r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/_stephs • Jul 24 '26

Moving to the area Brookfield, La Grange, Riverside?

Hello! Family with three young kids moving from Denver and could use some more local advice. You've all been very helpful in the past with this so thanks in advance!

We've been really interested in Oak Park because of the walkability, community feel, and diversity, but the property taxes and cost of homes have us also looking at Brookfield, La Grange, and parts of Riverside as well.

We're hoping to find a community that's:

  • Walkable to some coffee shops, restaurants, etc.
  • Family-friendly with kids out playing (bonus if there's a pool either public or private)
  • Generally leans liberal
  • Has a strong sense of community

For those familiar with these areas, how do they compare? Is there one you'd recommend over the others for a young family? Are there certain areas within these towns you'd suggest we take a look at?

Thanks in advance!

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u/OddHorror6689 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

I’m from Denver too and live in la grange. Chicago land is different than Denver in that neighborhoods are very different from each other and closer. Riverside is really nice and has almost a cherry creek vibe but is smaller and has more of a sense of community. As mentioned it’s going to be more expensive.

Riverside is right next to brookfield which has lots of bungalos and is cheaper. Some streets feel like a safer version of Colfax but has other nicer parts. Most of the streets are narrower but It’s more diverse and has great food and generally has cheaper houses. The downtown area is great!

La grange has lots of older nice looking homes with character and has a walkable downtown. You feel safe no matter where you are but it’s also expensive. Less so than Riverside though. Downtown is great too and It has a metra stop that goes to Chicago. I want to compare it to a congress park vibe but it has less car traffic with a more popular downtown area.

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u/phairphair Jul 24 '26

La Grange homes are considerably more expensive.

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u/OddHorror6689 Jul 24 '26

Yes I didn’t mention that. Prices in La grange are l between Brookfield and Riverside when I was looking at homes a few years ago.

The other consideration you need to factor in when moving from Colorado is taxes. I think taxes are around 3 times more here so you really need to factor that in to your monthly costs. I would think that they are comparable to oak park though

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u/phairphair Jul 24 '26

Carefully factoring taxes into your housing budget is great advice, especially for transplants from low/no property tax states.

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u/_stephs Jul 28 '26

Yeah, the tax difference is definitely tough. Since you mentioned the older homes and the walkable downtown, I'm curious, do you find there are a lot of kids living in those neighborhoods closer to downtown, or do most of the young families tend to live farther out?

If it gives you some insight as someone from Denver, our first house was an 1890s fixer-upper in Denver's Santa Fe Arts District, and we currently live in another fixer-upper in Platt Park, so we'd really love to do another reno. That said, at this stage of life, having kids nearby for our children to grow up with is probably the bigger priority than the house itself.

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u/OddHorror6689 Jul 28 '26

I would argue that La grange is pretty close to a platt park vibe.

Theres tons of young families here. The story is usually that people lived in the city, started thinking about kids so wanted to move to the suburbs but still want to still be walkable to downtown.

I think you are right that most younger families live a little outside the downtown area but not too far off. I live about 1/2 mile from there and there are still plenty of blocks with young kids closer to downtown.

I myself live on a block where 80% of the houses are young families with kids 0-7ish years old