Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Wow Patken, Thanks for the great post. We don't have any children yet, so school systems aren't an immediate issue. I'm just keeping it in mind for resale in 4-5 years. Your comments about sprawl to the outskirts of town seems to be the norm for most cities in the US. Some cities being much worse. I'll take a look at your link. Thanks again. You are a great source of info.
Thanks so much all of you for the great information! My husband and I may possibly be moving to West Lafayette. We would like to know what areas would have older homes (1900-1950's), tree lined streets, sidewalks, and if at all possible, we would like to be close to town. I know this sounds like a tall order, we are willing to make improvements to the right home. Problem is, when I see these online, they are in pretty rough areas, and as you know...we can't really do anything with that, and new subdivisions are not interesting to us... Any ideas are much welcomed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by patken44
From a school standpoint, there are 3 school corporations in the area. Lafayette School Corporation is slightly below average in Indiana. Easily the worst in the county. Tippecanoe School Corporation covers pretty much the entire county that isn't Lafayette and West Lafayette (and some small parts of them as well). Above average schools for the state. Also rated a "best buy"; by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce -- upper half of the state in test scores, lower half in dollars spent per student. West Lafayette Community School Corporation is among the best in the state, and their property taxes reflect it. There are also the Lafayette Catholic School system and a couple other parochial schools if you're looking for private schools.
As for neighborhoods, a good chunk of the homes immediately surrounding Purdue are rented out to students. Outside of that ring you'll be fine. I'd personally stay out of most of the older neighborhoods in Lafayette (schools, vacant homes, and higher crime, for the area at least). There are new homes all over the place, especially south and east of Lafayette and north of West Lafayette. The housing bubble never really happened here (home appreciation in the Lafayette metro area was ranked 272nd out of 275 nationwide), so unless you're looking for a LOT of house or a substantial yard, 175K will go a long way.
Also Hokieed: the only trains to Chicago and Indy are Amtrak. I cannot stress enough how much you absolutely should NOT take Amtrak to Chicago, at least if you have any time-pressing needs. That stretch is one of the most delayed in the country.
From what I've seen, there are some deals in Lafayette, but they look somewhat sketchy. If you want something like that in West lafayette, it look slike it will cost a bit more. I'm just figuring all this out though.
MP308 - Now I am certainly not the expert on the WL area as we have not moved there yet. But I did tour the area with 3 different realtors when I was there a couple weeks ago. It seems like you might be interested in checking out homes in the Hills and Dales area and the area around Happy Hollow Park. There were some very nice older established homes there. It is near the university but is too pricey for students and rentals. When you visit, you can definitely determine the area with student rentals near the univ. vs. the areas I am describing. These homes are very well kept oposed to the student rental areas. A good realtor would be able to show you these areas and help you to find what you're looking for when you visit. Good luck!
MP308 - that pretty much describes the entirety of West Lafayette. The New Chauncey area has the most student rentals, if you're looking to avoid that. I'd second Hills and Dales.
I guess the bigger question is what part of town you're wanting to be close to, and what exactly you mean by close. You can easily drive all the way across town in 30 minutes in rush hour traffic. If a 15-30 minute drive qualifies as close, you might also check out some of the smaller surrounding towns like Battle Ground, Dayton, Clarks Hill, Romney, etc.
Also how much are you looking to spend on a house? The are some nicer older neighborhoods in Lafayette, but you'll of course be spending more for them.
Phlute and Prizee, I moved to W Lafayette 8 years ago to work with my husband at the Purdue Research Park, and I also went to grad school here. You two are doing your homework! After living in WI, Seattle, and Indy, I think you'll like it here. It's a tad laid-back and conservative, but if you have a family it's a great place.
I have two kids, and the WL school system is one of the best. Corporation Snapshot, West Lafayette Com School Corp #7875
is a link to testing scores for the WL school system, from there you can get scores for LSC and TSC. Right now my kids are too young for elementary school, but the preschools here are great. I live right outside Hills and Dales, the houses are cheaper than in H&D and far enough outside the Ring of Renters that I have no problem with noisy students.
phlute, as for OB's, call Purdue and check to see how PU's insurance covers out of town doctors. If you are high risk, you should get an OB in town (I can recommend the first doc on this page: Gynecologist link ), and from there he can help you get a Dr. in Indy. I have a friend who is also going to indy for a high risk pregnancy, I don't know her Dr. but she goes here:
High Risk OB Services (http://www.stvincent.org/ourservices/maternity/highrisk/Default.htm - broken link)
and then she'll go to Indy to have the baby.
Hokieed, you may want to look into the Purdue Research Foundation for space: Purdue Research Foundation. They are not officially affiliated with PUrdue, and they offer manufacturing space and also office space, I believe. You can set up an company and they'll provide the infrastructure (internet, phones, copiers, etc.). LOts of small startups are there, mostly with pharma or engineering or instrumentation. A large IT consulting company just opened a center here, hiring over 200 IT people.
