Hi M. - Please forgive me if I'm out of line by ignoring your request not to refer you to other towns, but I would hate for you to miss out on other communities simply because you have been getting poor advice from whoever has caused you to conclude that you would only want to consider looking in Naperville or possibly Lisle.
Wheaton (which is adjacent to Naperville's north side) and Glen Ellyn (which is adjacent to Wheaton's east side and is often considered to be its "sister city") are both extremely nice places to live and have excellent school districts. In fact, the Naperville/Wheaton/Glen Ellyn area is usually thought of, particularly by real estate agents, as one geographic unit in the western suburbs of Chicago. Lisle is not typically considered to be a part of that trio, so I'm kind of surprised that the only place you have heard to try other than Naperville is Lisle. Perhaps you are trying to remain close to a particular location (work or school?), but if you are willing to expand your search to Wheaton and/or Glen Ellyn, I don't think you will be disappointed with either of those cities as places to settle down and raise a family. I am a 41-year-old lawyer who was born and raised in Wheaton, and, after living many of my young adult years in Dallas, Chicago and NYC, I returned to Wheaton to buy a home and raise my 3 kids.
As for your price range though, unless the housing market is much cheaper than I realize, or unless you are willing to buy a real fixer-upper, I think your expectations (whether in Naperville, Lisle, Wheaton or Glen Ellyn) of finding a decent single family home for $200,000 or less are a little unrealistic. I suppose your real price range though could be as much as $220,000, considering that you would probably put down 10% (i.e., $20,000), and get as much as a $200,000 mortgage for the rest of the purchase price. $220,000 is becoming more realistic, although, reading your posting, my guess is that you will still be disappointed in your options in that price range in the cities to which you are limiting yourself.
Having said that though, my next-door neighbors here in Wheaton are a couple in their 70s who - because they are getting "up there" in years and want to be free to travel - would love to unload a single-family home adjacent to their property and mine that they have owned and rented for years to various families. They just finished renovating it - new carpet and paint - after the last family moved out last month after living in it for 5 years with their 4 children. It's a 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom home with attached garage - a great starter home in move-in condition that they are currently offering as a rental on Craigslist for, I think, $1,300/mo. However, I know that they would love to sell it, not just rent it, but they haven't yet gotten around to listing it with a broker (so that will keep the price down). Knowing their eagerness to sell, and their dread of going through the process of trying to market and sell it, I wouldn't be surprised if you could "buy it for a song" right now before they get around to listing it with a broker. You could also "rent to own" it - basically, you could write your own ticket right now because they very much want to be done with owning/renting the place, period. Plus, as you may know, if you close on the home before 7/1/10, and if it is the first home you have ever owned, you would be eligible for the $8,000 first-time homebuyer's credit (see http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=206291,00.html).
Please contact me if you would like me to put you in touch with my neighbors about the house. It is a truly lovely place to which I have always considered moving my elderly MIL from NYC so that I can look after her, although she is very stubborn, so I doubt that will ever happen. Her loss, your gain. :)
L.