I'd like input from Arizonans that have moved to Chicago (Naperville: house, job transfer)

[linicx]

Stay outta trouble. Sheriff Joe owns Maricopa County.

[AZSunKiss]

UPDATE: I am the original poster of this thread. It has been 12 years since I originally posted this question back in 2011. I often read threads on this forum and wonder what happened to the people that had posted a question. Did they finally move to the city they were asking about? Did they find their perfect spot?
So, I thought I would provide an update on my thread in the event anyone has ever wondered about our journey.

We did move to Illinois in 2015. My husband had a "remote" job that allowed us to live nearly anywhere. We decided to move closer to his family in the Quad Cities (Moline, IL/Davenport, IA) along the Mississippi River. We found a beautiful home in a small, rural town north of Moline called Port Byron. Small-town life is very different from the suburbs of Phoenix, and there were pros and cons.

I loved the quality of the home that we purchased. Wow, they build beautiful, solid, quality homes there - Arizona's track homes just don't compete. I loved the open land, the wildlife, the birds, and the greenery. You can grow a lot more beautiful things in that climate than you could ever grow in Arizona. The bike trail that runs along with Mississippi River offers stunning views and inspired my new hobby of cycling. Naperville (suburb of Chicago) was appx a 2.5 hour drive away, and I would go there to shop a few times per year. We also travelled to Chicago (and surrounding area) to enjoy the Shedd Aquarium, Six Flags, and the (lake) beaches. I loved Naperville. Had we chosen to move there or some of the other family-friendly suburbs of Chicago, I believe I would have been much happier than had we moved to a small, rural town.

The rural town that we settled in was not enjoyable for me -- the gossip, the weird small-town encroaching government, the uneducated people, the smokers, the property taxes, the lack of my favorite stores, the bugs (there are these tiny knats that constantly fly around your face and it feels as though you're going to inhale them), the tornado warnings in the middle of the night, and the public school system that has their *favorite families,*. The school systems mandate that new families (and at certain grades) provide proof that their kids have had a physical, gone to a dentist, and had their eyes checked. This was incredibly odd for me, as Arizona does not have any of these mandates in the public school system. If you took your kids to get new glasses 9-months ago, you have to take them again because it's mandated. The other thing I did not like in the rural town was how much people like to burn things. People burn their leaves, garbage, the living room sofa they no longer want -- it was a culture shock for me. Here you have beautiful country air, and you spoil it by burning stuff all the time.

The surprise is that I did better in the cold weather than I had anticipated. Having to put on layers of clothing to go check the mailbox took some getting used to. The rain was not too bad. I missed the sunshine of Arizona. Driving in the slush and snow was the most difficult to adapt to, and the salt and chemicals on the road are so corrosive to your car. It's true -- everyone gets cabin fever after prolonged bouts of gloom, snow, and being locked inside during the winter. Deer are very prevalent there and you are very likely to hit one eventually. We had a herd of deer run in front of us while driving 35MPH and it still damaged our car to the tune of $2,000. We lived in the Quad City area for 6 years.

Hubby was offered a promotion at work and we had to return to Arizona. We chose Oro Valley (north of Tucson) as our landing spot. After 20+ years living in the suburbs of Phoenix, and then the tiny town in Illinois, we decided we wanted a city somewhere in the middle plus having family in Tucson helped make that decision. Having been gone for a while, I certainly notice the heat a lot more. We are very happy with the school system in our area, and there is a lot more choice for parents in schools than the tiny rural town we had lived in Illinois.

If I had to do it all over again, I definitely would have loved to have lived in a suburb of Chicago. The most important lesson I learned is that there are always going to be pros and cons wherever you live, and I am a lot more adaptable and resilient than I ever thought I could be. Now that my kids are almost finished with high school, I am open to living in other cities. This experience helped me become more open-minded to the idea of living in different cities around the country than I ever thought I could be. So, if the opportunity ever arises for our family to move back to Illinois (preferably Chicago suburbs) or perhaps to the east coast, I will be willing to go.

[G in MP]

Oh wow great, thx for the update! Aside from the property taxes in IL in general, I'd say the dollar value of Chicago's suburbia is hard to beat.

[ShampooBanana]

Nice. Love to hear follow-ups from OPs, especially after so long. I'm sure sure moving to a small IL town outside of the Quad Cities would be quite the culture shock. There are certainly going to be some major cultural differences. I grew up in IL and later moved to AZ (Phoenix metro) when I was in the 30s. Stayed for 9 years and loved most of my time there. Very different from where I grew up in the Chicago burbs. Ended up moving to the Denver suburbs, which I love even more, and I think is better suited to me given there is some element of "Midwesternness" in Colorado - I think because it's just not as far from it and there are so many transplants here. I agree you would have probably had a very different experience if you had lived in the Chicago suburbs instead. Totally different people and vibe than you'll get in small-town Illinois.

[personone]

Interesting post because there is a huge migration pattern in the opposite direction from Chicagoland -> Phoenix region. There are so many native Chicagoans in Phoenix that they have a Portillos's, Gino's, and Lou Malnati's in Phoenix! Cool to read the experience from the other side.

[Hiruko]

Originally Posted by personone

Interesting post because there is a huge migration pattern in the opposite direction from Chicagoland -> Phoenix region. There are so many native Chicagoans in Phoenix that they have a Portillos's, Gino's, and Lou Malnati's in Phoenix! Cool to read the experience from the other side.

Not to mention both the Cubs and the Sox in the Cactus League!

[Kmanshouse]

Great update. I relate to this very much. We did the exact opposite - from Chicago burbs, moved to Tucson, moved back to Chicago burbs, now in the city. You likely would have been happier in Naperville- I lived there for 16 years.

And my mom lives in Oro Valley, know it very well. You hit all the places in your post that struck me, Chicago, Naperville, Oro Valley, Tucson and I was born in the Quad Cities!

[ToriaT]

Good luck. Hopefully you will adjust to our winters. I hate hot weather so I will never move. I've only been to Arizona once, and I remember there wasn't much greenery, and people had front yards made of stone and cacti planted. The back yards were walled. And the house I was in had these blind like shutters to keep out the heat. None of these which I would like.

As far as location, Arlington Heights and Vernon Hills are nice, I'd nix Crystal Lake as it so far away from Chicago itself, and other suburbs, it make it hard to get to much. I would look into Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, Naperville, Downers Grove, etc. Those are really nice suburbs. They have nice little downtowns that are great and have great housing stock and good schools. I think they are better than ones you mentioned, although Arlington Heights is nice. Probably older housing stock.

[rrampage]

To Arizonans who moved to Chicagoland....how much weight did you gain lol?

[ShampooBanana]

Originally Posted by rrampage

To Arizonans who moved to Chicagoland....how much weight did you gain lol?

Not sure why that would happen. You can literally get almost the exact same kind of food in Phoenix as you can in Chicago, especially since so many Chicagoans have moved to Phoenix and brought the food with them. There's Portillo's, Gino's, Lou Malnati's, and countless other Chicago dog, pizza, and italian beef places in and around Phoenix.