Advice About Northwestern Chicago Neighborhoods

I LOVE our neighborhood of Old Irving Park. There are tons of affordable townhouses and single family homes. We have great schools and churches. Walking distance to Jewel, Starbucks, etc. We have the blue line and the metra station all within 3 blocks and many major bus lines. It is a great area!

Hi M.:

We are moving to the 'burbs so I can't help you with city neighborhoods but these two websites have been a tremendous resource for schools etc.

First is Illinois Interactive Report card, which gives the statistical facts on the schools.
http://iirc.niu.edu/SearchMain.aspx?search

This website that answers all of the questions that you are afraid to ask but need to. LOL. And it is searchable and people on this site are REALLY responsive.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/chicago/

Good luck!

Hi M.- I've just read about Albany Park on the train today in the Red Eye. It's described as the up and coming Wicker Park because of it's affordable housing, interesting shops and great restaurants. I'm not familiar with the schools in the area, however, but it might be worth checking out. It's north of Logan Square and west of Roscoe Village. I'm a Hyde Parker myself. HP is also off of the Metra (10 min to downtown), has a wide variety of great school options (both public and private), affordable housing, museums, restaurants, has easy access to the expressways and is on the lake-- also worth a look!

We live in Jefferson Park and like it. It's a mix of mostly single family homes and some apartments, ratio changes depending on where exactly you live. There seems to be a lot of firefighters and police officers in our neck of Jeff Park.

Very accessible to all veins of transport. We get on 94 going N at Foster, 90 Northish at Lawrence, Kennedy going downtown at Elston. The blue line is walking distance and so is the Metra line Union Pacific NW which takes you Ogilvie to Harvard or McHenry. If you live closer to the NW side of Jeff Park, the Forest Glen stop on the Milwaukee North Line which goes to Fox Lake.

The library is nice and there are decent playgrounds. The big Jeff Park playground has a pool and a little splash area for toddlers. Beaubien elementary school is right near us. Parents seem pleased with it, but our daughter is only two. http://www.beaubien.cps.k12.il.us/.

The one downside is lack of restaurants (we live near Foster and Cicero) but, because it is so easy to get out of Jeff Park, you really have so much available to you. Another downside is if you are looking for a structured preschool, there are only two in the 60630 zip code that are licensed. We use a daycare near my husband's work so it isn't too much of an inconvenience.

If you have any other questions, feel free to send me a message.

I grew up on the NW side of the city and have no complaints. Currently, my cousin lives near Harlem & Devon and her child goes to Ebinger School. She really likes the neighborhood and the school. Many children of Chicago Police and Fire Departments also go to Ebinger. Some names of neighborhoods to consider are Edison Park, Norwood Park, Oriole Park, etc... All of these are relatively close to I-90 and Metra access. However, Jefferson Park would be very close to the I-90/I-94 split and the Metra. I am not as familiar with schools in Jeff Park, though. Good luck with your search. I hope you will find what you are looking for on the NW side!

Dianna G.'s comments are right-on. It will help you immensely and save you money to choose a home within the boundaries of one of the better performing public schools.

I live in North Mayfair (just north/west of the intersection of Lawrence & Pulaski) and love the neighborhood and neighbors. Because it is in the bungalow belt, North Mayfair is on the national registry of historic places. It is very close to the 90/94 split, walking distance(about 1 mi.) to both the blue line and the brown line, and close to Elston, a convenient, though congested, diagonal street heading into downtown.

The neighborhood school - Palmer - got a new principal this year and is improving, but i chose to send my daughter (and soon my son as well) to St. Edward, our neighborhood catholic school and am very happy with my decision. The best thing to do is to drive around these neighborhoods to see what is available.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

I'm not sure about your price range, and this is a northern, rather than northwestern, neighborhood, but I love Rogers Park. It's very diverse, easily accessible to downtown, and to northern suburbs like Evanston, and is close to some lovely beaches. West Rogers Park and East Rogers Park both have quite different 'feels' - I would check them both out. Of course East Rogers Park is much closer to the lake, and there is no Lake Shore Drive blocking you off - just cross the street and you're there!

It takes us about 35 minutes to O'Hare from RP, and there is also a Metra in RP and a couple of red line stops.

If you need a great realtor message me. We are about to buy our first condo and have been very happy with our agent. He's great and knows the neighborhood very well.

