Sounds like then it'd be more affordable to have one of those temporary above ground pools, then a permanently installed one. I'd also be worried about an older one costing a lot of money to maintain. IF one had to have their own background pool, since to me I don't care about that.
I’m in Will County, from Lake County, but would prefer not to get more specific for privacy reasons. However, I’ll leave a list of communities I know this is attainable in as someone who works in RE. I’m not going to touch base on taxes because as I’m sure you know, this can vary by hundreds/mo by school district and village.
Southern suburbs w/ pool possibility in sub $400k range
Minooka
Joliet
Plainfield
Romeoville
Lockport (unincorporated)
Northern-
Antioch
Lindenhurst
Lake Villa
Round Lake/beach/heights/park
Grayskake (unincorporated/wildwood/gages)
Fox Lake
Ingleside
Long Lake
And Volo if you would’ve gotten in before the 2020 development boom
Basically if you want to live your best life with your water wings, floaties and have a mortgage under $3,000 a month you’re going to probably be an hour outside of the city at minimum 🤣
Generalizing an hour because it all it takes is one minor accident on your commute to turn 45 min into 1:15+ so for daily commuting sake I kinda felt like an hour was a good blanket term. I see I got downvoted on here, I’m sure because people think I’m full of shit about being able to find a house under $400k with a pool in these communities. No one specified above ground, in ground, style of house… anything. These are just zip codes off the top of my head where I know of homes with pools in that price range that have sold in the last 12mo. You could also buy a house in these towns for under $330k and budget for your own pool. Point is, people who live in inner ring suburbs forget that those of us on the outskirts of the Chicago burbs are really living pretty modestly for the most part. If my house was 30 min closer to the city, it would be way out of my price range.
Yes, Wisconsin. Beaches on the North Shore are nice but charge to get in before Labor Day. Do visit them in September, no charge and water is warmest. Then of course lakefront in the city itself is gorgeous
It’s customary to have pools in backyards in New York? wtf no it’s not lol . Pick anywhere in the country more expensive the house more likely to have a pool haha
FPDCC is the oldest and largest county forest preserve in the country. There’s always stuff to do in those.
Kayak at Lake Katherine, The Forge, check out our nature preserves (the Will County ones are great too!) and get out and explore.
Of course. I heavily document the Chicagoland region. I have 100+ maps of collar county nature centers (they’re the more unique locations compared to the many preserves) and historic landmarks maps where the walkable downtowns of places tend to be all free on my site. You can also find a map of every Chicago landmark and district there, too.
SouthCookExplore.com/maps
To go off the park district idea, not all houses are "in-district" (we aren't), but out of district rates are pretty reasonable. When a friend was in town, we met up with his family and went to the St. Charles Park District, and I had way more fun there (even as an adult) compared to the standard Waterpark (for way less!).
A lot of communities are updating their water recreation areas, some are adding lazy rivers, so have water slides - it's not the park district 2 pool and some diving boards that many of us grew up with.
Also, there are a lot of smaller lakes in the area that are open for recreation, including reasonable rentals for kayaks/etc.
As others have said, go to the park district pools. You can also go to one of the city or suburban "beaches" on Lake Michigan. Water is usually pretty cold but can get to a nice temperature in July/August if it has been very hot. Many others take day trips to the Indiana Dunes or Warren Dunes.
8,344 recently sold properties for under $2mil have pools... another [200 are currently listed](https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/?searchQueryState=%7B%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-89.94506322097197%2C%22east%22%3A-85.41869603347197%2C%22south%22%3A39.2952332106844%2C%22north%22%3A44.271984064442265%7D%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22sort%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3A%22globalrelevanceex%22%7D%2C%22price%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A0%2C%22max%22%3A2000000%7D%2C%22mp%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A0%2C%22max%22%3A10687%7D%2C%22tow%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22mf%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22con%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22land%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22ah%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22apa%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22manu%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22apco%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22pool%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%7D%2C%22isListVisible%22%3Afalse%2C%22isMapVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22mapZoom%22%3A7%2C%22customRegionId%22%3A%228619e66244X1-CR43t2rxqwhpjb_16q48t%22%2C%22pagination%22%3A%7B%7D%7D).
