Moving to the South Bend Indiana area (Mishawaka, Michigan City: property taxes, for sale)

[bucknerck]

Hello,

My family and I (2 young children) will be soon moving to the South Bend area (from Ohio). We do not know much about this area except what I have researched online. Seems to be that the city of Granger is the nicest place and best school district.

Any thoughts on good areas/neighborhoods?

Also, are there any houses/condos to rent first before we decide to buy?

Any advice would be much appreciated!!!

[eatyourvegetables]

Hello there
Yes, you are correct, Granger is 110% better, safer, etc. than South Bend. As you have probably noticed, South Bend's crime is bad, and it's not getting better, at all. It's dangerous, dirty, and overall just not really a pleasant place to be. I would definitely recommend living in Granger or at least Mishawaka. I don't know too much about the schools systems in SB, but I have heard that the Penn school district is probably the best. The S, W, and some of the E sections of SB are mostly pretty rough. If you stay near UP Mall, or Notre Dame you should be fine. The area where Scottsdale Mall use to be is getting very popular (it's almost like a little Mishawaka), but the surrounding areas are scary. Also, areas near IUSB are mostly run down. If you don't mind a 30-40 minute drive, New Carlisle and La Porte might suite you nicely. La Porte School Corporation is a lot better than New Prairie (new carlisle), but they are both nice. New Carlisle only has 1k people, but it has that small town feel. La Porte has around 20k and has a lot of stores and shops, not to mention it's close to the bigger shopping stores in Michigan City, South Bend, Mishawaka, and even Hobart. If you have any more questions, send me a DM and I'll answer them

p.s. I'm from South Bend

[DLK55]

Bucknerck, there's a thread just a few lines down about someone moving to this area from the Detroit suburbs. I live in Mishawaka myself and am quite happy here. As far as South Bend goes, most of the crime and nastiness is in the west side although there is something of a trickle down effect towards the east. South Bend has it's good spots and bad spots like any city its size. As bad as it seems to the people who have seen it get worse over the years, it's nowhere near as bad as some places I've been around. I suppose it depends on your perspective.

In the end, it depends on your means and what fits you best. Families in Granger tend towards upper middle class, in Mishawaka lower middle/middle class, South Bend is similiar to Mishawaka in that regard with more people in the lower income ranges. Mishawaka is half the size of South Bend population-wise so that factors in. Incomes are more consistent in Mishawaka, while there is a broader range in South Bend.

Property taxes tend to be higher in Granger if that's a consideration. South Bend/Mishawaka probably has more houses to rent than Granger although I'm not 100% certain. Condos aren't as readily available in Mishawaka. The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are North Douglas. No one in our family has ever been in the market for one so my knowledge is limited in that regard.

Schools, I would rank Granger, Mishawaka, South Bend. Penn HS in Mishawaka is a good one but has a pretty good size enrollment.(~3,000 students)

If you like to be away from the hustle and bustle, either Granger or Mishawaka would be the best choices, hands down. Again, it would depend on what you can afford.

[jo-el]

We moved to Michiana from the West Coast in August. Check out Penn Schools - http://www.phm.k12.in.us/; (broken link) Bridges Preschool - http://www.bridges-school.com/index.html; (broken link) St. Pius X School - http://www.stpius.net/; (broken link) and the Harris Branch Library - Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library. Many of the Knollwood subdivisions are in Penn boundaries. Look at Great Schools for stats - Greatschools.net Search: Granger. We've had a good first year in one of the schools ranked 10. The Knollwood and surrounding area homes range from modest to a handful of McMansions. Double check with the schools on the address you are interested in - also pay attention to the taxes as they VARY GREATLY. The Penn offices are open for the first week in June and then close down until the first week in August. School starts August 13. Hopefully you can find a good fit for you family. Good Luck!

[MkeOrd]

I live in the city of South Bend and have friends who live in Knollwood and other Granger area developments. If you live up there you basically are living on the state-line with Michigan. Prepare to drive everywhere and prepare to have your kids drive everywhere. If you have a dog you will walk it in the road and if your kids have bikes they will have to ride in the road (but only in the subdivision because the outside roads are horrible for biking). Snow removal here is horrible so get an AWD car. Anything from Ironwood to Bittersweet and North of the toll road is a good bet if you want a great home on a good bit of land in what are sometimes nice rolling hills developments.

If you are moving from one isolated suburban development to another Knollwood CC is a bargain - you can get a great house for $200-300K that would sell for $700K in many other places if not more. The course has nice rolling hills and there are dozens of places for sale there and in nearby developments. It is a buyers market and some of these homes have been on the market for two years. You can offer much less than they are asking! If they are asking $250 find out if it was on the market last year. You might be able to get them down to $200. Houses here are almost never a good investment, but Granger and those areas around it that are in South Bend are somewhat better. There are better deals outside the CC, and some real Mega-homes as well. There are new homes going up also. I have friends trying to sell and the market is horrible right now - so make aggressive offers!

Now, you might be able to tell I am a city person, but Toscana Park in Granger is making that area less of a snooze. It is a bit "cheesy" but a good sign:

http://www.toscana-park.com/

I am single so I find that whole area boring and isolated and without sidewalks there seems no real "community" unless you are a member of one of the mega-churches.

In South Bend proper there are good areas in Sunnymede south of the Notre Dame Campus, Harter Heights, North Shore Triangle, and Wooded Acres near ND. Most of these people are upper middle class and send the kids to Catholic schools (or the baccalaureate program at Adams HS), but you can go for a bike ride with the kids and on a summer day ride down to the few coffee shops, and cafes that have opened in our downtown. If you like old historic homes there is the Chapin Park area (like any urban area it has problems but it also has a strong neighborhood community group). Crime is not that bad at all in South Bend and most is clustered in a small neighborhood West of the downtown.

The downtown might have been nicer by now. There were supposed to be 2-3 new condominium developments in downtown but they all went out of business. Local developers here are pretty dumb and they were asking $180-600K for condos in an underdeveloped downtown - those are Chicago prices. The target market was the rich ND Alumni coming for "football" weekends. You don't get rich by buying $500K condos in a city where you can buy a whole block downtown for that price!

At any rate, the downtown is better as a weekend destination. There is a new jazz club, and 2-3 very good restaurants downtown. The people of this area truly destroyed what was once a great Midwestern downtown.


Good luck!