If not Indianapolis suburbs, then where??? (Fort Wayne, Evansville: house, job market, safe area)

[ImmerLernen]

I normally post on the Indianapolis forum, but I wanted to cast a wider net for this question:

Aside from the northern suburbs of Indianapolis (Carmel, Fishers, Zionsville) and the western/southern suburbs (Brownsburg, Avon, Greenwood), where would you choose to live in Indiana, and why?

We are a family of four (mom, dad, two school-age kids), looking to relocate from Southern California. We're attracted to the Indy area for a lot of reasons, but the rapid growth, particularly in the Carmel area, concerns me a bit. While we'd like to step back in time to the good old days of Orange County, CA (before it was so over-crowded and over-expensive yet still had nice suburban neighborhoods, good schools, and everyday conveniences), we're concerned about things heading in the same (a.k.a. wrong) direction SoCal has (traffic congestion, over-crowding, more crime, higher taxes, etc.).

We've identified Indiana as a state that, in general, meets many of our wants and needs, but I'm wondering if we've been too narrowly focused on the suburbs of Indianapolis. I'm gun-shy about heading too far north with (what I've heard) is the extra snow/longer winters, but maybe that's not such an issue(?). I definitely don't want to be so far out in the country that we'd be isolated from typical suburban conveniences (grocery stores, casual restaurants, big box stores, hospitals, part-time jobs for the kids when they get into their teen years).

We'd be looking to purchase a single family home for $500K or less on no less than a third of an acre in a safe area that has at least decent public schools. And nearby community college(s) and/or university(ies) wouldn't hurt either.

Can anyone suggest some areas we might consider? Or are we on the right track focusing on the Indy 'burbs???

[sheerbliss]

People originally from Indy have a very different idea of "crowded" and "congested" than we do. Aside from backups on the highways during rush hour, traffic here could double without approaching Denver's congestion. The development in Carmel is nothing like Denver's ugly suburban sprawl or hideous infill. They can't make it too crowded here because of storm drainage issues. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

For reference, even back in 2009, the last time I was in Los Angeles, I wondered where all the traffic was that I kept hearing about. My cousin compared downtown Denver traffic to Midtown Manhattan (she used to live in New York city).

[ServoMiff]

Bloomington, or thereabouts - easily. It's about as close to So-Cal (in terms of politics and lifestyle) as you're going to find in the state. $500k would buy you a house that would be in the upper echelon, probably not far below the John Cougar Mellencamp level. You have community colleges and Indiana University (#1 public undergrad business school in the nation) there, as well as well rated grade schools in Monroe County (especially the northern part of B-ton). You don't have ALL of the big box stores, but because it's a college town, there's plenty of age appropriate shopping and it's a well-known nice retirement community there and in neighboring Brown County to the east. Also because of the school, there are plenty of ethnic and high end restaurants for the professors and bars/pubs for the more casual end - B-ton is also very family friendly in my opinion.

Indy traffic really isn't bad unless you have to commute from downtown to Noblesville and reverse during the worst parts of rush hour, but in my opinion, Indy is less ideal for you based on what you described.

I lived in Fishers/Noblesville for 8 years and another 2 years in Bloomington. The only possible negative unless you work in education/admin is that Bloomington's job market is pretty rough. If you're able to work remotely to bypass this issue, than it is by FAR the most logical choice that would get you further south to tame old man winter a bit (it was still quite cold this year with more snow than usual even as far south as Louisville) and in a more hilly, scenic area as well. I really hated the flatness of Indy when I lived there, but the job market in Indy and the low COL relative to the size is what makes it more desirable.

[ColdAilment]

Originally Posted by ImmerLernen

I normally post on the Indianapolis forum, but I wanted to cast a wider net for this question:

Aside from the northern suburbs of Indianapolis (Carmel, Fishers, Zionsville) and the western/southern suburbs (Brownsburg, Avon, Greenwood), where would you choose to live in Indiana, and why?

We are a family of four (mom, dad, two school-age kids), looking to relocate from Southern California. We're attracted to the Indy area for a lot of reasons, but the rapid growth, particularly in the Carmel area, concerns me a bit. While we'd like to step back in time to the good old days of Orange County, CA (before it was so over-crowded and over-expensive yet still had nice suburban neighborhoods, good schools, and everyday conveniences), we're concerned about things heading in the same (a.k.a. wrong) direction SoCal has (traffic congestion, over-crowding, more crime, higher taxes, etc.).

We've identified Indiana as a state that, in general, meets many of our wants and needs, but I'm wondering if we've been too narrowly focused on the suburbs of Indianapolis. I'm gun-shy about heading too far north with (what I've heard) is the extra snow/longer winters, but maybe that's not such an issue(?). I definitely don't want to be so far out in the country that we'd be isolated from typical suburban conveniences (grocery stores, casual restaurants, big box stores, hospitals, part-time jobs for the kids when they get into their teen years).