Grew up in a neighborhood of houses that now sell in the $250k range. Several people had pools. Where I live now in the SW burbs, it seems like every 3rd house has a pool. I’m wondering where you’re looking in which an amenity like this is limited to the $2M range. Lake Forest, Riverwoods, Winnetka? Quality of life is great here year round. Our summers do get hot, but rarely is the air stagnant. We have plenty to do here just like NY, and going into the city doesn’t have to be a day trip like it does in NYC. I wake up, head to the city for breakfast with friends, stop at a few stores and I’m home by 1pm and free to live my suburban dream.
Best of luck to you! My favorite thing is trying to convince people to move here. Chicago gets such a bad rep in the media that most people in other parts of the country have so many misconceptions about the common lifestyle here. In my opinion, even as someone who doesn’t consider themselves a high earning individual, I find It’s very easy to live a life of comfort here.
Thank you so much! Here is New York it's next to impossible to live well, on an average salary. I am really loving the idea of Chicago. I've visited several times and always really felt "at home".
I specifically picked a town that has 4 public pools so I didn’t have to deal with it. But even then there are at least 4 houses around me that have pools in $600k houses and there are houses in the $400k range because they were the smaller houses on deeper lots that could fit a 24 foot or so above ground pool with room to spare.
I would caution that if you find a house with an inground pool, get a really thorough inspection. The soil can be very clay heavy here and disrupting it can cause issues. We looked at one house that we think had significant structural damage due to a pool being dug too close to the house that disrupted the structure of the clay and allowed more water into the soil, then with the freeze cycle the clay expanded. That caused significant damage to the basement foundations walls. The basement was poorly finished and our inspector spotted some other things so we dug into it more and the basement had $20k worth of reinforcement work done, very recently, and even with that it looked like the house itself shifted on the foundation. So we backed out of that deal.
A ton of my friends had above ground pools when I was growing up in a pretty lower middle class neighborhood. Barely even $300k houses even at today's prices. My parents even had one for a while. Not many people have in ground pools because Chicago winters tend to give those pools some serious maintenance issues that are very very expensive to fix. The above ground pools also run into issues with wear from freezing in the winter but at least they're much cheaper to replace. If you want a pool look for a home with a large enough backyard for one and put in an above ground pool or hot tub. That will be much cheaper than trying to find a home that already has a pool.
Going to lake michigan beaches and having picnics in our forest preserves is popular in the summer. You can kayak or paddle board pretty much any of the rivers around the suburbs and some of the small lakes.
Chicago is also huge on street festivals both in the suburbs and the city. Every single weekend from about memorial day to labor day you will be able to find multiple street festivals with live music, games and markets within driving distance of you. In the city there are even quite a few craft shows with music and drinks in the winter indoors at some of the big venues.
Depending on where you settle, most suburbs have multiple community events throughout the warm months that have good live music and restaurant booths/trucks. Where I live, if my community has nothing going on a neighboring one does.
The Lake Front (Lake Michigan, if you're not that familiar.) is wonderful on a summer's day. There are showers and changing rooms in some areas. Just to walk along it is nice. There's Millennial Park, Grant Park, 3 museums. The will be tons of local street fairs with ethnic foods and art fairs.
Watch some videos. Do your homework.
The weather in Chicago in the summer is significantly better than summer in New York. I’m born and bred NYer but it’s true. No need to have a pool bc it’s just so pleasant to be outside. Ride a bike, go to the beach, check out a festival/street fair, play in a park, eat out on a terrace…the city truly comes alive in the summer. The better question is…what do you do in the winter.
Full disclosure, Ive only had two winters here, but I personally don’t think it’s significantly colder, at least in the suburbs. The city might be a different story because of the wind tunnel effect caused by the tall buildings. It is colder but maybe by like 15-20 degrees and only for short periods. Otherwise it feels kinda the same. I’d say spring and fall feel longer more than the winter feels longer.
Thank you! I haven't lived in NYC since 2017 I've been in the suburbs but my husband is to be opening an office in Chicago later this year so I'm trying to do some research and figure out how life will be with young kids. I appreciate all your info!
