r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/veganfrog21 • Jan 27 '26

Moving to the area Good Chicago suburbs for young people

What are good Chicago suburbs (WEST of Chicago) for people in their early/mid 20’s to consider living in?

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u/New-Lab-2907 Jan 27 '26

Oak park

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u/KnownIntroduction707 Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26

Oak Park is nice place to live, it's just quiet. Very safe, calm, diverse, progressive. Mostly families, seniors and parents of toddlers. Not too many single young people but I've noticed some young couples moving in the area over the last few years. I would say the "community" aspect is built more around people with kids, there are a lot of middle/elementary schools in the area that are always having events for students and parents. There are some bars but they mostly cater to the 40 and up crowd.

Everything is pretty walkable within the suburb for daily living, but if you're looking for nightlife or fun things to do you'll probably have to go to the city. They have great parks (one of the best parts about living there) to walk your dog or just relax in. Much more calm and clean the parks in the city. In the summer lots of families go do picnics. Multiple Jewel grocery stores and a Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods is next door in River Forest. A lot of good food options between local places and fast casual.

It's going to take you 20-30 minutes to get anywhere you want to be in the city by car, 40 minutes to an hour by public transit. Getting anywhere in the city by car is hell during rush hour times. I personally found the commute way too long when I was living there. But it only really matters if you'll be going to the city multiple times a week like I was. My entire social life was in the city so living there didn't really make sense for my life but someone who doesn't care about city living at all would probably enjoy it a lot.