Warsaw, In (Fort Wayne, South Bend, Bloomington: real estate, 2009, house)

[brutusbuckeye]

I may be relocating to Warsaw, IN. Any thoughts on this area would be appreciated.

[mbuszu]

It has quite a bit going for it - the Medical Device Manufacturers have set up shop there and it has several large/pretty lakes in the area which people flock to in the summer months. It has a Wal-mart, lots of other businesses, and the real estate there is in high demand and thus goes up in value unlike most of Indiana.

All that said a few things to consider... 1) lots of trains running through the warsaw-city area which blow their horns and which regularly block traffic flow 2) there is a single very large public high school many kids bus about an hour to get to, 3) there is very little diversity in this town - in fact when my wife and I were being driven around by one of the most successful real estate agents in the vicinity just 5 years ago, it became very clear very quickly that diversity is something rather foreign to the area ... "over here we have the one oriental family in Warsaw, they own the chinese restaurant in town" and "are you jewish? - we don't have very many around here - everyone in this area goes to the following place to worship, it's a local/community thing" - LOL... these were just two of the most unforgettable comments my wife and I coming from NYC were a bit shocked to hear - which is why we ended up looking at Fort Wayne real estate with another agent shortly thereafter.

You didn't mention if you have family - if you have no spouse/family, then you may want to consider the following... over the course of 2 years I saw several "single" people at Zimmer complain about the lack of a dating scene, places to hang out, and in general a singles culture... in fact 4 of these people ended up moving out of town and leaving the company 1-2 years after being hired because they didn't like the area at all.

If you have family outside of Indiana - it will be quite a drive and perhaps 2 legs of an airplane trip to get in and out of town. Warsaw isn't located close to any major airports or other cities. Fort Wayne is 1 hour east and is where you may find yourself taking a lot of trips for shopping/entertainment.

Lastly, I don't mean to harp on Warsaw too much - all things considered, it's a town surrounded by some very beautiful areas which would be very desirable to live. If you could swing it, definitely buy a house directly on one of the areas ski-lakes... you won't regret it - you'll have great summer entertainment options, your home value will most certainly rise quickly, and after work you'll have a nice/relaxing place to enjoy. It would be well worth a 30 minute commute to work.

[domergurl]

Warsaw itself is nice. It is a very very very very very very very republican/conservative whiter that white WASPy place. The lakes are lovely and Winona Lake is very pretty. But you are pretty much in the middle of nowhere. You'd be good to move to Fort Wayne or South Bend and commute. The only small town I would recommend is Plymouth. It would be about a 35-45 minute drive.

[Southside Shrek]

Domergurl
I am not too sure that I'd recommend a move to Ft Wayne, especially after reading about what happened to a gal waiting in line at a Taco Bell drive-thru. She was hungry and apparently told the guy in front of her to hurry up and get a move on it when the guy got out of his car, walked up to her and shot her.

Never say a word while you're waiting in line at the Ft Wayne Taco Bell.

[mbuszu]

Originally Posted by Southside Shrek

Domergurl
I am not too sure that I'd recommend a move to Ft Wayne, especially after reading about what happened to a gal waiting in line at a Taco Bell drive-thru. She was hungry and apparently told the guy in front of her to hurry up and get a move on it when the guy got out of his car, walked up to her and shot her.

Never say a word while you're waiting in line at the Ft Wayne Taco Bell.

This is a silly thing to post here - Fort Wayne is definitely a safe town in any of the suburban areas, and downtown it is no different than any other city crime-wise - there are good areas and bad areas. This incident happened 7 years ago February at 3am. If you visit fortwayne.com you can find the recent mention of this story which indicates that the Taco bell in question was the downtown location, formerly located on West Washington. The only reason this story is now getting headlines is that the lady who is suing TB for lax security at the drive-thru has been held up in court all this time.

[Southside Shrek]

mbuszu
if you got shot waiting in line at a fast food drive-thru, I don't think you'd want others to call it *silly*.

[leafy]

I feel i escaped with my soul from there 20 years ago and now live happily free in New England. Originally from the Bloomington, IN area, we ended up in Warsaw for my husbands job. It was SCARY. if can't say you are "saved" then you will be shunned. And i am not "saved by their definition. There is a dirty dirty foundry that eats the paint off of your car, NOTHING going on . It was like a conservative nightmare. My birkenstock sandals were considered the devils footwear. I had a new baby and a hopeful attitude but soon turned bitter. I couldn't find anyone that did was thinking outside of the christian conservative box. It was like pleasantville before there was color.

But move to warsaw if you LOVE george bush and maybe you will be happy.

sigh. good to get that off my chest! We spent every weekend in Ft. wayne at the childrens zoo. it is very nice.

good luck.

[bstump]

To "mbuszu":

I'm not sure where your "well known real estate agent" from Warsaw got his information, but there are over 60 churches with a Warsaw, Indiana address:

http://www.churchangel.com/WEBIN/warsaw.htm

I think this shows that your realtor's "everyone in the community goes to (insert church name here) to worship" comment is inaccurate, though it does prove the "conservative" accusations true. My guess is that church he/she was talking about is Warsaw Community Church (where I both attend and work). Granted, it is the biggest church in Warsaw, but with more than 59 others to choose from and a population of almost 13,000 in the city, not everyone goes to a single place to worship.

Warsaw and the surrounding communities are *IDEAL* for you if you like a small town atmosphere.

Winona Lake has an "artisan village:"
http://www.villageatwinona.com/

North Webster has the Dixie Boat:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/L...ml/dixie3.html

Warsaw has the Biblical Gardens:
http://www.warsawbiblicalgardens.org/

There are plenty more things too! Anyway, why does political party affiliation have to play ANY role in where you live? If you can't get past political differences to make friends, maybe its something you need to work on. I have lived in Warsaw my whole life (except for my college years) and I love it here. I don't plan on moving anytime soon.

[bstump]

I'm going to reword "maybe its something you need to work on" because that sounded kinda rude. What I meant by that was that, maybe you should try being friends with someone of a different political affiliation. I think you would find you have a lot more in common than you think - being we are all human. Anyway, hope you like Warsaw if you move here brutusbuckeye!

[leafy]

do they still have the religious cult there that gives women medication so they will stop having periods because they are dirty?



AND they burned books in the town square.