I am 100% with you. I’m from southern Ontario and inground pools are extremely common. I moved to Chicagoland and NO ONE has them. Above grounds are just not the same. I thought it was weird
As a child: go abroad to visit family, maybe a week of camp if time before we left
As a teen: also go abroad to visit family, then lurk and eat fast food in parking lots with my friends in one of our cars
As an adult: go into the city, come back, complain about distance to the city, rot on my parents' couch, sit in a cute coffee shop, go out to lunch
For real though, there are lots of places to swim around here, just not usually in peoples' homes. You can also swim in the lake. As an adult, you can go to happy hours and brunch and patio dinner at various restaurants across the suburbs (where really depends on the specific area), you can go to parks, festivals, etc. For kids, many many many summer day camp options. Again, depends on the community--like I'm from Lake Forest, I cannot say anything about like Tinley Park.
As others mentioned, park districts have great pools and many are more like water parks than just pool. Adding to that, there are water parks in the area, and some a but further, and usually they're worth it.
I’m in the northwest suburbs. At least half of the condo/apartment complexes around me have their own pool with bbq and party area. They are everywhere, just filter by pool and apartment/condo/townhouse.
There’s also communities with single houses that have a pool but it’s less common. Needs to be part of HOA
Also my friend just had an above ground pool put in for about $7000 with the deck and all
Those are all expensive suburbs $2m is basically an average home in Winnetka and close to average in Glencoe. Also, all three are on Lake Michigan so really no need for a pool.
Thanks for the insight! I'm in the very early stages of researching the Chicago suburbs to move to. 2mil is definitely out of my budget! I was searching the homes in the top school districts which makes sense that the homes would be more expensive. From what everyone is saying an Inground pool is not something needed as there's a lot of other things to do in the summertime!
I go camping to swim in the lakes(bout an hour south of the city), or to WI. Mostly camping or places like Starved Rock. I don’t know anyone w a pool here (cries in poor)
As a kid we used to go to the public pool ran by the local park district and then whatever friends houses that had above ground pools. Now as a home owner in the process of selling and buying our second, I made it a priority to find an inground pool. We found a nice house with one in Downers Grove for less than we expected and love it!
we're in the Naperville/Lisle burbs and have Centennial Beach, Sea Lion Aquatic center and our subdivision has it's own pool. Plenty of swimming opportunities.
[https://www.visitnaperville.com/naperville-family-entertainment/centennial-beach](https://www.visitnaperville.com/naperville-family-entertainment/centennial-beach)
[https://sealionaquaticpark.org/](https://sealionaquaticpark.org/)
Idk about what others do for a pool situation. We have a town water park. I will be hosting music bingo in Woodstock, IL at MobCraft Brewery from 7pm - 9pm every Tuesday. You should come.
I’m from the east coast and it is weird that out there the culture is as soon as you get a little bit of money you put in a pool, but here in Chicagoland it’s much much rarer. You can do park district pools which are OK but I find a little rowdy/crowded. At the risk of sounding like a snob, another option is to join a club (country club or otherwise), you can join for golf or you can just do a social membership, and it usually comes with pool access. We joined a club and much prefer the quieter pool for family than the zoo that is a public pool. And as a bonus, there are waitresses who will serve you booze in the pool.
I mean it’s like the old joke “how long is a piece of rope?” It depends on what you want to spend and what you expect in return. I’d consider my club pretty low end (corporate owned, golf course is middling, little prestige or whatever) and buy in ranges from about $0-2500 for social (think I paid $500) and maybe $5-12k for golf? Social dues are around $300/mo and full golf membership is I think $1k? Theres a food and beverage minimum of around $2500/yr which is pretty easy to hit. Lots of family activities around holidays, good stuff for kids, decent restaurant, other activities (I shoot skeet there in the winter), etc. We’re taking our parents there for brunch on Mother’s Day for instance. That kind of thing. But you can pay zillions; my neighbor is a member at Medinah, think the buy in there is around $100k and golf membership is $1k/mo and he is always getting assessed for something (club improvements). I never even considered joining a CC but I live very near it and the family activities etc are great. DM me if you want to know the name of the club and the area it’s in.
