The Best Ice Cream and Frozen Custard in the Southwest Suburbs

Good ice cream is a year-round sport around here, but summer is when it becomes a weekly ritual: after the ballgame, after the splash pad, or just because it hit eighty and somebody in the car said the word. The southwest suburbs are loaded with options, from national custard stands to parlors that

How to Appeal Your Property Taxes in Cook County (From Someone Who Did It)

A couple of years ago I opened my own reassessment notice and my stomach dropped. The county's estimate of what my house was worth had jumped, and I knew exactly what that meant for the tax bill coming behind it. So I did something most people never do. I appealed it myself. No attorney, no firm, no

Pumpkin Patches Near the Southwest Suburbs (Locals vs. the Big Festivals)

Nobody actually needs to "pick a pumpkin off the vine." The pumpkin on your porch came out of a bin either way. What people really want in the fall is one of two things: a good pumpkin from somewhere close and honest, or a whole day out, hayrides, corn maze, cider, the works. So that is how this gui

Buyer's Market vs. Seller's Market: Which One Are You Actually In?

Search this question and you'll get three answers at once: national headlines calling it a buyer's market, state data calling Illinois a seller's market, and your own town's numbers saying something more specific than either. Here's the uncomfortable truth: all three can be right at the same time, b