Are there any good areas to live inside 465 in Indy? (Indianapolis: for sale, condos)

[perk17]

My family and I are relocating to Indianapolis and we are curious about living within the city limits of Indianapolis. We currently live just outside Raleigh, NC and commuting has gotten old and even though this area is growing at a very fast rate we have to drive some distance for everything. We want to find an area that has good schools and a low crime rate. We would just like to know if this is possible or if we need to search outside the city.

[domergurl]

There are plenty of nice places to live inside 465. Washington Twp and Lawrence Twp have good public schools. Both are on the northside of town. Sweetana & Liger are fabulous resources for that area.

[sweetana3]

There are houses for most price ranges inside the belt. It is easier to say what areas are nice than what are not.
Depends on what you like and your price range.


Right now I am drooling over a bungalow in Broad Ripple. A little pricey! for the area but it has a two car garage(but a rutty alley) and true bungalow styling. Would make a nice second home for us :-) and a great retirement home. Prices range from about 150,000 to 225,000. I love being close to our favorite Frech bakery, grocery, library, Monon trail, etc.

Downtown has a lot of newly gentrified housing areas both totally new and small historic areas with both old and new. The nice thing about these neighborhoods are the organizations that work at keeping the neighborhoods "going". Chatham Arch, Fountain Square, Cottage Home, Lockerbie, Woodruff Place, St. Joseph, are some of the downtown neighborhood groups.

Irvington has some wonderful brick street neighborhoods with a variety of house styles. There are a couple of houses I would love to look into if they ever came up for sale.

There are lots of subdivisions in pockets all over the 10 mile square area. So it is best if you decide on your priorities and family needs. Most of my coworkers live way outside Indy as they all wanted land. I live downtown so I can easily travel, dont spend all day commuting or mowing grass.

Our neighborhood is so quiet. Love to see the dog walkers in the morning and at night.

[Future Trooper]

Originally Posted by perk17

My family and I are relocating to Indianapolis and we are curious about living within the city limits of Indianapolis. We currently live just outside Raleigh, NC and commuting has gotten old and even though this area is growing at a very fast rate we have to drive some distance for everything. We want to find an area that has good schools and a low crime rate. We would just like to know if this is possible or if we need to search outside the city.

to be honest you are better off looking for a new home in plainfield,indiana plainfield schools have received national attention for excellence in education and sportsmanship.plainfield has is very close to everything you need. plainfield has a very low crime rate-last murder was 1995 plainfield has great infrastructure for the future in fact the town is spending $56million dollars upgrading the roads in town which was much needed including the building of 2 new highways. if you are looking for a great town to raise your children that is not crowded has good schools close to work and all the amentities you could possibly dream iof then plainfield,indiana is the place to move to

[1914BU]

Here is something I posted yesterday in another thread - similar topic though. In my personal opinion I would recommend the suburb of Zionsville. It is as nice as any of the suburbs and it is a 25 minute drive into town - a pretty easy drive at that. I used to live in the southeast part of Washington township and that was 15 minutes away from downtown and for the extra 10 minutes of driving time, I think it is worth it to live in Zionsville. But that is just my personal opinion. Another opinion is the Kessler - Meridian area. - I discuss that below - you have to send your kids to private schools though

Tell us if you want a newer house or an older type house. We can probably direct you better that way. There are a lot of really nice areas inside of I-465. The nicest areas tend to be north and northeast though.




I'm sure others will have a lot more details. But I would highly recommend Washington Township. It is in the northern part of Marion county. Techincally it is within the city, but it is with a few exceptions a safe part of town. The schools are diverse - the high school which is still excellent is 37%black. There are also some very nice older homes in this area.

Indianapolis school district is broken into townships and I think Washington township is the best followed by Lawrence township which is more on the northeast part of Indianapolis. In the center of the townships is the Indianapolis Public schools. Within Washington township you'll find about every type of neighborhood imaginable. Your find parts of it where homes go for betwen $1m and $2M - the Williams Creek area. There are some other very modest neighborhoods the have become run down and not as nice certainly as they once were - there are pockets of this throughout Washington more towards the south part east and west.

If you are maybe thinking of putting your kids in private schools another excellent area to live in is the Kesler - Meridian area. Older homes that are really nice. However for some strange reason from long ago this area is served by the Indianapolis Public schools - even though it is further north than many parts of Wash township.

I'm sure others will fill in the many holes here.

Here is the Washington township website. I truly believe it is the best truly diverse school district in the Indy area. And generally speaking you are maybe 20 minutes from downtown. I used to live in Washington township and was only 15 minutes for downtown.

Metropolitan School District of Washington Township - Indianapolis, Indiana


here is the district map - the part that is cut out in the middle is the Kessler Meridian area.
District Map (broken link)


Just to give you an idea of the best parts of washington township and I'm am talking in general terms. if you look at that map if you go to the middle of the map along the north - south streets of College and Meridian, and even over west to Spring Mill that whole area from 71th street to 86th street is very very nice - some older very expensive homes. Williams Creek which I mentioned earliar is in this area. If you go too far west of Spring Mill it isn't nearly as nice and it changes quickly.

the other general nice area on the map is to the northeast - you'll notice the north -south street of Allisonville and Dean if you travel north of 62nd street starting at about 65th street there are some really nice areas going north to 82nd street.


Of course there are other really nice neighborhoods in other parts of Wash township.


If you don't care about diversity I would recommend the suburbs of Zionsville, carmel, Westfield, Fishers and Noblesville - but those aren't diverse and there are mostly new homes in those suburbs and they are further from downtown. Anywhere from 25 to 50 mintes one way

[1914BU]

Ok, here is the website for Lawrence township. In lawrence the nicest areas are on the north. And there are some pretty bad areas in the south part of Lawrence - that will continue to get worse. Another thing they bus students around a lot to try and even out the schools. The two Lawrence H.S. are both 37% black. If they just did it strictly by location, Lawrence north would be about 10% black and Lawrence Central would be about 60% black. So if you are considering Lawrence you need to study the map and be clear about which school your child might be bused to - because it opften times isn't the closest school


https://www.ltschools.org/

https://www.ltschools.org/

[jlbroadnax]

I'm also moving to Indy but I don't have millions to buy a house. I'm selling my current home so I'll have money for a down payment. Credit is a little blemished but it's workable. I'm looking in the price range of $75,00 or $80,000.

[billman5000]

If the commute doesn't matter, you could look in the older parts of the towns around Indy, for example in Plainfield -

F. C. Tucker Property Detail (broken link)

For jlbroadnax, lot of people do just fine in a 75k house in Indy.

Don't buy a condo in Indy, nobody wants a condo when it's time to sell...

[1914BU]

Originally Posted by billman5000

Don't buy a condo in Indy, nobody wants a condo when it's time to sell...

I'm interested in your comment. So condos don't have a high re-sale value - what about townhomes - is that the same??

[domergurl]

Lawrence Twp district's their schools according to how many students are on the free lunch program and spreads them out evenly among the schools. They also have a magnet school program, with specialty schools in science and tech, languages, and international.