Has anyone moved from CALIF to Indiana? INPUT PLEASE (Indianapolis: condo, mortgage)

[BamaJack]

Hey, Indiana "fell" out of the "Top" 10 fattest states in 2008. That's something good, no?

Fattest States 2008: The CalorieLab United States of Obesity Rankings (Obesity by State)

But seriously, if you're comparing Indiana with California, you're looking at 27% obese versus 23%. In my book, that's pretty close (both are "not" a good thing), so people dinging Indiana as fatties or for chrissakes bragging about slightly lower obesity rates need to take a reality check. Both (to wit - "all") states SHOULD be below 15% IMHO ... or at with Colorado as the only <20% obese.

[redhd7]

We have been here three months now, found a place to live and we still love it. It is so beautiful out here. The scenery changes from day to day, whether the crops shoot up or are turning orange and red in clumps daily. The people are for the most part really nice. I still haven't made any new friends, but I am shy and haven't put myself out there. The kids love it here, my oldest, 5, does get homesick but not often and not for long. We have done so much since we got here. We have visited Purdue and Notre Dame's campus's. We found an all natural food store near Carmel. There have been many fares and city days. We have found most of our favorite stores and some really cool new ones. We even found a Del Taco. We are going apple picking as soon as we all get over our colds. Pumpkin picking is next and we missed the blueberry festival. There is a lot more "outdoor" fun here. My hubby and I have both lost more then 15 pounds since we got here. We are enjoying in immensely and are loving it more and more everyday!
The only thing we miss from California is authentic Mexican food, we did find one great place in Lafayette, though it is a bit of a drive, and fresh avocado’s from my grandparents back yard. We even found a great Chinese place here in Peru!
Oh and I now am a HUGE fan of Cracker Barrel, as is my youngest son!

[domergurl]

Dang Red! You guys are really getting into Indiana! I'm very happy for you and your family. Now come on down to Southern Indiana will ya???

[redhd7]

I am trying to get my husband to take a trip to south Indiana soon. I love it here! I can't believe how we lucked out! I have never seen a "real" fall before and am totally blown away and to tell you the truth I haven't been homesick once since we got here!
The most south we have been was Carmel and that was nice. I want to go further, I want to see New Harmony and Harmony and I hear the fall foilage is even better down south! Any suggestions!

[domergurl]

The foliage is peaking down here in Columbus and Brown County ... it's spectacular this year.

[-RAC-]

Wow, the Blueberry Festival ... I hope you are talking about the one in Plymouth? That brings back so many memories when I was a kid. What fun I had running around for 3 days in the park and the fireworks at the end. Do they still do that?

The last 12 years I have been living in Colorado ... but the last couple of years I have been missing Indiana for some reason. If I could find a job in my line of work I would move back home.

[manlv225]

I moved from southern california to west lafayette for my husband schooling at Purdue. Can't say I truely like it but I can say I'm surviving so far after 4 years. Here are some pros and cons.

Pros..
- peaceful
- less traffic or no traffic at all
- people are nicer here, but they are somewhat introvert
- good place to raise kids (can do more outdoor activities)
- houses are a lot cheaper, but the style is very different
- state income tax is ~ 6% instead of ~10% in calif.
- sales tax is now 7%
- car insurance & homeowner insurance cost 50% less compared to Calif.
- less spending (since there's not much to spend on)
- simple life
- get 4 seasons (spring and fall is amazing here)

Cons..
- winter is brutal here, could get icy even w/ an AWD.
- lack of food and restaurant selection (drive my husband crazy)
- veggie and meat are more expensive here compared to Cal.
- lack of shopping center (drive me crazy), I sure miss South Coast Plaza.
- Summer can get real humid

[cantwait2move]

let me be very honest as someone who is soon moving out of indiana...it is very boring here we have done all that we can we have seen every sight...shopped at every store and eaten at all the places you can imagine....the summers are humid....the winters are depressing...damp .....cold..... there is very little culture here unless you want to be surrounded by the majority white people....just my opinion but many indiana people are narrow minded and don't tolerate different races etc.....NOW BEFORE someone says OMG she hates white people...let me tell you IAM WHITE! i just find other areas to be more interesting and more advanced in politics,culture,education, and open-minded. So you say whats good about Indiana? cost of living,fall,the lighting of the xmas tree in indy,and i was born and raised here and im AWESOME! God bless!!!!

