<p>You have a lot of suburban areas to consider. Some things to think about:</p>
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<li>Where are are going to work? If downtown Chicago, then you must give serious consideration to being near a commuter train, our Metra system, which is a very good system. Driving in rush hour to and from the city can be horendous and rush hour in Chicago seems to last from 5 a.m. to midnight and if you get some bad weather (it is called most of winter here) or one somewhat minor accident, the drive can be hours.</li>
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<p>From Chicago which faces East to Lake Michigan, the Metra system runs out to the north all the way around to south suburbs like spider legs. You can go to metrarail.com and get maps and other info on the system. </p>
<p>Typical train during rush hours can take anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour or longer depending on how far out you are. During non-rush hours, when they do all stops, it takes longer often adding 30 minutes depending on how far out. Also, some lines, like the one to Orland Park (SW suburb) are limited schedule, nothing after evening rush hours, while most go to late night. Some suburbs bordering the city limits, such as parts of Evanston (north) and Hyde Park (west) can access the el trains of the city to get downtown.</p>
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<li><p>Schools. There really are a lot of good public school systems regardless of which direction your suburb is from the city. Unlike many areas in the east of the country, private schools do not rule the roost in the Chicago area. Even in the city, “magnet” public schools are considered among the best. Don’t get me wrong, there a number of good private schools but they are not generally considered to be above a lot of the publics.</p></li>
<li><p>Housing cost and land. The further out you go in any direction, the more house and lot size you can get for the dollar. But then there are large directional differences. North to NW suburbs for the most part have the highest prices. West comes next, and southwest to south is the lowest of the areas and you can usually get bigger lots in many of the SW suburbs. The difference can be significant. A home in the north suburbs that is priced $900,000 will often be the equivalent of a $500,000 home in the SW suburbs.</p></li>
<li><p>Going to UIUC, something you may be doing often. One thing to understand is that the drive from a southwest suburb such as Frankfort to a north suburb such as Deerfield can be 1 1/2 hours or more without real traffic, and without traffic seldom occurs. The main line to UIUC is Hwy 57 which comes into the city from the south suburbs. Definitely take a look at a Chicago/Illinois map. From some of our best SW suburbs such as the group of Frankfort, Mokena, New Lenox, and Manhattan (the Lincolnway school district), Hwy 57 south is easy to get to and you can actually drive to UIUC in 1 1/2 hours (once you are outside the city area heading south on 57, there is essentially no traffic all the way to Champaign/Urbana). From a north suburb, with any traffic it can be 3 1/2 hours or more. Simple truth: someone living in Frankfort can get to UIUC faster than he can get to Northwestern University in Evanston even though the actual miles to Northwestern are half the total.</p></li>
<li><p>Tornados. We don’t get hit often but every once in a while someplace gets hit. We have some very nice suburds west of Joliet (which is far SW of the city)-- Plainfield, Minooka, Channahon, Shorewood, others – but that area is also known as Tornado alley because it just seems to experience more touchdowns than other areas, although any place could experience one.</p></li>
<li><p>Airports. The two airports are O’Hare (NW of the city) and Midway (west to SW and actually part of the city). If you know you have to fly a lot, another consideration is being not an impossible distance from an airport because it can take a long time to get to them as a result of traffic. We, of course, have experienced for about twenty years now the “plan” to put in an airport south of the city, and no one is holding their breath for it to show up.</p></li>
<li><p>Houses near rivers. We have some rivers and other low waterplain areas where people sometimes think how nice it would be to be close to one or on the river. Don’t even consider buying in or close to a floodplain area. They can flood (seems to happen every several years) wiping out a lot.</p></li>
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