possible relocation to West Lafayette (Clayton: sales, rent, lender)

[sponger42]

I second what Patken said about the developments around Harrison--and north/east of Purdue in general. The whole area overbuilt during the housing bubble and now is a good time to snap up deals.

Also, Coyote Crossing (new golf course near Harisson) was completed around 2001, which spurred irrational exhuberance amongst all the other developers in the area.

That said, I would avoid some of the denser developments built by major developers in the Harisson area. They did a rush job on some of those cornfield*poof*suburb! houses, so the construction might not be up to par. If you're buying new, or wanting to buy land and build your own I would look for homes built by local independant homebuilders with a good reputation.

I know a couple of people I can recommend (and who can tell you more about construction in the area), but I'm not sure it's kosher to name names, so message me if you want my recommendations and their contact information.

Off-Topic: There are also too many student apartment rentals in cornfield-turned-apartments near blackbird pond. The problem is; those apartments are too far from campus during the winter when Lafayette gets a couple of serious snowfalls. They run erratic private bus services to try to make up for it, but they never really seemed to operate on any sort of sustainable or sensible model, and the increase in gas prices isn't helping. My advice to any students reading this would be to live close enough to bike or walk rather than join all the poor *******s who had to commute in during the hail and sleet and fight for the vanishingly-few "C" parking spaces available.

[phlute23]

How is WL during heavy rains? Is there a lot of flooding? If so, in what particular areas? What should we look out for when we are house hunting to make sure our home wouldn't be affected by floods? Thanks!

[Hokieed]

Originally Posted by phlute23

How is WL during heavy rains? Is there a lot of flooding? If so, in what particular areas? What should we look out for when we are house hunting to make sure our home wouldn't be affected by floods? Thanks!

I was actually wondering that myself lately. I even googled for flood images of Lafayette/West Lafayette and didn't see too many linked. I would think the lafayette side of the river floods the most... around the railroad tracks and I bet the city floods every 100 years or somethin. I assume sll they need is a rapid warming and melting of snow and heavy rains north on the wabash.

[sponger42]

North River Road (US 431) floods and closes about twice a year. There's lots of corn fields that get submerged about 4 times a year--along with the public golf course, which spends about 4 months underwater when it's a dry season.

Town pretty much never floods since it's pretty high above the river and they installed a flood control dam upstream on the Tippecanoe tributary in the 50's. The last time the RR bridge went underwater was around 1945. There was a big flood in 2003, and a few places on the levee had a few feet of water. I was in an apartment by the river then, and it came right into the parking lot. Submerged 2-3 cars of students who were gone for the summer. Bummer for them.

Other than a few on NRiver Road, there aren't any houses in danger of floating away. You get big puddles and sometimes closed county roads out in the countryside. Mostly it's standing water and not dangerous, though, except for a handful of creeks. Snow and ice storms are a bigger issue with countryside areas losing power for weeks on end in -20 degree weather every few years.

It can rain heavily and make yards into shallow ponds. Just check your lot's drainage before you buy and you'll be fine, especially if you're not directly in the Wabash River Valley.

[patken44]

Couple corrections to sponger's post. N. River Rd. is SR 43. Flood stage for the Wabash is 11 ft. It has to hit close to 20' to close 43. The record flood of 1913 hit 33'. Here's a page that lists when different areas start to flood. The worst floods recently have only hit around 25'. Also, there are no flood control dams on the Tippecanoe River, but there are two power generating ones. There was some record flooding along the Tippecanoe this year (twice, actually), and the downstream residents did much grousing about the fact that NIPSCO, which operates the dams, didn't do anything to try to alleviate it. And NIPSCO claims there wasn't much they could do, as the dams aren't licensed for flood control. In the '60s, a dam was planned for the Wildcat Creek, to be operated for flood control by the Army Corps of Engineers, but your friendly local environmentalists got involved and killed it.

