I'm in the NW suburbs, lake in the hills to be exact. Its roughly a 45 minute drive into the city in non rush hour traffic. During rush hour it can easily take an hour and a half to get down town.
Wife and I bought our house for $150k back in October. Its 2100 SF, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, pretty small yard. It was a foreclosure, so that did help the price, we've had to do a lot of work on it. Oh, property taxes are around $5500 a year, after we went through the process of having them reduced.
Other houses in my neighborhood are selling for around $220k for similar floor plans now, however they are all in great shape.
The next town over does have the metra into the city, its an hour and 10 minute ride in. Going closer to the city it does get more expensive at first. Down the metra line you will pass through Cary and fox river grove, nice towns, similar to the one I live in, then Barrington, very wealthy community, huge, very expensive houses. Next is Palatine, nice in some areas, not so nice in others, tends to be very expensive.
I've found the further from the city you go, the more house you can get for the money (for the most part). I don't know much about the west or south burbs, but if there's an area you are looking at feel free to ask, I may know a bit more about certain cities. Hope that helps a bit
