Aske,
I am a lifelong Chicagoland resident and currently live in the Bolingbrook area.
Naperville is #2 on Money's top 100 places to live list
http://money.cnn.com/maga.../snapshots/PL1751622.htmlIn general, the farther you get frrom Chicago the more house you can get for the $$$. Naperville is fairly pricey, Bolingbrook and Plainfield are good values housing wise. Bolingbrook has a GREAT park district, water parks, and two golf courses - a nice 9 hole executive and a Championship, resort level course Bolingbrook Golf Club
www.bolingbrookgolfclub.com GOLF - Tons of courses in the Chicago area, one of the golf crazy capitals of the World. Everything from $30 daily fee munis to $100+.
TRAFFIC - I will not kid you, traffic here sucks just like most big cities. Ideal to live 10 miles or less from work. I live 25 miles from work and my commute takes 45 minutes on a good day. Throw in some snow and that could easily change to 1:15. Taking a drive in morning rush from Naperville to downtown take and hour and a half, minimum.
SCHOOLS - Not sure if you have kids yet or not but the schools vary greatly by area. Illinois has the most screwed up way of funding schools, with property taxes paying for about 60% of all school funding. The result is that wealthy areas have really great schools and poor areas have terrible schools. It aint right but that's the way it is. Check schools carefully. Here's a good site
http://iirc.niu.edu/TAXES - State income tax is 3%. Property taxes are high - $400k house will run $7-8K per year in property taxes.
Not sure what else to say. I'm sure you have questions so fire away.