I am looking to buy a single-family home in the Chicagoland area.
However, I am not very familiar with the area. I am only looking for
towns west of I-355 and I would like to purchase a house priced around
or under $350k. In order for me to make my decision, I would like to
have the following information: school district ranking (ACT scores if
possible), average home price, county, average property tax, crime
rate, proximity to major highways, approximate home appreciations in
the area, large companies in the area, and new construction
possibilities. All data must be compiled into an Excel spreadsheet.
Large tip will be left for a thorough answer. Thank you. |
Request for Question Clarification by
alienintelligence-ga
on
10 Apr 2005 18:03 PDT
Hi kelp76,
I recently did some similar research
for a friend. Let me summarize some
of my findings.
Essentially, since you are interested
in statistics for a particular area, the
information can only come from data
being surveyed or collected at some
fixed point in time. You will have to
contend with a lag or lapse in currency
of the data.
I found the data that had the longest
periods between updates was everything
that came from census data. Without
current and local statistics being
reported, things like populations,
distributions and schooling were up
to 5 years old. Important issues
like crime rate and business growth
were on average two years old or
older. And the most important issues,
housing values, financial growth and
zoning were a year or older. Best
case scenario was 2004, but 2003
was most common. In some cases,
data was given as a projection and
not based on a surveyed statistic.
So, with all that said... would you
mind stating an acceptable date
range for the particular items,
or will "most current data" be
acceptable for all data points?
And when projected numbers
are given, should we use those
with a footnote, or use the last
actual collected dataset?
The list breakdown will be based
on township since that will likely
be the source breakdown as well.
When compiling on an excel sheet,
how would you like the sort to
be made? Alpha by town, or sort
by a particular statistic?
Can you give a North, West and
South limitation as well? No sense
collecting data for an area you
wouldn?t consider. A range by
town name, road or lat/long
will be fine.
thanks,
-AI
|
Request for Question Clarification by
alienintelligence-ga
on
10 Apr 2005 18:11 PDT
Hi again kelp76,
Just to double-check, you absolutely
do not want any data for the following
areas:
Buffalo Grove
Wheeling
Arlington Heights
Mount Prospect
Elk Grove Village
Addison
Villa Park
Lombard
Downers Grove
Woodridge
and Darien
thanks,
-AI
|
Clarification of Question by
kelp76-ga
on
10 Apr 2005 20:25 PDT
Most current data will be fine. Please use the last actual collected
dataset. The North limit is Hoffman Estates. The south limit is
Aurora. The west limit would be towns like St Charles, Geneva, and
Batavia. East limit is Lombard. Off the list you provided, please
give info on Addison, Lombard, and Downers Grove. As for the Excel
sheet, please sort by town. Thanks for working on this, AI.
Kelp
|
Request for Question Clarification by
alienintelligence-ga
on
11 Apr 2005 01:12 PDT
Hi again kelp76,
Your spreadsheet will contain the
following information:
oAverage home price
oAverage property tax
oHome appreciation
oNew construction potential
oLarge companies in the area
oProximity to highways, interstates, airports, railways
oCrime rate
oSchool district
oSchool district ranking
oSchool district scores (ACT,SAT,etc)
Due to availability of data, the average home
prices may be actual sale prices, tax value
or listing value. I will ensure consistency
in the spreadsheet.
Do you want the average property tax computed
by current tax rate and avg selling price or
off historical data?
I can get a breakdown for the type of crime
and the crime index vs nationwide index. It
is historical though.
Proximity to highways, interstates, airports
(railroads too?) distances will be from town
center unless otherwise specified.
Home appreciation will be tricky since it
reflects historical periods that might not be
accurate considering recent real estate hikes
and trends. I will try to find the most current
data for this.
Any interest in historical weather data?
In your list, you have:
average home price, county, average property tax,
What does the county refer to?
Which county the city is in?
Which version of Excel do you have?
thanks,
-AI
|
Clarification of Question by
kelp76-ga
on
11 Apr 2005 05:44 PDT
Could you give two columns for property tax - computed and historical?
I don't know how much of a difference there is. Using the town
center sounds the most logical for locations to roads etc. Proximity
railroads isn't important to me. I know I did not have this in the
original question but I would also like if you could list the median
income for each area. Most current data will be acceptable. Not
really interested in historical weather data - I'm sure their all
about the same. County refers to the county the city is in. Some
cities are in two counties and thus their average property tax will be
different. I have Excel 2002 SP3. Everything else sounds great.
Thanks for all your hard work,
-Kelp
|
Request for Question Clarification by
alienintelligence-ga
on
11 Apr 2005 22:18 PDT
Hi kelp76,
The biggest issue so far has been dependence
on government data. Which as can be expected
is tied to census data, circa 2000.