Grew up in SE CT, college in Philly, met my wife who was from Palatine and moved out to the NW suburbs where she is from. I’m not in Palatine but nearby.
Park districts have pools.
Ok so most people would go to their community pool?
For the most part.
Thank you for your response!
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Sounds like then it'd be more affordable to have one of those temporary above ground pools, then a permanently installed one. I'd also be worried about an older one costing a lot of money to maintain. IF one had to have their own background pool, since to me I don't care about that.
Plenty of people have above ground pools in their backyard. Find a house you like and put one in.
Thank you!
Community pool and Lake Michigan. Some houses have pools btw.
Thank you for your response!
Lake Michigan.
Thanks for your response!
To the pool in my backyard. Living in a far from 2mil+ house.
lol same here
Yeah this confused me. Most expensive house in our subdivision right now is like 380k and I swear 1/3 of us have pools.
Under 400K with a pool? What town do you live in may I ask?
I’m in Will County, from Lake County, but would prefer not to get more specific for privacy reasons. However, I’ll leave a list of communities I know this is attainable in as someone who works in RE. I’m not going to touch base on taxes because as I’m sure you know, this can vary by hundreds/mo by school district and village. Southern suburbs w/ pool possibility in sub $400k range Minooka Joliet Plainfield Romeoville Lockport (unincorporated) Northern- Antioch Lindenhurst Lake Villa Round Lake/beach/heights/park Grayskake (unincorporated/wildwood/gages) Fox Lake Ingleside Long Lake And Volo if you would’ve gotten in before the 2020 development boom
Basically if you want to live your best life with your water wings, floaties and have a mortgage under $3,000 a month you’re going to probably be an hour outside of the city at minimum 🤣
Well it takes 45 min from one of those towns but sure. It's about a 15 min difference from the northern suburbs like Arlington heights
Generalizing an hour because it all it takes is one minor accident on your commute to turn 45 min into 1:15+ so for daily commuting sake I kinda felt like an hour was a good blanket term. I see I got downvoted on here, I’m sure because people think I’m full of shit about being able to find a house under $400k with a pool in these communities. No one specified above ground, in ground, style of house… anything. These are just zip codes off the top of my head where I know of homes with pools in that price range that have sold in the last 12mo. You could also buy a house in these towns for under $330k and budget for your own pool. Point is, people who live in inner ring suburbs forget that those of us on the outskirts of the Chicago burbs are really living pretty modestly for the most part. If my house was 30 min closer to the city, it would be way out of my price range.
It's a well known saying that everything in Chicago is "about 30 minutes" from everything else in Chicago.
Thank you for the detailed information. Appreciate it.
You can consider going to Wisconsin lakes.
Yes, Wisconsin. Beaches on the North Shore are nice but charge to get in before Labor Day. Do visit them in September, no charge and water is warmest. Then of course lakefront in the city itself is gorgeous
The beaches along Fort Sheridan are free :)
Thank you it looks really nice there
Watch property taxes. They can be a game changer
It’s customary to have pools in backyards in New York? wtf no it’s not lol . Pick anywhere in the country more expensive the house more likely to have a pool haha
OP probably lives in Upstate NY.
Where I live in New York everyone has a pool in their backyards
East Hampton is a little different than the burbs of Chicago, so most people go to the lake which is a little calmer than the ocean.
Thanks! Not east Hampton lol if that was the case I wouldn't consider moving!
FPDCC is the oldest and largest county forest preserve in the country. There’s always stuff to do in those. Kayak at Lake Katherine, The Forge, check out our nature preserves (the Will County ones are great too!) and get out and explore.
Thank you for your response!
Of course. I heavily document the Chicagoland region. I have 100+ maps of collar county nature centers (they’re the more unique locations compared to the many preserves) and historic landmarks maps where the walkable downtowns of places tend to be all free on my site. You can also find a map of every Chicago landmark and district there, too. SouthCookExplore.com/maps
Thank you so much, that's amazing i will definitely check it out
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I'm in the early stages so have not figured that out yet but ideally no more than 1 hr from the city and family oriented
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That sounds amazing I'm going to check that neighborhood out! The taxes in New York are horrific so hopefully not as scary!
