cheapie

i got a job offer and will likely accept it and relocate to the chicago area this fall.

i'm not making a ton of money now, less than 90k and will likely have about 35-45k to put down on a house/condo/etc. fwiw, we have zero debt other than our house and aren't likely to add any in the near future.

the company i'm likely to work for has made it clear that they think i'll only be in this location for 2-3 years before they promote me and move me to DF's fine city.

should i buy something or just rent? we've ALWAYS thought it would be cool to live in the city somewhere. should we get a condo in chicago itself and be close to the museums, shopping, lake michigan, etc....but risk having to send our kids to crappy schools?

or should we live in the suburbs and just take the train into town when we feel like it and live in an actual house and be able to send the kids to a decent school?

we've never lived in a decent-sized city so we don't know what it's really like.

one more thing that might help is that if we live near the city, our friends/family that want to visit will be able to take the south shore train in from basically the IN/MI border for just a couple $ and visit us. if we live in the burbs, it will be a nightmare for them to get to us and i can't see us realistically staying that close if we do.

help!

btw, congrats on the new job RAY!

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