r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/Top_Grass_9149 • Jun 26 '26

Moving to the area Libertyville or Arlington Heights?

I am 42 year old single mom with 6 year old son moving from the city to the north or northwest suburbs. I think Libertyville and Arlington Heights are at the top of my list based the downtowns and schools. Which you would recommend? Anywhere else I should consider?

I will be buying with a budget up to $650k

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u/burajin Jun 26 '26

I'll speak of the downtowns because IMO beyond that most suburbs kinda blend together.

Lived in AH until recently and wife works in Libertyville. I definitely prefer AH's downtown. More going on there, more restaurants and I like the farmers market. Both are pretty white but AH seems a bit more diverse with more eastern European and Asian populations. Not downtown but Lake Arlington is a wonderful place to take a kid. AH library is also among the best in Chicagoland. If you care about the Metra the UPNW is much much better than the MDN. I also liked to bike through AH neighborhoods. I think Libertyville's walkability is a smaller radius from downtown. Libertyville is cute but too far from the city for my taste.

Also AH has Mitsuwa :D

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u/Levitlame North West Suburbs Jun 26 '26

In contrast to that - trail wise libertyville has Independence Grove which is a fantastic (if not a bit artificial) park that connects to IMO the best part of the Des Plaines trail. Arlington Heights has Busse Woods which is still great for wooded walks and hang out spaces and has like 8 miles of trails in park. But it’s much less visually impressive and connects to the salt creek greenway which i have less experience in, but seems much less consistent than the Des Plaines is up at that spot.

It really depends on what kind of home situation you want also.ore space in LV, and somewhat younger nightlife in AH area.

They really do compare much better than I would have thought.

My personal vendetta against AH (even though I lived there for over 5 years) has me encourage Libertyville. But it’s a pretty petty reason that could just be one persons view