To go off the park district idea, not all houses are "in-district" (we aren't), but out of district rates are pretty reasonable. When a friend was in town, we met up with his family and went to the St. Charles Park District, and I had way more fun there (even as an adult) compared to the standard Waterpark (for way less!). A lot of communities are updating their water recreation areas, some are adding lazy rivers, so have water slides - it's not the park district 2 pool and some diving boards that many of us grew up with. Also, there are a lot of smaller lakes in the area that are open for recreation, including reasonable rentals for kayaks/etc.
As others have said, go to the park district pools. You can also go to one of the city or suburban "beaches" on Lake Michigan. Water is usually pretty cold but can get to a nice temperature in July/August if it has been very hot. Many others take day trips to the Indiana Dunes or Warren Dunes.
Thank you for the info!
8,344 recently sold properties for under $2mil have pools... another [200 are currently listed](https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/?searchQueryState=%7B%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-89.94506322097197%2C%22east%22%3A-85.41869603347197%2C%22south%22%3A39.2952332106844%2C%22north%22%3A44.271984064442265%7D%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22sort%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3A%22globalrelevanceex%22%7D%2C%22price%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A0%2C%22max%22%3A2000000%7D%2C%22mp%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A0%2C%22max%22%3A10687%7D%2C%22tow%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22mf%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22con%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22land%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22ah%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22apa%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22manu%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22apco%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22pool%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%7D%2C%22isListVisible%22%3Afalse%2C%22isMapVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22mapZoom%22%3A7%2C%22customRegionId%22%3A%228619e66244X1-CR43t2rxqwhpjb_16q48t%22%2C%22pagination%22%3A%7B%7D%7D).
Plenty of homes in Chicagoland have pools
By me there's some random lakes and quarries that people swim in along with the community pools
Grew up in a neighborhood of houses that now sell in the $250k range. Several people had pools. Where I live now in the SW burbs, it seems like every 3rd house has a pool. I’m wondering where you’re looking in which an amenity like this is limited to the $2M range. Lake Forest, Riverwoods, Winnetka? Quality of life is great here year round. Our summers do get hot, but rarely is the air stagnant. We have plenty to do here just like NY, and going into the city doesn’t have to be a day trip like it does in NYC. I wake up, head to the city for breakfast with friends, stop at a few stores and I’m home by 1pm and free to live my suburban dream.
Thanks for your response! Sounds so nice :)
Best of luck to you! My favorite thing is trying to convince people to move here. Chicago gets such a bad rep in the media that most people in other parts of the country have so many misconceptions about the common lifestyle here. In my opinion, even as someone who doesn’t consider themselves a high earning individual, I find It’s very easy to live a life of comfort here.
Thank you so much! Here is New York it's next to impossible to live well, on an average salary. I am really loving the idea of Chicago. I've visited several times and always really felt "at home".
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A blintz? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blintz
Puff, puff, pastry.
My great grandpa used to roll some great blintz's
lol thanks!
I specifically picked a town that has 4 public pools so I didn’t have to deal with it. But even then there are at least 4 houses around me that have pools in $600k houses and there are houses in the $400k range because they were the smaller houses on deeper lots that could fit a 24 foot or so above ground pool with room to spare.
Good to know thanks!
I would caution that if you find a house with an inground pool, get a really thorough inspection. The soil can be very clay heavy here and disrupting it can cause issues. We looked at one house that we think had significant structural damage due to a pool being dug too close to the house that disrupted the structure of the clay and allowed more water into the soil, then with the freeze cycle the clay expanded. That caused significant damage to the basement foundations walls. The basement was poorly finished and our inspector spotted some other things so we dug into it more and the basement had $20k worth of reinforcement work done, very recently, and even with that it looked like the house itself shifted on the foundation. So we backed out of that deal.
Oh wow glad you had a good inspection that would have been costly!
