Valparaiso, West Lafayette, or Fishers? (Indianapolis, Carmel: appointed, real estate, high crime)

[benandgrace]

Hi, everyone. I'm Ben and new to the Indie forum. I currently live near Springfield IL and will need to move at some point in the future for better schools. I can't afford chicagoland and IL doesn't have any silver medal schools downstate like IN has. Anyway, I left Carmel out because it's probably out of my family's price range for housing (I'm guessing it's even significantly more than houses in Valparaiso). It would be hard convincing my wife to move near Indie anyway since she has family in Valparaiso (only 135 min from West Lafayette). Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.

I've been doing a lot of reading on these forums about the four cities but I'm nowhere near figuring out which one would better suit my family and I. Schools and safety are most important. All four seem very safe and have great schools, though I'm not sure which schools are better. I like the idea of Carmel having a big school with a lot of clubs, etc. , and our kids would be able to make more friends there. Our kids are part Filippino, so an area accepting of asians is important. The Indie area is larger and would give us more churches to choose from too. Activities are important. Valparaiso has the beach and dunes close by, skiing in WI, within driving distance to Great America and Cedar Point, events in Chicago, etc. I hear West Lafayette is near good trails and a good canoeing spot, Tippiecanoe River. I've been to Current River in MO. Does anyone know if Tippiecanoe River is about as good as CR? I'm not good with the cold and I don't like snow, so that's a factor. I read that Valparaiso isn't any colder than West Lafayette and Fishers, but has twice the amount of snow as each of those. It seems like Valpo would have to be colder though.

My wife plans to become an RN. RN's get paid 62k in Valparaiso, compared to 57.5 in West Lafayette, and 60k in Indie. 150k will buy a nice older 2000 sqf 3 bdr in Valpo. Do any of you know a figure for houses within the West Lafayette Jr/Sr High district? Most of the houses I found on Remax (won't allow someone to narrow a search to a specific school district) were outside of it. What about within Hamilton Southeastern's and the Carmel High School district? Thanks.

[domergurl]

We lived in Fishers for 4 years, Valpo for 2 and came thiiiiiiiiis close to moving to Lafayette. Valpo is great. Fantastic schools, a wide variety of housing, close to Chicago. Fishers is a hardcore suburb of Indianapolis, again, it's nice, the schools are very very good and the housing will tend to be on the newer side. Valpo has fewer schools that feed into one huge high school, while Fishers has more schools feeding into 2 big high schools. You can't go wrong with either one in terms of schools. Don't count out Carmel though, you could get lucky and find something.

West Lafayette, while it has super schools, when we were looking there, we found the housing prices outrageous. You'll have a hard time finding something in your pricerange.

With Valpo or Fishers, you are within proximity of a major city and a large city. With WL, not so much. I'm not knocking WL or Lafayette, it's just more out there.

As far as your wife's job as an RN, she'll have more opportunities in Fishers with all the hospitals in and around Indy. There are some fantastic new facilities in Carmel & Fishers.

Can't help you on the canoeing front. Sorry.

[benandgrace]

domergirl, thanks for the helpful info and the reminder that it's best to be near a large (major) city. I'm going to keep the info you gave in mind when we make our decision in the future.

[Naptowner]

I don't mean to dog West Lafayette either, but it's kind of in its own little world up there, not particularly close to anything. Plenty of Asian-Americans in Carmel, if you can find a place in your price range. Carmel HS is something like 10% Asian, I believe.

[benandgrace]

Originally Posted by Naptowner

I don't mean to dog West Lafayette either, but it's kind of in its own little world up there, not particularly close to anything. Plenty of Asian-Americans in Carmel, if you can find a place in your price range. Carmel HS is something like 10% Asian, I believe.

Nap, that's good to know about the Carmel school. I knew the town of West Lafayette is 15% Asian. So, I'm wondering if I can find a house listed as a Carmel address at a real estate website, can I be sure it's within the Carmel school district? I have noticed a few 3 bdrm houses so far in Carmel that are less than 150k, but are there high crime/unsafe areas in Carmel or anything else I should know about that might bring certain house prices down (flud zones, etc)? One thing that disappointed me is a website pointing out that RN's make the same in Indie as they do in little Springfield IL and the houses in the two cities (well, Chatham, where the better schools are) seem to be the same. On the other hand, the Chatham schools (the high school is Glenwood) is not a silver medal school like Carmel, Fishers, West Lafayette, and Valpo.

[Naptowner]

I lied. It's only 9%. Which is still pretty significant. Here's a link you might want to check out with data on public schools in Indiana: IDOE: Indiana K-12 Education Data (http://www.doe.in.gov/data/ - broken link)

You should be able to check school district limits on the website for Carmel Clay Schools. Pretty much anything that says "Carmel" is going to be in an at-least-okay area, but be aware that the old "Home Place" neighborhood around 106th and College is now part of Carmel. This area isn't unsafe, but the houses are very modest. Carmel is growing fast and some say the school system is suffering for it, but people who live there seem to like it.

[domergurl]

There are some commercial websites like FC Tucker and Carpenter that allow you to search specific school districts. It's kind of tricky because some kids with Noblesville, McCordsville & Fortville addresses feed into the Hamilton Southeastern school district (Fishers). There are also kids with Westfield addresses that go to Carmel Clay schools ... that's why it's important that you search for a specific school system.

[Henley]

benandgrace, i hope you dont mind me asking if your wife is a filipino? i know some friends who are fil. and live in fishers. can you give me your email add.

[benandgrace]

Thanks for the link and info, Nap. That should keep me busy for awhile. At some point I would have to find a job there too. I work for Quest Diagnostics now as a courier and I don't think Quest employs couriers in IN. I'm open-minded to finding something different or going back to school to become a physical therapist (oops, I meant to type physical therapist assistant.

Domergurl, I'm getting ready to check out those sites. Thanks.

[benandgrace]

Henley, yeah, my wife is a Filipina. I sent you some info.