I'm a realtor in Northbrook so I'll give you the honest rundown. For families it's really hard to beat. The schools in District 28 feed into Glenbrook North, which is consistently one of the top public high schools in the state. Park District is absurdly active too, my kids basically live there between soccer, swimming, and all the summer camps. Real talk on the money side though. Property taxes are not cheap. You're looking at roughly 2.2 to 2.4% of home value, so on a $600K house that's $13-14K a year. That catches a lot of people off guard. Median home price right now is somewhere in the $500-625K range depending on which part of town. West side near Techny you'll get bigger lots for less. Closer to downtown Northbrook near Shermer Rd is more walkable but you're paying for it. Metra into the city is about 40-45 min which is totally doable. Inventory has been tight lately, maybe 60-70 homes on market at any given time which is low for a town this size. So if you see something you like, don't sit on it too long. One thing people don't always think about, the restaurant scene on Dundee Rd has gotten surprisingly good in the last few years. You're not going to starve out here. Happy to answer anything else, this is literally my backyard.