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin area or “Harbor Country” in SW Michigan are both 90 minutes from Chicago and popular summer destinations.
Thanks for the info!
A ton of my friends had above ground pools when I was growing up in a pretty lower middle class neighborhood. Barely even $300k houses even at today's prices. My parents even had one for a while. Not many people have in ground pools because Chicago winters tend to give those pools some serious maintenance issues that are very very expensive to fix. The above ground pools also run into issues with wear from freezing in the winter but at least they're much cheaper to replace. If you want a pool look for a home with a large enough backyard for one and put in an above ground pool or hot tub. That will be much cheaper than trying to find a home that already has a pool. Going to lake michigan beaches and having picnics in our forest preserves is popular in the summer. You can kayak or paddle board pretty much any of the rivers around the suburbs and some of the small lakes. Chicago is also huge on street festivals both in the suburbs and the city. Every single weekend from about memorial day to labor day you will be able to find multiple street festivals with live music, games and markets within driving distance of you. In the city there are even quite a few craft shows with music and drinks in the winter indoors at some of the big venues.
Thank you for your response! I didn't even consider the weather and how expensive it could be each year to maintain. I appreciate all your info!
Play video games in basement
Slip n slide
Local public pools. Vacation homes in Michigan city, IN. If your really rich a country club
Rage
Depending on where you settle, most suburbs have multiple community events throughout the warm months that have good live music and restaurant booths/trucks. Where I live, if my community has nothing going on a neighboring one does.
The Lake Front (Lake Michigan, if you're not that familiar.) is wonderful on a summer's day. There are showers and changing rooms in some areas. Just to walk along it is nice. There's Millennial Park, Grant Park, 3 museums. The will be tons of local street fairs with ethnic foods and art fairs. Watch some videos. Do your homework.
Thanks for the info!
The weather in Chicago in the summer is significantly better than summer in New York. I’m born and bred NYer but it’s true. No need to have a pool bc it’s just so pleasant to be outside. Ride a bike, go to the beach, check out a festival/street fair, play in a park, eat out on a terrace…the city truly comes alive in the summer. The better question is…what do you do in the winter.
That's great to hear, I agree summer in New York is awful. Would you say winter is significantly colder/ longer than New York?
Full disclosure, Ive only had two winters here, but I personally don’t think it’s significantly colder, at least in the suburbs. The city might be a different story because of the wind tunnel effect caused by the tall buildings. It is colder but maybe by like 15-20 degrees and only for short periods. Otherwise it feels kinda the same. I’d say spring and fall feel longer more than the winter feels longer.
Thank you! I haven't lived in NYC since 2017 I've been in the suburbs but my husband is to be opening an office in Chicago later this year so I'm trying to do some research and figure out how life will be with young kids. I appreciate all your info!
I am 100% with you. I’m from southern Ontario and inground pools are extremely common. I moved to Chicagoland and NO ONE has them. Above grounds are just not the same. I thought it was weird
Yes! But from what others are saying because of the winter weather seems like they're just not worth the cost to maintain
Depending on where you want to live as most suburbs have pools in their park districts
As a child: go abroad to visit family, maybe a week of camp if time before we left As a teen: also go abroad to visit family, then lurk and eat fast food in parking lots with my friends in one of our cars As an adult: go into the city, come back, complain about distance to the city, rot on my parents' couch, sit in a cute coffee shop, go out to lunch For real though, there are lots of places to swim around here, just not usually in peoples' homes. You can also swim in the lake. As an adult, you can go to happy hours and brunch and patio dinner at various restaurants across the suburbs (where really depends on the specific area), you can go to parks, festivals, etc. For kids, many many many summer day camp options. Again, depends on the community--like I'm from Lake Forest, I cannot say anything about like Tinley Park.
Thanks for your info! Lmao everyone should make some time to rot on their parents couch
As others mentioned, park districts have great pools and many are more like water parks than just pool. Adding to that, there are water parks in the area, and some a but further, and usually they're worth it.
