Guidance on interesting suburbs of Chicago

[Adam Sporinsky]

I have lived in the city of Chicago for 7 years and know a pretty good amount about the various neighborhoods in the city, and I have what I feel is a decent list of target areas.  When it comes to the Chicago suburbs however, I am pretty ignorant.  There are so many suburbs to look at, I don't think it would be very efficient to just wing it and look into values and comps in all of them.

What are some suburbs of Chicago that offer good deals or are up and coming today? My goal is to do several SFH flips, but my longer term plan involves multi unit buy and holds, so advice on burbs for either strategy are very welcome. I have heard good things about Oak Park, Forest Park and Berwyn, but beyond that I don't really know where to look. Any suggestions from the other successful investors targeting the Chicago suburbs have recommendations for places to start looking into so that I can finish building my criteria?