Edison Park and Oriole Park are the best. Very safe neighborhoods because alot of police live here. I live around Talcott and oriole which is just a few blocks from the Park ridge border but still in the city and right off the kennedy between Harlem and Cumberland so you are close to 90 and 294.
Also the schools are incredible. Oriole Park schoolcontineus to have very high test scores and a great currioculum and Edison Park school is excellent also altho just open 2 years.
Good luck.

My family just moved to Prospect Heights, and I just wanted to send you an early welcome-to-the-neighborhood message! We have a meetup.com group for families just like yours and ours... folks who love the city but somehow find themselves living in the NW burbs. It's called Urban Suburban Families. You can search for us on meetup.com. Hope to meet you at one of our meetups some day! Good luck!

J. Sassack
Founder and Contributor
www.UrbanSuburbanFamily.squarespace.com

We love the Roscoe Village/St Bens neighborhood. Two of the better CPS elementary schools, Bell and Audubon, are in this neighborhood. Plus, it's just very child-friendly - lots of families with young children, good parks, plenty of child-friendly businesses. We've been very happy here for over four years now.

If you intend to send your children to a public school, it may be best to wait until you know which school your oldest will attend before making a home purchase. Reason being, most Chicago public schools work on a lottery system. For those you select (and it is advisable to apply to many), a proximity lottery is run, then a sibling lottery, and finally a general lottery. Out of the 12 schools my daughter's father and I selected, she got into only one good one: Burley Elementary. At that point, we moved to the Roscoe Village / West Lakeview area, and are now a convenient three blocks from Burley. While the area is wonderful, home prices are probably as high as in Bucktown. Another great neighborhood where I've lived is Ravenswood, near Damen and Lawrence. It has a Metra station and a Brown line stop, though I don't know if there is a good school nearby. My understanding is that housing prices in Ravenswood are a notch lower than in RV.

Okay I am in the same situation and have done all the research. Here is the NW area rundown. I also would like to recommend a wonderful website which helps in learning about schools. It is greatschools.net; I use it all the time. If you are looking for a private school, then it doesn’t really matter where you live. There are good private schools all over the city and most of them are great. My kids go to Queen of Angels right now and we love it. I was a teacher and love the school and maybe would consider looking for a job there when I am done taking care of my young kids. We are in the process of looking for a house or condo by a better public school, that is why I have been doing a lot of research, based on the website, word of mouth, actually going to the schools, and speaking with other teachers.
1.Edison Park has Ebinger which is an amazing public school.

2. Jefferson Park has Beaubien which is the best public school in that area. Palmer, & Belding are okay but not half as good as Beaubien.

3. Norwood Park has Farnsworth which is okay and I have heard great things from parents. There is also Norwood Park Elementary but I am not sure if that is public or a magnet. Stay away from Hitch; I have heard bad things about that school.

4. There also is a school called Onahan which is kind of in Norwood Park and Edison and I also heard amazing things about that school which is public.

5. Oriole Park elementary is also one of the best in the city of which is located in Oriole Park.
6. If you have money then Sauganash/Edgebrook area has absolutely amazing schools, like Wildwood, but you need some major cash to afford a place in that area, although our realtor did find a few houses that need some work but are very affordable.

7. Also another area if you have money is within the Bell school district of which is also called the St. Bens area. Bell school is one of the best schools in the city, but most cannot afford housing within the district.

8. If you wish to live along Foster there is a school called Peterson which is up and coming and is very promising. I am on the fence about whether I would send my kids to Budlong, there are mixed reviews about that school of which is along Foster but closer to Andersonville.

9. Licolnsquare has Coonley of which I am hearing great things from parents. Also Ravenswood/Licolnsquare also has Waters of which I have heard great things from parents also.

10. Your only option in Albany Park is private, Haugan is a dump and you should never send your child there plus Volta is okay but I would rather send my kids to Peterson which is just a little bit further away from Volta. I would know because we live in Albany Park right now and we send our kids to private Catholic school for now.

Realtor.com will tell you the closest public school of which would probably be your public school. Our realtor has also given us all the info about what school our kids would go to in our MLS listings that she is sending us. Just let your realtor knows that you interested in what school your kids would go to in that area. I wish you luck and I am going through it too. Any more questions please don’t be afraid to send me a little message. I am always willing to help anyone out. Picking the right school can be very stressful. Remember districts can be tricky and a good may be in the area, but your child may have to go to the bad school based on what street you live on. So check with the local school before you buy to make sure your new place is within there district.