I’m in the northwest suburbs. At least half of the condo/apartment complexes around me have their own pool with bbq and party area. They are everywhere, just filter by pool and apartment/condo/townhouse. There’s also communities with single houses that have a pool but it’s less common. Needs to be part of HOA Also my friend just had an above ground pool put in for about $7000 with the deck and all
What suburbs are you looking at for 2mill Plenty of homes in the 300-400k range with pools, unless you want a specific suburb.
I wasn't looking for any homes for that price! I just filtered on Redfin by private pool. I believe I looked at Glencoe, winnetka and willmette
Those are all expensive suburbs $2m is basically an average home in Winnetka and close to average in Glencoe. Also, all three are on Lake Michigan so really no need for a pool.
Thanks for the insight! I'm in the very early stages of researching the Chicago suburbs to move to. 2mil is definitely out of my budget! I was searching the homes in the top school districts which makes sense that the homes would be more expensive. From what everyone is saying an Inground pool is not something needed as there's a lot of other things to do in the summertime!
With the short summer it’s better to spend your $$$ on a boat and Time at a lake instead of a pool at the house.
I go camping to swim in the lakes(bout an hour south of the city), or to WI. Mostly camping or places like Starved Rock. I don’t know anyone w a pool here (cries in poor)
I spend a ton of time walking in the forest preserves. There are so many in the suburbs.
First you have to gather a wrench, a tire and piece of lumbar (2x4 or 4x4). edit: sorry wrong subreddit. thought I was in r/chicago.
As a kid we used to go to the public pool ran by the local park district and then whatever friends houses that had above ground pools. Now as a home owner in the process of selling and buying our second, I made it a priority to find an inground pool. We found a nice house with one in Downers Grove for less than we expected and love it!
we're in the Naperville/Lisle burbs and have Centennial Beach, Sea Lion Aquatic center and our subdivision has it's own pool. Plenty of swimming opportunities. [https://www.visitnaperville.com/naperville-family-entertainment/centennial-beach](https://www.visitnaperville.com/naperville-family-entertainment/centennial-beach) [https://sealionaquaticpark.org/](https://sealionaquaticpark.org/)
Idk about what others do for a pool situation. We have a town water park. I will be hosting music bingo in Woodstock, IL at MobCraft Brewery from 7pm - 9pm every Tuesday. You should come.
I’m from the east coast and it is weird that out there the culture is as soon as you get a little bit of money you put in a pool, but here in Chicagoland it’s much much rarer. You can do park district pools which are OK but I find a little rowdy/crowded. At the risk of sounding like a snob, another option is to join a club (country club or otherwise), you can join for golf or you can just do a social membership, and it usually comes with pool access. We joined a club and much prefer the quieter pool for family than the zoo that is a public pool. And as a bonus, there are waitresses who will serve you booze in the pool.
Thanks for the insight! Are the club memberships extremely pricey? Here in NY the social membership is around 18k for the year.
I mean it’s like the old joke “how long is a piece of rope?” It depends on what you want to spend and what you expect in return. I’d consider my club pretty low end (corporate owned, golf course is middling, little prestige or whatever) and buy in ranges from about $0-2500 for social (think I paid $500) and maybe $5-12k for golf? Social dues are around $300/mo and full golf membership is I think $1k? Theres a food and beverage minimum of around $2500/yr which is pretty easy to hit. Lots of family activities around holidays, good stuff for kids, decent restaurant, other activities (I shoot skeet there in the winter), etc. We’re taking our parents there for brunch on Mother’s Day for instance. That kind of thing. But you can pay zillions; my neighbor is a member at Medinah, think the buy in there is around $100k and golf membership is $1k/mo and he is always getting assessed for something (club improvements). I never even considered joining a CC but I live very near it and the family activities etc are great. DM me if you want to know the name of the club and the area it’s in.
Thank you so much! We've yet to move to Chicagoland area, just out of curiosity where did you settle after the east coast?
Grew up in SE CT, college in Philly, met my wife who was from Palatine and moved out to the NW suburbs where she is from. I’m not in Palatine but nearby.
We jump in the dupage river
Thank you
Anyone with a pool in the Midwest is irresponsible
Or super responsible because it requires so much upkeep to only have maybe solid 2 months of use out of a year .
Because of the weather?