Anyone live in or know Indiana?

[DMickey28]

My fiance is looking at a job that would allow us to relocate anywhere in Indiana or Michigan. I am wonder what the "good" area's are to live in, primarily in Indiana. By good I mean, economically and demographically upper middle to upper class (income range)......

Thanks!!!

 

[Gary M]

I live in Muncie, Indiana, and this is not the place to move.

I would think the Indianapolis area, is by far the best place to live in Indiana. The Northern suburbs of Carmel, Fishers and Zionsville are upscale cities. Indy is a city of about 800,000 population with NBA and NFL teams, along with many nice cultural places and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The downtown area is very nice and lively. The airport is big enough to be a real airport, but not too big to be a hassle. IND has very good fares to most cities, because no one airline dominates the airport. ATA is a hometown airline, with a nice travel club, that DW and I belong to. ATA has many non-stop flights to Florida and other locations. Cost of living is very reasonable.

If you like baseball, Indy has a AAA ball club, with a new stadium downtown.

If you haven't been to Indy, you might check it out.

E-mail me if you have further questions. glmerritt@comcast.net

 

[Dave A]

I went to college in Indy. Good choice. Check out Gary In. Actually south of Gary, like Crown Point. Very Leave it to Beaver, 1 hour drive to Chicago.
Dave

 

[Deb in IA]

Hmmm. Dave, Gary used to be the "murder capital of the world". East Chicago was pretty bad too. Of course, it's been 18 years since I lived in Indiana, so maybe things are different now . . .

I grew up and lived in Indiana until I graduated from med school in 1985. My hometown in Clarksville, waaaaay down south, right across the river from Louisville, KY. I went to school in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. And when DH was an intern at Ball Memorial in Muncie, I spent a lot of time there as well .

My DH grew up in Zionsville, just outside of Indy, and his folks still live there.

I agree with Gary; there are a lot of nice areas outside of Indy. I would definitely look OUTSIDE of I-465. Indy also has a great Children's Museum.

Good luck!

 

[amid chaos]

Hi from cape cod too, Dmickey.

We will be leaving for Indiana in 2 weeks to take Norah to college in Greencastle and visit my parents in rensselear..a beautiful rural area. We have family all over the state..love it there. sorry I can't be more specific with other areas though.

Good luck with your move...oh, there is NO fresh seafood in indiana..just thought you'd want to know...LOL. it's all frozen and fried. We ship fish out to my parents a few times a year.

 

[powellrj]

I live in Anderson...you don't want to live there, but as others have said North Indy area is very nice, I travel to Zionsville, Fishers and Carmel and any of these would be great. You might also check out the Fort Wayne area. It seems to be growing with new schools and shopping and has the advantage of I 69 which will take you in to Indy in under 2 hours.

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

Originally posted by amid chaos
Hi from cape cod too, Dmickey.

We will be leaving for Indiana in 2 weeks to take Norah to college in Greencastle and visit my parents in rensselear..a beautiful rural area. We have family all over the state..love it there. sorry I can't be more specific with other areas though.

Good luck with your move...oh, there is NO fresh seafood in indiana..just thought you'd want to know...LOL. it's all frozen and fried. We ship fish out to my parents a few times a year.

Greencastle from what I hear despite being small is somewhat good when it comes to jobs and it is 45 m ins from Indy and then an hour from Bloomington and Terra Heute.

 

[house_of_princesses]

I went to Valparaiso University in Valparaiso. My how the area has grown! It still has the small town appeal, plenty of upscale neighborhoods, with some not so upscale to keep you humble. The university has community offerings, not too far from Lake Michigan. Merrilville is just down the street (for shopping) and Indy can't be more than two hours south. Chicago is two hours west.

Indy is nice, and perhaps it's grown since I was there, but I'd much rather be able to reach Chicago than Indy.

Southern Indiana is beautiful, but lacks metro area.

 

[Indyman]

As Gary M said, Carmel, Fishers, and Noblesville fit your description. Also on the North side of Indy are Zionsville and Westfield. On the suburban westside of Indy Avon, Danville and Brownsburg are fast growing areas.

[Hijack] Daughter_of_amid_chaos - Congrats on going to Depauw, a fine school, even though they'll get their butts kicked against Wabash in the Monon Bell game. [/End Hijack from a Wabash alum]

 

[MosMom]

I live in Fishers and I love it here. I lived in Carmel and that was nice too. They are currently doing alot of work in old town carmel to try to make it "Celebration FL" like. I like living out in the boonies though so I live in eastern Fishers but everything is slowly creeping our way anyway. If you wanted northern Indiana, Granger is a wonderful town. I grew up there and it is really nice. I haven't been up there in about 2 years but Granger and surrounding Mishawaka & South Bend are really nice. Not to mention walks on the Notre Dame campus. If I had my way, we'd probably live up there.

I included some website links for these areas, hope this helps!

http://www.fishers.in.us/

http://www.ci.carmel.in.us/

http://www.stateguide.com/in/Granger/

I included URL's to all 3 cities.

Fishers & Carmel are both just north of Indy and Granger is north central right on the border of Michigan (only about 2 hours, if that to Chicago too...just hop on 80/90 toll road). HTH!