We'd be looking to purchase a single family home for $500K or less on no less than a third of an acre in a safe area that has at least decent public schools. And nearby community college(s) and/or university(ies) wouldn't hurt either.

Can anyone suggest some areas we might consider? Or are we on the right track focusing on the Indy 'burbs???

Granger in north eastern St. Joseph County fits the bill. It's basically the Fishers of the South Bend-Elkhart metro region (even though they're technically two separate metropolitan areas).


Penn Harris Township schools which operate in eastern St. Joseph County take kids from the county, eastern Mishawaka, and practically all of Granger. Penn schools are some of the highest rated in the state, and their sports department regularly goes to the sectional and state tournaments. They actually lost to Carmel in basketball in state last year.

Personally I'd rather live in the city than in the burbs, but you can't easily get a half acre or more inside the city.

[ischyros]

You could look in Fort Wayne. It's the 2nd largest city in Indiana at around 250,000. I lived there for a couple years and loved it, visited often growing up as well. It's further north but doesn't get much more snow than Indianapolis. And it's far enough east to be out of the lake effect snow belt. The north and southwest sides are the best areas but north has been growing a lot. So that may not be what you want. The southwest side has been pretty steady. And you can pretty quickly get to restuarants at Covington Plaza and Times Corner areas and just up from there is Jefferson Pointe, a big outdoor mall with all the usual big box stores (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, Kohls, Lowes). And it's less than 15 minutes up the interstate to the Glenbrook/Coliseum area which has almost anything else you could want. You can also be in downtown Fort Wayne from there in about 15 minutes. There's the big Lutheran Hopistal right at I-69 and Jefferson Blvd there, too.

The colleges in town for the most part are on the north side, both IPFW (Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne) and Ivy Tech, a community college. There's also the University of St. Francis, a small Catholic university just northwest of downtown. Southwest Fort Wayne would also be just 20 minutes from Huntington, a small city with a twin-screen drive-in and it's own Huntington University. And less than an hour and a half to the northeast side of Indianapolis or about 2 hours to downtown Indianapolis.

[popcorn247]

I really love Lafayette, IN. It is 60 miles northwest of Indy and about 110 miles south of Chicago. We have Purdue University, a very fine university, just across the Wabash River. Lots of industry (Caterpillar, Wabash National, Subaru (the only one in North America) and many other employers. It is a busy, bustling growing community. I grew up here and after finishing at Purdue, I moved to south Florida for my career. After retirement, 43 years later, I've moved back to Lafayette and couldn't be happier. Lafayette has several grocery stores, lots of restaurants (~ 150!), a very strong middle class, several hospitals, etc.

[Serious Conversation]

Absolutely agree with Servo. Bloomington would also be my top choice, and it's a great little town. Bloomington has a Walmart, Best Buy, and some other big box shopping. It has excellent restaurants, a wonderful downtown, and proximity to Brown County State Park, Lake Monroe, and the Hoosier National Forest. I think the nearest Meijer is in Camby. Bigger stuff like major malls and Costco would be done in Indy, but it's around an hour back to town.

You could commute to downtown Indy from Bloomington. It would be rough, but doable. Commuting from Bloomington to somewhere like Keystone at the Crossing would test my patience.

If I didn't need to work, there are some lovely towns on the OH river like Madison that could fit the bill.

[Toxic Toast]

Bloomington would be my number one choice outside of the Indy metro area. I grew up in the Evansville area, so I would consider Evansville as well. I am a fan of Southern Indiana.

[ImmerLernen]

Thank you! As usual, you all have given me some really valuable info.

[rrah]

As a resident of Bloomington for the past 18 years, I generally agree with Serv's analysis with a couple of exceptions.

$500K isn't going to get you a Mellancamp style house--not even close. It will get you a very nice, better than average house on a 1/3 acre lot or more. If you're willing to live outside of the city limits and still within 10-20 minutes of downtown it will get you a bigger lot.

I'd also disagree with the best grade schools being concentrated in the northern part of town. What most think of as the top 2 grade schools are centrally located. The grade school my kids attended in the southern part of the county has been a 5 star school in the past. I'm not a fan of test scores to rate schools, but the scores are right up there with the top 2. This is especially true when one factors in the very different overall socio-economics of the school. One of the schools in the western part of town is also improving dramatically the last time I checked.

I would NEVER recommend a commute from B-ton to Indy. I did it for about 6 months, and it killed me. That was before the I-69 construction. While the B-ton section is supposed to be finished this year there will only be a year or two before the final leg of construction begins between Martinsville and Indy. It will be a nightmare for several years.