Hinsdale & Oak Brook

Hinsdale and Oak Brook are the affluent western suburbs where DuPage County’s money lives and works. Hinsdale has a downtown of boutiques and restaurants around its BNSF station, blocks of large houses that have been torn down and rebuilt as bigger ones, and Hinsdale Central High School’s reputation. Oak Brook, north of it, is a corporate town: McDonald’s global headquarters until 2018 and still the home of many companies, Oakbrook Center’s open-air mall, polo grounds and a village with few residents relative to its office parks. Together they have some of the highest household incomes in Illinois.

Where it is

On the map, Hinsdale sits between Western Springs and Clarendon Hills along the BNSF line, from Ogden Avenue south to 55th Street; Oak Brook is north of Ogden between the Tri-State Tollway and Route 83, bounded by I-88 on the north. Metra’s BNSF line stops at Hinsdale, Highlands and West Hinsdale, about 30 minutes to Union Station. Oak Brook has no train service and is reached by I-88, I-294 and Route 83, with Pace buses on 22nd Street. Driving downtown from either takes 35 to 50 minutes.

What to know if you’re moving here

Hinsdale is teardowns and top schools; Oak Brook is large lots, low taxes and a car for everything.

• Housing is estates and new construction on teardown lots in Hinsdale and large single-family homes and townhomes in Oak Brook, with typical prices of roughly $600,000 to $5 million and up as a broad editorial estimate as of September 2026.
• Parking is driveways and garages; downtown Hinsdale has metered street parking and a village garage.
• Public schools are Hinsdale District 181, Butler District 53 in Oak Brook and Hinsdale Township High School District 86 (Hinsdale Central).
• Oak Brook levies no municipal property tax, funding itself through sales tax from the mall, which keeps residents’ bills lower than neighbors’.
• Hinsdale’s historic preservation rules have tightened after decades of teardowns, so check the status of any older house before planning changes.
• The drawback is Oak Brook’s lack of a walkable center or train, and Hinsdale’s prices, which are the highest in DuPage.

What to do if you’re visiting

Downtown Hinsdale is walkable from the Metra stop; Oak Brook needs a car.

• Dinner downtown means Nabuki, the sushi restaurant on First Street, or Vistro Prime, Paul Virant’s steakhouse on Washington Street with live music the first Thursday of each month.
• For a coffee and a slice of cake, Toni Patisserie & Cafe on Washington Street has baked French-style pastries and celebration cakes since 1994.
• Two family grocers still trade downtown: Kramer Foods, at Grant Square since 1960 with a homemade deli, and The Fruit Store on First Street, which dips caramel apples and cuts a salad bar daily.
• Hardware and handyman help have come from Fuller’s Home & Hardware on East First Street since 1946.
• In Oak Brook, The Drake Oak Brook on York Road, built in 1961 and reopened in 2015, serves afternoon tea and Sunday brunch on grounds that earned arboretum accreditation in 2026.
• The Oak Brook Polo Club on York Road hosts matches on summer Sundays, a tradition since 1922.