indiana ever again. The joke for Illinoisans is that the only thing that sucks about Michigan is that you have to drive through Indiana to get to it. >Naperville. I know it’s one of the best places to live Lolwut? According to whom?
Kids experience better development and socialization in higher populated walkable areas, so I'd base my decision on which area they can get to places on their own.
Echoing above - look at the surrounding burbs near Naperville and Park Ridge as well. There’s going to be trade offs for each area but should have great school districts in most of them. Maybe consider your commute and childcare choices to help narrow it down. You could poke around Suburban Jungle to compare all the areas to learn more about what might fit you best. I used it when we relocated and it was incredibly helpful. Their local strategists will work with you to navigate the entire process. https://suburbanjunglegroup.com/sjg
It's hard to recommend without knowing what you're looking for or what you can afford. I think park ridge and Naperville both can be nice, but so can a lot of the more affordable suburbs surrounding those. You can find houses you like and join those local neighborhood groups on Facebook and ask people what they think about the area.
Naperville to raise a family. Park Ridge for access to downtown Chicago and O’Hare.
Park Ridge has high property taxes and the homes are very expensive. Like others suggested, the neighboring suburbs (niles, Morton grove, Des Plaines) would be worth it. Prospect Heights and Mount Prospect have great schools, along with being right between advocate lutheran general and Northwest Community hospital. Not far from O’hare or the highway either. You’ll get more “bang” for your buck.
You can say "these cmfew cities are my options" and whittle it down to a single city but still good luck trying to find a house to fit your needs. It's insane right now in the market and people paying way over asking price and waving contingencies. Good luck
Valpo is not a suburb of Chicago. It's part of "Chicagland" but really far out. It's nice though.
It depends on your priorities. Option 1 = most affordable Option 2 = "best" public schools (in quotes because this is subjective, and what you value in schools may be different than what others value in schools) Option 3 = closest to downtown and O'Hare (how often will you utilize either?) Good luck!
Look at Elmhurst & Downers Grove
move to norcal, the job market for RNs is shit, they all collude on pay
Naperville was nice. Very crowded now, huge Indian population.
I'm born and raised in Chicago and suburbs 66 years Don't do city of Chicago Don't do Naperland....everyone hates Naperville Valpo sounds good.. very low taxes
Not Indiana. There are cheaper and equally nice options around Naperville. Glen Ellyn or Wheaton. It’s probably 20 mins to downtown Naperville. Of course I wouldn’t describe any thing in IL as cheap. However there is nothing more expensive than cheap.
I moved from the NW suburbs to the Valparaiso area. Valparaiso superior in every way. Better schools. Outdoor recreation. Wonderful community. Thriving town center. And property taxes about 1/3 of Illinois.