Hey.
I'm basically from where CCOM is (less than a hour away), so I guess I can field the house question: it's expensive. Honestly, I think about 180,000 is the absolute lowest you could pay for something that's not a dump...and at the same time, I don't think you'll find anything for that price. I think recently I've seen stuff going for the mid 200's and 300's.
I'm sure there's gotta be exceptions to that if you look around...
Edit: Know what? I think I'm wrong. I think it's higher. I checked some real estate site out of curiosity, and found one with the title "IN DOWNERS GROVE FOR UNDER 300,000!!!!!!!" ....dude, that's not a good sign. Most of the homes on the sites I checked were high 200s, low 300s.