[julrey]

Thought I'd throw in my two cents. I'm not from Cali but I am from Austin and a lot of Californians seem to be moving out this way, so maybe my comments will have some worth to you.

I moved to Indy back in the summer of 2005 when a job I had in Austin was yanked out from under me with no notice. I lived in the Broad Ripple area of Indy for 2.5 years and loved it geographically, but overall it was a small parcel of land and the things to do there were quickly exhausted (for the record I'm single and have a fair amount of free time). I worked downtown the entire time I lived up there and so spent a fair amount of hours in that area as well, but I never saw much allure to Carmel outside of shopping and chain restaurants so most of my time was spent between downtown and Broad Ripple.

Downtown has some nice features but unless you are from a smaller town overall there is little to differentiate it from downtowns in other similar sized cities. There are a lot of war memorials - I've heard the most in any town in the US - of which Monument Circle is the most prominent. If sports is your bag there's hardly a better town than Indy in the country. If it isn't... hmm, that seems to be a pretty good chunk of what passes for recreation in Indy.

The most honest answers you're getting here are from those that admit that Hoosiers tend to favor a low key, family oriented lifestyle without a lot of flash and sizzle, and that's the way they like it. That's fine. The only thing I took issue with when I first moved there were the residents that sent me on disappointing wild goose chases insisting that yes, the music scene was there, the arts were there, I just had to know what rock to overturn to find them. Well you know what? They're not there. At least not in any form that would be anything but disappointing to those who come from areas that are well steeped in such things. The music scene in particular is probably the worst I've seen for a city of this size. Not only are there few homegrown acts worth writing home about but even with a broad interest in musical genres you're liable to find yourself either going several weeks at a time between shows you want to see or else settling for acts you're only mildly interested in and would probably never give the time of day elsewhere. Yeah, I don't expect everyplace to be Austin in terms of live music, but I lived in Amarillo, TX for 13 years and the Indy music scene is only marginally better than that in the scheme of things, in that both towns are essentially cover band city to the core.

Being single I'm also about the nightlife, aside from music, and the bar scene in Indy is pretty starkly divided between the ubiquitous sports bar and the new breed of upscale martini joints. Even the local joints that don't necessarily advertise themselves as sports bars always have several tvs tuned to ESPN and a large portion of the clientele are most interested in talking about sports, so for the most part these divisions hold.

Museum wise Indy does have an art museum, which is pretty much what you'd expect from a city that is not NY, LA or Chicago. Don't worry, Austin lacks a world class art museum as well, just pointing out that when people mention there are "things to do" in Indy many of these things will be one timers rather than things you want to do over and over. Same with the canal downtown. Coming from Central TX maybe my disappointment stemmed from comparisons to the River Walk in San Antonio, but basically the canal in downtown Indy suffers from being mainly just a concrete walking path with a few sculptures interspersed here and there.

I can give details on other aspects of Indy if you have any particular questions, but I don't want to run it into the ground. Bottom line: most of the people I know who grew up in Indy and loved it there are mostly home bodies who go out now and then as a diversion but do not necessarily demand a lot of entertainment or culture out of their day-to-day lives aside from sports. That's not a knock, but probably the main thing to ask yourself whether you would enjoy life there or not: are Arts & Entertainment an essential part of your life or just an occasional diversion?

PS. As much as I harp on the poor diversity of culture the weather alone would have been a deal breaker for me. The avg. temp during the day is 50 or less roughly 5 months of the year, and this past winter - my last in Indy - there were several weeks in a row where the temp never peaked above 15. Some people find the cold bracing and invigorating but not me. Coming from Cali this would be another consideration. You never seem to really grow accustomed to this degree of cold, you just learn to dread the winter and pray for it to be over with as soon as possible, and sometimes it's still cold in April/May.

[julrey]

Originally Posted by ocexpo

Does it rain a lot in the summer or is it fairly sunny and dry? I am not used to humidity AT ALL. We can get 100's and 110's arent infrequent here, but no humidity. Would you take a walk in the summer in Indy? Is a soccer game possible in July without passing out?

And my youngest brother is looking for "trendy" downtown apartments with shopping nearby. Does Indy have such a place with nice apartments in a downtown setting?

Humidity is pretty bad, probably worse than anyplace I've lived in Texas with the possible exception of Houston. Usually picks up in June and last through August but by September it's started to get fairly nice out.

Lots of trendy apts/lofts popping up downtown as I'm sure others will attest. Reasonably affordable rents.