Aurora

Aurora is the second-largest city in Illinois, about 180,000 people spread along the Fox River 40 miles west of the Loop, and one of the most diverse. Its downtown, once hollowed out, has come back around the Paramount Theatre, a 1931 movie palace that now runs a Broadway series with subscriptions in the tens of thousands, plus RiverEdge Park’s outdoor concerts and a Christkindlmarket. The east side toward Naperville is newer subdivisions and the Chicago Premium Outlets; the west side and the old near-downtown neighborhoods have Victorians and bungalows at low prices. The city spans four counties.

Where it is

On the map, Aurora straddles the Fox River between Batavia and Montgomery, with the downtown on Stolp Island and the east bank around Broadway and Galena Boulevard, and stretches east to Naperville and Route 59. Metra’s BNSF line ends at Aurora’s Transportation Center downtown, about an hour to Union Station on the express. I-88 runs along the north side with exits at Farnsworth, Orchard Road and Route 59, and Route 31, Route 25 and Lake Street are the local roads. The Loop is an hour or more by car.

What to know if you’re moving here

Aurora is a real city with real neighborhoods, and the prices vary as much as the housing.

• Housing is bungalows and Victorians on the near-west and near-east sides, subdivisions on the far east and west, and downtown lofts, with typical prices of roughly $200,000 to $600,000 as a broad editorial estimate as of September 2026.
• Parking is driveways and garages, with city garages downtown.
• Public schools are East Aurora District 131, West Aurora District 129, Indian Prairie District 204 on the far east side and Oswego District 308 on the south, which makes address checking essential.
• The city spans Kane, DuPage, Kendall and Will counties, so tax bills come from different assessors depending on the address.
• The BNSF terminal downtown has a large lot and express trains, and Route 59 has a second stop on the east side.
• The drawback is distance and a downtown that is still uneven block to block despite the theater’s success.

What to do if you’re visiting

Downtown and Stolp Island are walkable from the Transportation Center; the outlets are on the east side by car. Most of what follows sits within four blocks of the Metra platform.

• A self-produced Broadway series that has won Jeff Awards since 2015 runs year-round at the Paramount Theatre, the Rapp & Rapp palace on Galena Boulevard that opened on September 3, 1931.
• Directly across Broadway from the train station, Two Brothers Roundhouse serves dinner, house-brewed beer and spirits from an on-site distillery inside a limestone railroad roundhouse.
• Two blocks south of the station, the Aurora Regional Fire Museum fills the 1894 Central Fire Station on Broadway, with $5 admission and free parking on LaSalle Street.
• Enchiladas from a family recipe, live music on Fridays and an all-season patio make La Quinta de los Reyes on East New York Street the downtown dinner stop, and across the river Ballydoyle Irish Pub has live music and private rooms for 15 to 100.
• Books for all ages and work by local artists fill Yellow Bird Books in the Keystone Building on Stolp Avenue, a block from the Paramount and a stop on the First Fridays art walk.
• RiverEdge Park on the river hosts summer concerts and the Christkindlmarket Aurora from late November through Christmas Eve, and Phillips Park on the southeast side has a free zoo, a golf course and the Festival of Lights drive-through in December.