Ft. Wayne, Indiana (Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Kokomo: real estate, homes, job market)

[nwfamily]

Hi - Curious into any insight from out-of-towners that have moved to Ft. Wayne, IN or surrounding areas. We currently live in Portland, Oregon and are thinking about make a move to the mid-west. We've been West Coasters for most of our lives, but have visited Indiana many times and the people seem nice, but I'm always hearing that it's different in Indiana. Any insight on weather, schools, jobs, and most of all the take on people and their reaction to out-of-towners. What makes it so good to live there and why do others want to leave? Kind of big questions.

Regards,
NWfamily

[hapaleeretired]

Having spent my childhood in PA I moved to Indiana at age 20. I lived in Indy, Kokomo and a short time in Fort Wayne.
Hoosier hospitality is the real deal. We moved from there a year ago and the thing we both miss the most is the genuine friendliness of midwesterners.
Indiana can be hot and humid in the summer and quite cold but not brutally so (usually) in the winter. Indiana's ecomony is struggling and the school systems are not rated very high. You can check this out on the internet.

[domergurl]

Originally Posted by nwfamily

Hi - Curious into any insight from out-of-towners that have moved to Ft. Wayne, IN or surrounding areas. We currently live in Portland, Oregon and are thinking about make a move to the mid-west. We've been West Coasters for most of our lives, but have visited Indiana many times and the people seem nice, but I'm always hearing that it's different in Indiana. Any insight on weather, schools, jobs, and most of all the take on people and their reaction to out-of-towners. What makes it so good to live there and why do others want to leave? Kind of big questions.

Regards,
NWfamily

If you are wanting Fort Wayne, look to moving to Aboite Township. The schools are very good, but real estate prices are going up. However, moving from Portland, you may not feel such a shock.

[Icky]

What do you want to know? I'm about 30 min. south of Ft Wayne. I don't know that much about the school districts, so I'm sorry I can't help you there. There's 2 big shopping malls (Glenbrook and Jefferson Pointe), numerous places to eat, movie theaters, theater (The Embassy), pretty much whatever you want, I think...but then I'm born and raised small town Indiana...doesn't take much!

Housing is affordable, and Aboite Township (the SW part of town) is developing very fast - it either just was or is going to be annexed. The NE is going to be annexed in the next few years. Ft Wayne is trying to "revitalize" their downtown area - there's not a whole lot going on there. Mainly just a lot of businesses.

Look for housing in the NW,NE,SW areas, but stay away from the central and SE sides, especially once the sun goes down!

[tomterriffic]

You aren't moving to North Carolina with the rest of the Pac West gang?

I wouldn't call Fort Wayne anything scenic to look at. If you are used to mountains and more varied landscape then Fort Wayne isn't going to be remotely close to that. Fort Wayne has it's share of crime. Sort of ghettoey areas. You can find some nice places to live around Fort Wayne, though. Chicago is a few hours away if you have a need for a larger city. If you need employment then be mindful that Fort Wayne doesn't have a ton of businesses. Lincoln National seems to be huge there, though. If they go so do a lot of jobs.

Originally Posted by nwfamily

Hi - Curious into any insight from out-of-towners that have moved to Ft. Wayne, IN or surrounding areas. We currently live in Portland, Oregon and are thinking about make a move to the mid-west. We've been West Coasters for most of our lives, but have visited Indiana many times and the people seem nice, but I'm always hearing that it's different in Indiana. Any insight on weather, schools, jobs, and most of all the take on people and their reaction to out-of-towners. What makes it so good to live there and why do others want to leave? Kind of big questions.

Regards,
NWfamily

[nwfamily]

Thanks to everyone for their responses. Both my spouse and I are traveling there this weekend to see for ourselves. I'll keep in mind regarding the SE side of town.

I like Icky's comment regarding Pac West gang going to North Carolina. I'm hearing more and more people from here moving there. It's not an option for us, my spouse has family in Ft. Wayne, which should make the transition easier for us.

[canoeiro123]

Hello. I lived in Ft. Wayne for 8 years and it is a great mid-western city that gives you a feel of rural life but also has a mid-sized city in the heart of all of it. The people in Indiana in my opinion are the nicest people in America (besides North Dakota). They would give the shirt off their back for you. I currently live outside of Chicago and the people are just horrible. They have such a false sense of importance, to say the least. Schools in Ft. Wayne are generall good. I went to elementary school there and moved back for the 8 years later. Chroninger Magnet School is a great elementary school. The people in Indiana are great! Hope this helps!

[elle]

(besides North Dakota)

Finally a reference point . . . I've been to North Dakota and they are the nicest people I have ever met. The favorite answer to all questions there is "you bet ya" and a smile.

I would have moved there but if your ever late to work in the morning and can't get close enough to a pole to plug your engine in, it would freeze and crack the block by lunch time. Just the idea of winters cold enough to freeze my engine. . . was a deterent.

My husband flys to Indiana tomorrow night to check out the area.

[AttachedToFive]

We live east of Fort Wayne in a rural area. It takes us about 15 minutes to get to Fort Wayne. You can't beat the price of homes with acreage on this side and the taxes are way less than up in Aboite - example, we pay $300 a year as opposed to my parents who pay $1600 yr in Aboite.

Everyone is super friendly and in the rural areas everyone waves when you drive by.

There is a *huge* array of restaurants and on a Saturday night, every single one has at least a 30 minute wait, LOL!

The summers are hot and humid. We get quite a few severe storms with high winds. We barely have a spring. It seems as if we go from 30 degrees to 80 degress in a period of a month. Fall is nice. Winters are cold and snowy but not as bad as MI or WI.

Fort Wayne is supposedly one of the best places to raise a family. Very conservative, lot's of churches. We have a great zoo (the best in the midwest) and some nice parks, camping, and lakes that are less than an hour North of FW.

The traffic isn't that bad. You can get pretty much anywhere in a decent amount of time. I think Coliseum BLVD is bad during evening rush hour but even then it's not that bad.

I homeschool our children so I can't say much about the schools. There are a few rough schools but they are mostly in the SE or central areas of FW that you will want to avoid anway. There are lot's of good private schools if you want to avoid the public school thing.

Fort Wayne is also great because we are a few hours from Chicago and a couple hours from Indianapolis if you want to do some big city things.

Lastly, I've heard that people generally move away from here after college but then tend to move back when they marry and begin a family. It really is pretty family oriented. I've lived here all my life so I don't know any different.

HTH!
AttachedToFive

[PCCGirl813]

We live in Waynedale - outside the city limits and very quiet. Housing is afforadble and it's basically a few housing developments dumped in the middle of huge corn fields. I like it here a lot. Very close to the city but with all the quiet of being way out in the country. We are south of the city, and the Fort Wayne airport is in our backyards! (3 miles away).

The job market in Fort Wayne is NOT good. I worked for a short time for a temp agency and the number of unemployed people in the city was amazing to me. My husband works for Coca-Cola which is probably one of the most stable places to work in this city.