That said, space in lafayette is cheaper than in WL, it all depends on what resources you need and what products you're selling/manufacturing. PHlute, what business are you in?
Hokieed also asked about Indy; I lived there for a year. Straight shot south on I-65 for an hour to the airport, they're opening a new hangar so it'll be really nice; their old one was a little scuzzy. It's a large town with a small town feel to it. The Northwest side of town has lots of malls and shopping, Downtown has nice restaurants and more shopping. North of Downtown is Broad Ripple, with little hip shops and restaurants and clubs. It's near Butler U, so more students too. I usually go to Indy for trips to the Children's museum or the Zoo, or to go to Trader Joe's or Wild Oats, since we have neither store in lL/WL.
LEt me know if you have any questions; I don't check online more than once a day since I have kiddos, but I'll try this week!
ChemistMama, Thanks for the good information. I'll be looking all over the area for shop space, so I will not rule anything out... even the pricy research park.
As for housing, I do like the area around H&D and not in the college rentals area. I just need to be lucky enough to find what we want in our price rage. They seem to be sold pretty quickly. We like how there are so many walking options around the town and neighborhood, as well as the older trees. We would like to be able to ride our bikes into town to the farmers market on weekends, something that doesn't seem as safe when riding in from the "modified cornfield" neighborhoods ouside of city limits. Am I totally wrong on this assumption?
Do you have any insight into why so many homes are for sale in the Harrison area? Many new homes are for sale, some for quite a while. I assume it is partly due to the school district, and party cause it is on the outskirts of town. Examples would be homes on and around Shining Armor Lane.... the new homes subdivisions off of Morehouse road north of town. So many are available in those communities, it makes me wonder.
We have been looking at the Wabash Shores area, or Happy Hollow Heights area because of location and trails and such. Any info on those areas?
Above all, we just hope to meet some great new people and become part of the community. Thanks for any information.
Thanks for all of the great info, ChemistMama. I will look at your links for docs. You had asked about my business. I am a board certified music therapist so I travel to different health care facilities using music to help people with their healthcare needs. As far as I know, there are no MTs working in the WL area right now. I also teach flute lessons out of my home. I plan to take some time off from working when we move in June, but will eventually start up my practice and teaching again.
Hokieed: West Lafayette has an extensive hike/bike trail network that, along with bike lanes on several roads, does extend into areas that were recently cornfields. Here's a pdf map (http://parks.city.west-lafayette.in.us/07_trailsmap.pdf - broken link). Of course, you lose the tree-lined streets in those neighborhoods.
As for the homes for sale: those are generally brand new communities, like within the past couple years. (I had to look up where Shining Armor Ln. was, and it's not even complete on Mapquest.) There are tons of homes available because, up until within maybe the last year, there was tons of demand. Selling a home in a development on the outskirts of town within the Tippecanoe School Corp. was like selling gadgets to fishermen and golfers. With the drop in demand, there are plenty of new houses waiting for buyers. Here is a story from the local paper. I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with those houses, if that's what you're worried about. It's just very much a buyers market here.
One other thing about them being in the Harrison area: there is no more land available for development in the West Lafayette school corp area. If you want a new home there, you'll have to tear something else down first. The last little bit was at the corner of Soldiers Home and Kalberer Rds, where the St. Joseph Court division sits. About 4 years ago, a church owned that property with plans to eventually build there. Essentially, the developer who owned the property on the other side of Kalberer offered his land for theirs (full story here), since his land was in TSC boundaries. No big difference for the church, huge difference for the developer. Next thing you know, the last 18 homes that could go into WLCSC were built.
Hokieed: West Lafayette has an extensive hike/bike trail network that, along with bike lanes on several roads, does extend into areas that were recently cornfields. Here's a pdf map (http://parks.city.west-lafayette.in.us/07_trailsmap.pdf - broken link). Of course, you lose the tree-lined streets in those neighborhoods.
As for the homes for sale: those are generally brand new communities, like within the past couple years. (I had to look up where Shining Armor Ln. was, and it's not even complete on Mapquest.) There are tons of homes available because, up until within maybe the last year, there was tons of demand. Selling a home in a development on the outskirts of town within the Tippecanoe School Corp. was like selling gadgets to fishermen and golfers. With the drop in demand, there are plenty of new houses waiting for buyers. Here is a story from the local paper. I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with those houses, if that's what you're worried about. It's just very much a buyers market here.
One other thing about them being in the Harrison area: there is no more land available for development in the West Lafayette school corp area. If you want a new home there, you'll have to tear something else down first. The last little bit was at the corner of Soldiers Home and Kalberer Rds, where the St. Joseph Court division sits. About 4 years ago, a church owned that property with plans to eventually build there. Essentially, the developer who owned the property on the other side of Kalberer offered his land for theirs (full story here), since his land was in TSC boundaries. No big difference for the church, huge difference for the developer. Next thing you know, the last 18 homes that could go into WLCSC were built.
Again, great information. Thanks!!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Older established neighborhoods
