Youngest Brother is retiring from the Army this summer after 22 or 23 years.
He is leaning towards the Fox Lake area. He wants to buy a boat, be close to if not on the water and have a nice chunk of land. Also wants an area with a good HS. His daughter will be going in to her Freshman year of HS. Doesnt want to spend more than $350k. He doesnt have to be on or in "Fox Lake" but in the area. Not being on the water is not a deal breaker, as mentioned above close to water would be okay.
You're not going to be "on the water" with a "nice chunk of land" anywhere you'd want to live for under 4/500k, but that's only half the story because depending where you are you'll have $15-30k in property taxes.
There's a few high schools in the area, McHenry has two, Johnsburg has one, Fox Lake has Grant, Antioch has one, Lake Villa has Lakes, then northwestish of the chain has Richmond Burton for some houses.
Grant seems like it's gotten better supposedly? I purposely bought my most recent house to stay out of that school district. Antioch and Lakes high school/school systems are some of the better in the area. McHenry is hit or miss depending who you talk to. Johnsburg is tanking because of the clique nature of the area and the way the "young" baby boomer parents aren't vacating their late 80's half acre 3,000 sq ft brown everything homes. Richmond Burton is solid it seems.
To find what he's wanting for- with a nice chunk of land, he will likely want to find a house that has a neighborhood boat slip setup or marina or something. Finding houses on the chain on more than a half acre, you're either going to pay for it, or you're going to be making compromises. Whether it's school district, potential flooding issues, a shit road to "get back to the house" etc.
I mean, frankly, what's his price range?
Also without knowing the area, MAKE FUCKING SURE the house is actually ON THE CHAIN if it's on water. A LOT of little lakes out here, don't connect, and don't allow power or have horsepower restrictions. These realtors word it fucking hilariously to if you don't know which lakes are on the chain you could get burned.