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Chicago/Wisconsin Area - May by moving to the area - Any info?

edro

edro

Lifer
Well... my wife got a pretty damn good job offer for the Chicago/Wisconsin area.

We live out in the country in Ohio now. We would probably want a few acres of land, so downtown Chicago is out of the question.

Are there are major things we should look out for when deciding where to live in this area?

Wisconsin versus Illinois?
Any weird tax issues?

It looks like the job market is great... I found 150 pages of engineering jobs i the area on Career Builder.

EDIT: We decided to stay in Ohio. Current employer matched offer! 😀
 
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I have no idea where I'll be working. I haven't found a job yet.
She is going to work from home, but is in sales... so her territory is Chicago/Wisconsin.
 
Question to solve your dilemma.

Who would you rather root for?

The Green Bay Packers
OR
The Chicago Bears.
 
Bristol or Pleasant Prairie are nice areas if you're looking to have a few acres. Tolls suck ass in IL but cops let you speed it seems, WI has no tolls but you don't want to speed.

Packers rule Bears drool, etc.

Taxes are much cheaper all around in WI it seems(Income, Sales, Property).
 
Hmmm.
I live in Naperville (SW burb). Used to live in Rolling Meadows (NW burb).
If you live north and work south, traffic isn't bad - reverse flow. Live south and work north and you are going to suffer (I355).
Live in Naperville area and work in the city, the drive is awful (would have to train it in).

Really all depends on where you work.

Acres of land is tough. You will need to go far west/southwest. I think the max you are going to get in the surrounding suburbs is around an acre and a half.
 
I think there's a lot of engineering work in the triangle formed by Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago. Chicago will have the highest cost of living but the most opportunity to do cool city stuff.

I'd consider Chicago and suburbs, western suburbs of milwaukee, and the Madison area first in your shoes. Just my personal preference.
 
edro said:
Pack!
I was just at their Houston game last weekend. 😀
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Good choice, I will now consider you a friend.


Overall Wisc has more "country" than Illinois. Especially in southern Wisc. Compared to Northern Illinois.

As a poster said its tolls vs no tolls and tax difference

The differences otherwise are not big. Except 2 (and rare occasions 3) times a year the states border is almost like a think invisible wall. (Yes I am talking about the GB - Chicago games)
 
A little over a decade ago I worked in Harvard, Illinois for Motorola. It was 10 minutes from the Wisconsin / Illinois border. After looking at prices for rent and taxes, I ended up moving 5 minutes north into Wi. There were too many shady places where I was looking while in IL. Crystal Lake was very nice but sales tax of almost 8% was pretty crazy.
 
edro said:
Well... my wife got a pretty damn good job offer for the Chicago/Wisconsin area.

We live out in the country in Ohio now. We would probably want a few acres of land, so downtown Chicago is out of the question.

Are there are major things we should look out for when deciding where to live in this area?

Wisconsin versus Illinois?
Any weird tax issues?

It looks like the job market is great... I found 150 pages of engineering jobs i the area on Career Builder.
Click to expand...

I just moved back to the Chicagoland area a few years ago after my stint at OSU. PM me if you want any comparisons to Columbus, I know both pretty well.
 
If you do find your new job, just post what town it is in. Plenty on here can give advice on what areas are good to live in and what areas are not.
 
FDF12389 said:
Bristol or Pleasant Prairie are nice areas if you're looking to have a few acres. Tolls suck ass in IL but cops let you speed it seems, WI has no tolls but you don't want to speed.

Packers rule Bears drool, etc.

Taxes are much cheaper all around in WI it seems(Income, Sales, Property).
Click to expand...


Pretty much this. Pleasant Prairie is a pretty popular area out here, you might pay a slight premium on a home, but if you want acres and to be close to 41/94 for commuting to IL, its your best bet. Taxes are far and away better in Pleasant Prairie, too. And overall taxes in the Kenosha area are much less than northeast IL. Some people like western Kenosha county, too, but its much more 'country'.

This is a pretty decent area, 45 minutes north or south and you have something to do and big job markets (Milwaukee/Chicago area).

Is there anything specific you are looking to know?


*edit - If you come take a look around here, be sure to have a burger at The Spot... you'll thank me later. 😀
 
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You could give Kankakee a look. I think it's about an hour or so south of the city. I have a cousin who lives there and he likes it. It might be easier to find a couple acres there to because not so close to Chicago.
 
You'll probably want to rent until you get a job, also gives you more time to look around. Given all the places that would be hiring engineers can literally be anywhere in the metro area you don't want to get suck in a property that gives you a 3 hour commute...each way.
 
madison is like no other place in the midwest. it is truly unique and theres no real bad parts of the city. its also an international destination for college students, so its not unusual to meet all types of people. its the state capital and a big ten college town... theres just no way to lose here. the only weird thing is people are almost too nice.
 
Stay out of Cook County (IL). That's where the commies live!

News story yesterday, some dimwit in the local government believes that "cheap" ammo prices are contributing to the gang bangers being so violent, so wants to add a $0.05/round tax to the price of ammo.

Yeah, because I'm sure the gang bangers are going into the local sporting goods stores, to buy their ammo! 🙄
 
You're going to have to live at least a hour away from the city to have anything remotely resembling a couple of acres with decent privacy.

Kendall county is really nice, but the taxes are ridiculous here. Naperville is really nice, but it's a crowded mess of yuppies. Should be plenty of good foreclosures in and around Naperville because they did a ridiculous amount of building in that area in the last 15 years.

Kankakee as someone mentioned is down in the land where the sheep run scared. Lots of toothless freaks down there. If you love white trash and seedy biker bars move to kankakee.

P.S. I love kankakee/coal city/braidwood and have lost thousands of brain cells down there.
 
I live in WI and drive to CHI for work fairly often.

I am glad I'm in WI and would much rather live there, but it really depends on where she will be working most of the time. If she's going to be going to Chicago a lot, then IL would be better just to shorten the drive.

If evenly split between WI and CHI, then WI for sure. Janesville is nice, and there's lots of places to buy land around I-90 between Madison and Beloit.
 
wirednuts said:
madison is like no other place in the midwest. it is truly unique and theres no real bad parts of the city. its also an international destination for college students, so its not unusual to meet all types of people. its the state capital and a big ten college town... theres just no way to lose here. the only weird thing is people are almost too nice.
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You're telling me the area south of the belt line around Fish Hatch is a nice area? Yikes...

No question, if you have a choice, live in Wisconsin. Illinois has so many fiscal issues it's scary. Taxes and tolls are ridiculous.

Wisconsin is almost as cheap as Indiana. Madison has a lot going on; I've been very happy living here since 2007. Janesville is smaller but 20 minutes away from Madison and super cheap. Beloit is a rust belt town that's still nice. I like Beloit more than Janesville. Milwaukee also has a lot of nice areas; burbs like Waukesha and New Berlin in particular come to mind. Racine and Kenosha aren't bad either.
 
VulgarDisplay said:
Kankakee as someone mentioned is down in the land where the sheep run scared. Lots of toothless freaks down there. If you love white trash and seedy biker bars move to kankakee.

P.S. I love kankakee/coal city/braidwood and have lost thousands of brain cells down there.
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It's not that bad. You make it sound like its straight out of Deliverance. haha
 
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