Best areas around Indy (Indianapolis, Lawrence: low crime, home builders, neighborhoods)

[losercore]

Hello all,

I am currently in Madison, WI and will be heading towards Indianapolis near the end of the year or early 2008.

My office will be in Carmel however, I think Carmel might be a little out of the budget when I look at housing in other areas. Just seems more reasonable for homes in other areas.

I have a family one child in elementary and the other not in school.

Have looked at Fishers. not sure if this is too far of a drive, nice town/schools?

What actual areas of the city of Indy are nice? (low crime, good schools, new homes, family communities)

Also is there a big difference between property taxes for the counties? Living in the city of Indy or in Hamilton County?
Thanks in advance

[domergurl]

Coming from Wisconsin, you'll notice that even in Hamilton county, the taxes are cheaper. We just moved from Fishers and we loved it there. We lived east of I-69 near Geist across the street from every school our children would ever attend. Fall Creek Elementary is awesome and our new school has big shoes to fill this fall! When hubby worked downtown, it took him 35-40 minutes to get to monument circle from our house. As for Indy itself. Best schools are in Washington Twp and Lawrence Twp. We left the Hamilton Southeastern school district. Don't count Carmel out though. I'd visit both places and see which one gives you the warm and fuzzies.

[losercore]

Thank you so much for your response. That was very helpful.

[domergurl]

Sorry, I totally breezed by the fact that you are working in Carmel. There are plenty of neighborhoods in Fishers that are close to Carmel (Wildwood Estate, River Glen, just a couple off the top of my head). They are on 116th street, which is the main drag from fishers to carmel.

[1914BU]

There should be some homes in Carmel that are in your budget. Since you are working in Carmel I'd look their first.

[losercore]

The reason I say this is when I look at new home builders sites like Beazer and Centex it seems the same model house in Carmel is close to double the price of the same house in Fishers.

it seems you get more for your money in other areas. I just wonder if it is well worth it or not.

My office will be in Carmel but I will be all over Indy so the office trip is maybe once or twice a week.

Can anybody let me know why Carmel seems so much more expensive than Fishers for the same house model? I just want to know if it's worth it.

It's not that Carmel is too much it just seems like we could get more for our money in other towns.

Thanks

[domergurl]

Carmel has more prestige and it has a true downtown. Mayor Brainard has a vision of Carmel as becoming similar to Naperville, IL. Fishers is a bit behind on that regard, but they want to make a new downtown similar to what Carmel has been doing. I call it the Carmelization of Fishers. The one thing that Fishers has going for it is Geist Reservoir.

Zionsville is also prestigious and very nice. You should check that town out too.

We lived in Royalwood, a Centex community in Fishers on the east side of town, near the reservoir.

[sweetana3]

I have friends who just built a custom home in Westfield because the taxes were less. They are just over the border between the two taxing districts. To me it the whole area seemed the same so the only difference was taxes.

Westfield is just north of Carmel.

[1914BU]

I would look into Westfield

[NoCalME]

Originally Posted by sweetana3

I have friends who just built a custom home in Westfield because the taxes were less.

Are you sure about that??? We looked at new homes in Westfield and Carmel last year and the property taxes in Westfield were considerably higher due to all the new schools being constructed to support all of the growth. Our realtor lived in Westfield and advised us to look at Carmel instead of Westfield due to the much higher taxes, even though you get more house for your money in Westfield.