Tracym

What would you be looking for? I mean, what kind of things would appeal to you in a community... do you want quieter and more spread out, more country, or more city and more action?

And how long of a drive would you tolerate?

Bob

Those things would depend on how rough it got in winter, so at a guess, commute by car within a half hour?

Looking for a city type of feel with stuff to do, but a bit quiet, burbs of beantown perhaps where there's some stuff that's in walking distance, the odd shops, places to eat sort of thing, but not necesarrily the hussle and bussle of downtown.

Tracym

Arlington Heights might be one to consider then. They do have an actual little downtown section, and a fair amount of restaurants and stuff.

Some of the houses are older (some newer too of course). The area is considered quite desirable, might be more expensive - but housing is WAY down now. I believe the school district is excellent too.

I can't think if a town within 1/2 hour that'd be really city feeling, but AH is one that comes to mind.

Des Plaines also, but I think it'll be too far.

With both of those, you would be having a reverse commute - but I bet there would still be quite a bit of traffic. Just how long it takes could also depend just where in Hoffman Estates (and where in the other towns) - from far edge to far edge would be worse than close edge to close edge of course. You could check it out with mapquest, of if you'd like to pm me the address of the proposed job I could check it out against some addresses I know if you'd like.

Hiro11

One note as a Boston native who lives in Chicago, keep in mind this is a much, much bigger city than Boston. 4-5 times the population and easily 5 times the geographic area.

If you want to live in a residential section of the city, it's not nearly as difficult to do so here as it is in Boston. There are tons of nice neighborhoods that you don't have to be a millionaire to live in. here's a neighborhhod map:

http://search.realtyproducer.com/cor...rhoods-map.jpg

Most of the gentrified areas of the city are northside. I particularly like the Bucktown/Wicker Park area. Lincoln Park is great for yuppies. Andersonville and Bowmanville are up and coming. Right downtown, the South Loop and Printers Row have gone through and incredible revitalization in the past decade and are now thriving neighborhoods. The West Loop and Hyde Park are next.

If you want semi urban, Evanston, River Forest and Oak Park can be very nice. Oak Park in particular has a nice sense of history and just the faintest whiff of urban edge. Evanston has a little bit of a college town feel and good energy.

More suburban, Elmhurst is relatively close and somewhat happening. It has a lot of (not cheap) nice housing as well. Western Springs is very quiet and suburban but still close and attractive.

If you gots da bucks, the North Shore is for you. That goes without saying. Winnetka's one of the nicer towns in America, IMO. That also goes without saying.

Of the endless tracts of sprawl, I like the Western Suburbs the best.

Tracym

But I don't think any of those are within a 1/2 hour commute of Hoffman Estates (he doesn't want to commute downtown I don't think, I belive he was talking about his commute to work in H.E.).

BigDavyG

Agreed re Arlington Heights - nice little town.
Bob, if you want more info ping me. To be honest I hate Hoffman Estates and as many have indicated the suburbs are kind of bland, but then again, there are worse places to be. The Metra train system can get you into downtown in about 45 minutes and it is dirt cheap. The city itself (ie Chicago, not Hoffman) is a cracking place, and I would highly recommend it. Plenty of job opportunities downtown if you ever did make the move and find out that the new gig wasn't for you.

Being close to O'Hare is no bad thing either - I can go door-to-door, Chicago to UK in about 13 hours, and until recently it didn't cost an arm and a leg either.

Hope the interview went well.

penguinsix

What about Evanston? Thought it looked kind of pretty last time I was there.

Tracym

LONG drive to Hoffman Estates.

The Chicago suburbs are a huge area - you have to stay only a few 'burbs apart to have a 1/2 hour commute at rush hour.

Bob

Yup, your right

Though I don't know where to look, we're just googling all over in the event it works out, and stage one interview went well, top of the pile for the next interview apparently, so we'll see.

Tracym

Personally, I think Arlington Heights sounds the most like what you want within the distance you want. I lived there for around 18 years, decided I wanted to be more in the country, as it felt too "city" for me. So might suit you if that's what you're after.

Bob

Cheers...yeah, Chicago does sound pretty cool and there is a good little bounce if things go bump in the night with the games hub out there, big plus really.

As I don't really have an idea of the scale of the place I'm finding what might or might not be good distances to commute to HE, if I didn't have to drive I could probably handle being further out, but if I had to drive, I'd prefer to stay relatively close, especially with the winters.

Hitting google pretty hard in case this works out.

Oh, and anyone have an idea what the colleges are like in the area?

Tracym

You have to drive.

Trains only go to and from downtown Chicago. Anywhere else - you drive.

Depends upon what you want for a college I suppose - Harper College in Palatine is an excellet 2-year school (community college).

Roosevelt University has a campus right by Woodfield Mall - pretty close to Hoffman Estates - that's a private school.

All sorts of Universities in Chicago downtown/nearby - some top-notch - University of Chicago, Northwestern... also University of Illinois has a campus in Chicago. There are others, I can't think of them all just now.

Bob

Ta...just kicking the idea of the missus once she's finished her masters through Kings college, London, maybe do a phd out here or teach, but that's more of a tangent of an idea.

So cheaper places or more places to rent would be going up north? Was looking perhaps for places that are in between HE and Chicago for a compromise in commute and allow heading into Chicago for easy visits or if things don't work out, but I'm guessing that would be more pricey.

Any one know if houses are easy to come by for rent rather than apartments? And ball part figure for say a two or three bedroom place? Less or way more than $1500?

Tracym

Plenty of colleges around then, although a lot would be in Chicago.

If you're near a train station, that's really the easiest commute into Chicago. So personally, rather than trying to be close to Chicago ($$$) I'd just make sure I was close to a train route. When I lived in Arl Hts, the train was right there, and I could be on about all the expressways in a few mins. So it was very convenient (I consulted, and had to go all over the place). So my suggestion would be somwhere like that.

I would think there would be a lot of places to rent. Especially in today's market. Even rent to own perhaps. Not sure on the $$$ though I'm afraid.

I don't think North would be cheaper - northern suburbs of Chicago quite the opposite really - the're pretty posh. Any other direction from Chicago would probably be less. But if you want to be close-ish to Hoffman Estates, you're pretty much talking the northwest suburbs.

You could check out Des Plaines too if you want a more city feel. I don't know as much about it though.

Tracym

Here's one example

http://www.rentalhomesplus.com/Summa...0.92&srt3=0.92

Salaries might be higher in the Chicago area too - I don't know about your industry, but I think they tend to be.