Bloomington: Housing, Neighborhoods, Economy, etc.? (Indianapolis, Columbus: best cities, apartment, to rent)

[coatimundi]

Thanks for reading.
My SO has a good line on a job in Bloomington and, if all goes well, we'll probably end up out there. She's been to Indianapolis, although very briefly, and I traveled through Southern Indiana and Bloomington last summer, but only stayed a few hours. I just basically drove around the IU campus, hit a coffee shop for a little while, drove around town a bit, ate, and left. It looked like a really pretty town with a good vibe so, I'm looking forward to it, at least.
On to questions:
- What can we look for in terms of housing costs? We have no kids but two cats. We're looking to rent a house. It could be a townhouse, but we'd need, at the least, a small yard. I would love something with character in a cute neighborhood. It would need to be close (<= 5 miles) to campus but not in a student neighborhood, because I'm a huge noise nazi and have no tolerance for it.
- What areas should we look at (we'll be trekking out there soon) with the above criteria in mind? I think it would be ideal to be able to walk to a retail area and would pay more in rent for the privilege. I would also be open to apartment/condo living if I could still walk to stuff. Absolutely no cookie-cutter suburban areas though.
- Is Bloomington a good biking city? Tucson has a great biking community and we've come to enjoy utilizing our bikes, even for daily commutes.
- I'll need to get a job at some point. I mostly work in web development and have lots of experience in that, so am I going to have a tremendously tough time finding a job (tough enough here)? Should I look at Indianapolis, or is that completely absurd? Is IU the only big employer in town?
- What do DINKs like us do in Bloomington? Drink? Farm?
- Will snow be a tremendous problem there for us? Keep in mind where we're coming from.
- What else should we know about Bloomington?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

[TaylorRothschild]

Hate to be brief, but you've asked a lot of questions. IMO:

Bloomington is great for biking / culture / fun / vibe

You'll have difficulty finding quiet residence within 5 minutes of campus though - the area is pretty covered with beer guzzling coeds. Actually if you can walk to campus, you'll have students as neighbors.

The west side of Bloomington is more ghetto / trashy, the east side has been developed. Housing is pricey compared to the poor salaries / stagnant job situation.

Good luck & enjoy. Great town!

[Uplander]

You may find housing you like on the near westside. It is an area of older houses with character and within walking distance of downtown. If you were to visit the weekend of 4/17 you would get a "worst case" idea of the noise in neighborhoods, it's Little 500 weekend.

Bloomington Transit is very good for a city the size of Bloomington. It's also probably one of the best cities in Indiana for bikes. I've seen bicycle commuters riding in the snow, but I have also wondered about their decision making.

The local unemployment is low as are the local salaries. A number of folks commute to Indianapolis, if you are working on web development maybe you could telecommute some of the time.

The big local industry is medical devices - Cook has several corporate identities. Crane NSWC southwest of Bloomington is a high tech focus. Columbus may have some opportunities at Cummins.

[maryp3177]

Hi! I just moved to Bloomington 3 months ago from Albuquerque to start graduate school and would be happy to talk to you!
My husband has no tolerance for noise and so we're renting an 800-square-foot 1940's bungalow about 2 miles south of campus. We pay $750/month, plus water and electric. We're really close to the B-Line Trail and I use the trail just about everyday to get to and from campus.
All of my work experience is in higher ed and once I got accepted to IU, I started applying for staff positions on campus; I started a new job less than a month after moving here. I also took a $5/hour pay cut over what I made in Albuquerque at the University of New Mexico. Just to give you an idea of what you might expect here...
Bloomington seems to be pretty bike friendly and when we first got here in January, we saw people riding in the snow.
Compared to Albuquerque (where we always lived within 5 miles of the university), Bloomington is very walkable. It's easy for me to stop at the grocery store or co-op on my way home (only a 10 minute walk from home to the Kroger). I usually take the bus to work in the morning, but if I miss it, it's a 40-minute walk - still not bad. The bus system is excellent for a city this size. There are TONS of restaurants, too (but alas, no Vietnamese or good Mexican), so it's easy to pick something up on the way home if you don't feel like cooking.