But basically, unless you're living on the river, you're fine. And I do believe sponger's exaggerating on the ice storms. We had a really bad one in 1991, but nothing approaching it since. Yes, you'll occasionally lose power during a storm (tree falls on a powerline, lightning strikes a substation, etc.), but it's rarely for more than a couple hours at most.

[domergurl]

Word of warning ... trust me, you are better off driving! Amtrak is the absolutely, most horribly non-reliable transportation system in the midwest, save for their train from Chicago to Milwaukee. It will take you longer to get to either place by train, trust me!

[Hokieed]

Thanks for the flood info and links! Great to know. Looks like this year might be pushin' the historical records.


And I have decided based on overwhelming evidence... we will DRIVE to Chicago if we take a weekend trip. We will just use the car with good gas milage.

[teamplayer]

Originally Posted by patken44

It takes 2 to 2.5 hours to get to Chicago driving. ... I took Amtrak there once. ..... I think people can generally be grouped into two categories here: those who think taking the train to Chicago someday sounds like a good idea, and those who have vowed to never make that same mistake again.

So true of me. Amtrak took me nearly 4 hours...once.

My preferred route from Lafayette to Shicago takes me on US 52, US 41, and back highways near Kentland, IN, Morocco, IN, and Grant Park, IL, and avoids any chance of jams enroute.

To those browsing real estate, you will be glad to see that most of the Lafayette & West Laf. area was covered by Google Street View last summer (maps.google.com, click on Street View). You can really get more of an impression of old neighborhoods. (New cornfield->shazam developments, though, were skipped.) There are a few streets in West Lafayette, easily identified by the scattering of backward-parked cars, where you do NOT want to buy. And W. Laf has nothing on Lafayette in that category.

[phlute23]

Hokieed - Did you make your house hunting trip yet? How did it go? I hope you are successful and am anxious to hear about it as we are planning our trip at the end of April. Seems like there are so many good options out there right now it is hard to narrow the list! Good luck

[Hokieed]

Originally Posted by phlute23

Hokieed - Did you make your house hunting trip yet? How did it go? I hope you are successful and am anxious to hear about it as we are planning our trip at the end of April. Seems like there are so many good options out there right now it is hard to narrow the list! Good luck

I Just got back from house hunting and shop hunting for a week in West lafayette/Lafayette. I got quite a bit accomplished... looked at lots of homes, narrowed them down, made an offer on a house. Offer was accepted. Got the home inspection done, and am arranging everything else for a move there at the end of may. Finding a shop was not as simple and it looks like I will be driving a long way to get to work.... 10 miles... is that REALLY a long way? Anyways, here is what I found:


Reality hit me about West Lafayette Schools once I started running the numbers.... I would be paying quite a bit more for a house and more in taxes JUST to try and ensure that I have a better location for resale in the future. It didn't make sense for me to pay all that when I wouldn't even be using the schools. Plus, the homes in my price-range inside the school district were all pretty horrible. (floor plans, craftsmanship, age, etc.) I could find a newer, cheaper house on the outskirts of West Lafayette.

We drove all throughout Lafayette and simply did not see a place where we would have been comfortable living. So, we kept it on the WL side of the Wabash.

We found a home in the Colony Pines Subdivision, which is in the North of WL, right on the Bike Trail (which was a HUGE plus for us). The neighborhood was closer to grocery shopping and gas and other necessities, than was found in the newer subdivisions to the west of WL at Lindburg Village.

There are quite a few homes available in Colony Pines at great prices and some show great too. The neighborhood is younger and has many Purdue related people which appealed to us. If you are searching for homes, these are homes on: Abanaki, Chenango, Halyard, and Owasco.

Lindburg Village also has nice, newer and affordable homes, but they really aren't near anything.

I'm sure I have more to say and will post as I come up with it. Please ask me some questions and I'll get back to you with better answers.

This board was a great help with my search, so thanks everyone.