Currently trying to reduce dependence on
government data.
I am having difficulties finding anything beyond
"basic info" on Medinah, Spaulding, and Wayne.
Should I just include what data I can find or leave
them from the list?
Here are the cities I hope to be including:
[pending availability and timeliness of data]
Addison
Aurora
Barlett
Batavia
Bloomingdale
Carol Stream
Downer's Grove
Elgin
Geneva
Glen Ellyn
Glendale Heights
Hanover Park
Hoffman Estates
Lisle
Lombard
Naperville
Roselle
Schaumburg
South Elgin
St. Charles
Streamwood
West Chicago
Wheaton
-AI
|
Clarification of Question by
kelp76-ga
on
12 Apr 2005 05:29 PDT
Please include what data you can find. Also include the year the data
was collected.
-Kelp
|
Request for Question Clarification by
alienintelligence-ga
on
14 Apr 2005 05:36 PDT
Hi Kelp...
Following a slight setback this morning,
I hope to have the excel sheet ready for
you later today.
-AI
[Remember to save frequently] =)
|
Clarification of Question by
kelp76-ga
on
14 Apr 2005 06:52 PDT
aaaaaarrrrrgh! I hate when that happens.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
alienintelligence-ga
on
15 Apr 2005 04:47 PDT
Hi kelp,
Well so far I have the following columns filled in:
County
Pop in 2000
Pop est 2002
Median Income
Avg Home Price
New Construction as of 2003
Home Appreciation Avg over 8yr
Home Appreciation from 2002-2003
Distance to I90
Distanceto I290/I355
Distance to I88
Distance to DuPage
Distance to O'Hare
Crime Rate vs US average
The problem areas are:
Avg Property Tax (Calc)
Avg Property Tax (Hist)
Large Companies in area
School Dist Ranking & Scores
The problem with the school ranking & scores
is finding a ?non-county? list that shows
data based on city.
I have however been able to collect
all of the K-12 schools in a list attached
to the individual city?s tabs on the
excel doc. The lists contain school
name, phone number, county, number
of students and grades taught.
The ?large company? column will
be difficult because it is somewhat
ambiguous in scope when trying to
find relative data. A list would have
to be based on ?what is large? the
amount of employees, yearly income,
growth, etc. Data might not then be
available for the desired demographic.
The property tax, either of them? will
be a cumbersome data point to extract.
Once again it?s based on county. And
each county has their own formula for
extracting a ?fair and reasonable? tax
from everyone. And that formula seems
to change frequently.
If I find historical property tax info, I?m
not sure if I will be able to determine its
basis. [Average of county, average based
on average home value, etc]
Would you like for me to post the
excel file as it is and supply what
other data I can find, as I find it
or would you rather wait for me to
collect the remaining items?
-AI
|
Clarification of Question by
kelp76-ga
on
17 Apr 2005 12:38 PDT
The most important item is the school ranking. I would like to have
as much data as possible for each school district. You don't need to
show data based on the city - just data based on school district.
For the large company column, I am most interested in companies that
employ electrical engineers. Whatever you can find is great. Just
list the companies with the number of employees. Again, just list
what you can find.
For the tax column I am really interested in relative tax rate. I am,
of course, looking for the county with the lowest taxes. Therefore,
list each county from lowest taxes to highest. I am not sure how
taxes are calculated in each county, so list the rate or how you
determined the order. Remember that I am looking for a house in the
$350k range so if there are different rates for price ranges, use the
$350k range.
-Kelp
|
Request for Question Clarification by
alienintelligence-ga
on
19 Apr 2005 04:07 PDT
Hi kelp,
I'm still hunting for data regarding
school district scores. The most recent
and complete statistics I find are the
AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) and the
ISAT (Illinois Standards Achievement Tests)
those are from 2004.
ACT scores don't seem to be in one complete
dataset and I'm finding them piecemeal
from individual websites and listings
such as "Top 50 School districts" the
latter only provided 9 of the 23 cities.
The years of the data range from 2002
to 2003. I'm up to around half of the
districts for the ACT scores.
-AI
|
Request for Question Clarification by
alienintelligence-ga
on
19 Apr 2005 04:53 PDT
Sorry, I was incorrectly putting two
different tallies together in my last
post.
Just to correct and clarify,
I found ACT data for 9 districts
from 6 cities. But there are a
total of 58 school districts in
the 23 cities total.
I can find the ISAT and AYP for
all of those districts but ACT
scores at the granularity of
district level have been rare so
far.
The ISAT would be a good basis
[ http://iirc.niu.edu/scripts/isat.asp ]
[ http://www.isbe.net./news/2003/isat_charts.pdf ]
of comparison for the schools of
Illinois.