 

[scarlett873]

i actually live literally right down the road from MosMom here in Fishers! we moved here sight unseen, but we've loved it here. if you look into Indianapolis, i would suggest staying north of I-465 as someone else has mentioned. Carmel and Fishers are very nice areas...my DH and i are building a house right now in pendleton, which is 10 miles north of fishers...but there's literally NOTHING there right now.

before moving to indy, i lived in ft wayne for about 10 years. if you decide to check out ft wayne, i would suggest the southwest side of town. right off of I-69 at around exit 102 or so. (whichever exit is luthern hospital) from the type of area you have described, that sounds like your kind of place. the homes out there are fairly upscale, a lot more so than on the north side of ft wayne. but i lived on the north side all 10 years and still loved it!! it was has definitely grown over the past 15 years. and ft wayne is only about an hour from the michigan state line...

good luck with wherever you decide!!

 

[Dodie]

I'm from Indy also and would recommend the north Indy towns/suburbs mentioned above (Fishers, Zionsville, Carmel, the Geist resevoir area), but would also recommend other suburbs outside the I-465 (bypass) boundary.

On the west side of town, the towns of Brownsburg and Avon are really growing and the housing costs are less than those on the north side. Access to a job anywhere in the Indy area would be no problem (less than a 45 minute commute in most cases).

The exact same can be said for the town of Greenwood on the south side of Indy.

While people think of Indy as only a "sports town," it is actually very culturally diverse.

Indy Info:
http://www.indy.org/
http://www.indianapolis.com/
http://www.indystar.com/
http://www.indyzoo.com/default_n.asp
http://www.indychamber.com/
http://www.ibj.com/

Sports:
http://www.colts.com/default_main.htm
http://www.indianapolisice.com/
http://www.indyindians.com/
http://www.nba.com/pacers/

Racing:
http://www.indy500.com/
http://www.usgpindy.com/
http://www.brickyard400.com/
http://www.irponline.com/

Culture:
http://www.indyopera.org/
http://www.indplsartcenter.org/
http://www.ima-art.org/

Once you get away from the major metropolitan areas around Indy, Ft. Wayne, Louisville KY, Chicago IL, there are economic problems in a lot of the rural areas. I think Indy is the way to go!

 

[Bildmouse]

A lot of people live in the Valparaiso/Chesterton area and commute to Chicago for their jobs. There are also areas around New Buffalo, MI that have a lot of Chicagoans that commute. That area has some very upper class housing. My DH owns a HVAC company and does a lot of work in the southwestern MI area.

 

[ahutton]

I have family that has lived in the Chesterton area for many, many years and love it there. It is really a neat town. My cousin lives in Michigan City, which is also very nice and an easy commute to either Chicago or into Michigan. There are many towns along I-94 in Michigan that are very nice, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek... Ann Arbor is fairly close to Detroit but very, very nice.

 

[amid chaos]

Indyman....now you know how my dad feels...he's a Wabash alum also...and his Grand daughter is off to Depauw....funny thing..it was on his recommendation that she even looked at it!!!

 

[tkd lisa]

Another Hoosier reporting in. I was born and raised in Indiana and lived there until 96 when our base closed.

I lived in Indianapolis for the vast majority of that time. I was raised on the east side, worked NE of Indy (in Anderson - powellrj) while in college, then moved south of town with my husband. Scarlett, I have an aunt and uncle who live in Pendleton, right by the penitentiary! But it is pretty quiet out there.

One thing not really mentioned here is that Indy is truly a square type city, with a beltway around downtown and everything very easily accessed. People will talk about which side of town they are on just as quickly as they will name the specific area. The entire county is incorporated, so there aren't many town names except in the surrounding counties.

I firmly support those who say Indy is a great place to live. Basically all the comforts of every other big city with lower crime and lower housing/cost of living. If you have kids, they have a great zoo, great children's museum and all kinds of activities to involve the kids in.

I, like Dodie, would point out that there are other nice areas besides the northside. In my opinion, the housing costs in the northside areas are substantially more than in other areas. There are many many housing developments, with the associated congestion. Of course, I grew up when people went up to Geist Reservoir to park because there weren't any lights!!

Please check out the links people have provided, explore the different areas of town and find the place that "fits" you.

Good luck!

 

[mrsmom]

I Just moved from Indy to cincinnati, hubby got transfered , I have a house for sale on heritage lake nice area it's between danville indiana and greencastle. It a private lake and very nice. the have a website. www.heritagelakepoa.com
Kim

 

[Dave A]

Valpo/Chesterton is close to the Dunes, & I loved the beach on Lake MI. Crown Point is the next county seat west, & well south of murders in Gary.

Check out site:
http://www.crownpoint.net/

Dave

 

[Disney845]

I lived in FL, moved to IN, and just recently moved back to FL. We lived in Carmel, which many people have already mentioned. It is a very nice, upscale city. It is about a 30 min drive to downtown Indianapolis, and very close to major highways I-465 and I-65. If I had any reason to move back to IN I would probably want to live in Carmel again as it is truly lovely.

It seems to fit your criterion. It is most definitely upper-middle to upper class. Housing and land going for premium rates. I believe that the county of Hamilton (which includes Carmel, Fishers, and a few other towns) is ranked the 6th most affluent county in the nation (according to median household income).

We were also seriously considering (at the time) building a house in Franklin Township on the southeastern side of Indianapolis.

 

[Dave A]

Dis845
When I was going to Butler, I worked at what is now Keystone at the Crossings (is that right) @ 86th & Keystone. At the beginning Cork 'N Cleaver restaurant was the only thing there. Had to drive in on a gravel road. Looooong ago. Nice area. Nicer now than then.
Dave