Sugar Grove is the Best!

According to BusinessWeek, Sugar Grove is the best place to live in Illinois! I have to agree. We're minutes from tons of great restaurants and shopping, there's very little crime, and we're close to the train and highway.

It looks like the population has grown by 70% since 1999, which explains the new Jewel and Aldi grocery stores. I've also heard that the township is planning a town square like the one in Woodstock (see the movie Groundhog Day) which can only help to draw more folks westward.

I think the rise of Sugar Grove is mostly due to the relatively high cost of living in St. Charles, Geneva, or Batavia coupled with the concerns about safety in Aurora. Further, Elburn prices rocketed when the train station was announced. I think a lot of folks saw the value in saving tens of thousands of dollars by adding five or ten minutes to the drive to the station.

The flip side is that the subdivision of fancy, new homes that backs up to our older subdivision has all but stopped building. The cost of new homes is very high in Sugar Grove and there appears to be an inventory building. Hopefully, the Spring will bring a bunch of new home sales and the media will switch its focus back to terrorism and Brittney Spears. (You know, important stuff.)

**Oh, this is important!** Before I forget, our next-door neighbors had to move out due to foreclosure. It's sad because they were pretty nice. However, it would be great if someone we knew could get a killer deal on the house next door. It's bigger than our house but will likely sell for less due to the circumstances. If you have any interest or know someone that might be looking for a nice house in the Western burbs, let me know!