-AI
|
Clarification of Question by
kelp76-ga
on
19 Apr 2005 08:52 PDT
Sounds great so far, AI. I was looking for a test that will allow me
to compare all school districts. I thought the ACT would be a good
fit but since it doesn't seem to be available for all schools, the
ISAT and AYP are fine. Could you also provide what you have for the
ACT scores? I am interested in what you've found.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
alienintelligence-ga
on
29 Apr 2005 13:13 PDT
Hi Kelp...
I do not ever like to be on the
short end of information but your
required data points have put me
there, specifically regarding the
employment market.
The long wait between now and my
last post was filled with contacting
local agencies for the West Chicago
area cities.
I spoke with the last person today
that I could think to call, Mr Kaye
with the Illinois Department of
Employment Security. He is one of
their Labor Market Economists for
the Chicago area.
You can see some of his quoted
statements in articles such as:
"Where the Jobs Are;
Naperville's unemployment rate down 0.7 percent over last year"
[ http://www2.suburbanchicagonews.com/sunpub/naper/business/n0424unrate.htm ]
He painted a slightly more bleak
outlook for tech on the phone than
he did in the article. Citing that
over the past 5 years, the local
businesses that employ tech workers
have been having in his words "massive"
layoffs. He followed that with the
statement that they were not hiring
either.
So, I tried to draw some more info
from him. He did seem reluctant to
provide any in-depth info that he
might have, by giving topical answers.
I asked about several sub-industries
beyond electrical tech, such as defense
and aerospace. He said the Chicago
area did not have any strong players
in that area. I asked if any of the
large US based or US subsidiaries
of computer manufacturers were there
and he said not to his knowledge.
He confirmed that the majority of
information I will find online will
be broken down into industry and
county. I inquired about any internal
docs that might not have made it online
he said he couldn't think of any.
That is what I have been faced with
up to now. The data at best is broken
down to county regions but usually
are lumped as a whole for the state.
The industry selections are not very
descriptive or helpful since tech
positions can be hidden deep within
an industry or are just superficially
glossed over with headers such as:
Construction, Professional, Financial,
Trade, Utilities and Government.
Not much help there huh?
During this time I also contacted
recruiters. In essence, that should
have worked but considering they
make their money on me being
hired? I had to lie to get any of
them to talk to me. And then they
only wanted to set up appointments
and not give me any solid leads or
answers about the job market there.
If you contact a recruiter, you might
have more success since you will be
able to answer their questions in
a more direct fashion.
I cannot say with 100% assurance
that the information is not out there
on the net somewhere hidden in
some obscure PDF extract on a
municipal site but I know I have not
been able to come across it yet.
An additional problem when doing
any searches for electrical I end up
with a LOT more results for electricians
or electrical installers. This is of course
I presume far from what I need to
find which would relate to a person who
designs or builds electric circuits &
systems or troubleshoots electrical systems.
That type of work tends to be lumped
under such ambiguous industry headers
like ?Tech?.
Furthermore, the data is so outdated
that it would be ridiculous to base a
move on the data. 2002 is a frequent
year for that stuff. Additionally the
granularity of the info is relegated to
counties typically.
My suggestion would be, if the employment
statistics are still very important to you, you
could cancel this question and pose it as two
new questions, one based on the employment
and the other based on the remaining criteria.
There is still the possibility that my exhausted
resources are not the sum of what the other
researchers might be able to try.
As for the rest of the info, apart from final
editing I have the majority of the other
data gathered, with only property tax
calculations remaining.
If you do split the questions or decide to
negate the other info regarding employment,
I would still be interested in posting the
results that I have assembled for you,
regarding housing, average values, crime
distances to roadways and school scores.
Let me know, I?m sorry I can?t dig up
more stats regarding employment.
thanks,
-AI
|
Clarification of Question by
kelp76-ga
on
02 May 2005 07:46 PDT
AI,
WOW! Thanks for all your hard work. I am still interested in what
you've found for the employment opportunities. You are correct in
thinking that an electrician is very different than an electrical
engineer. You are also correct in what an electrical engineer does.
I am not sure if you are aware of this (although I am sure you are)
but another way to search for places that hire electrical engineers is
by looking for jobs that require a BSEE (Bachelor of Science in
Electrical Engineering). This could help get through the problem of
finding electrician postings.
However, I will be satisfied with what you have found thus far for
employment for electrical engineers. Just break it down as best as
you can and I will consider the question answered. If I want more
information, I will post another question specifically targeting
employment opportunities (although it sounds like there aren't any
good places to find the info on the web).
From what it looks like, you can post your answer as soon as you
calculate the property tax column. I look forward to seeing what you
have found.
Regards,
Kelp
|
