Desirable Area near Wishard Health System...HELP! (Fishers, Greenwood: real estate, insurance)

[greyhoundgirl79]

My husband is looking at a position at Wishard Health System. We are trying to determine a good desirable area near there, within a 15 min commute. We have two small children, 4 and almost 2. So excellent schools are a must, along with safety and good areas for shopping (grocery and mall-like shopping). My kids love to be outside so an area with parks and playgrounds would be great. I also love to run outdoors and talk walks, so a place with good trails and safe areas to do so would be great.

I was looking at the following areas and need some input on property taxes and home insurance for a $175,000-$200,000 home. Would like a nice but affordable area that is family friendly. Cannot seem to find them listed on any real estate sites.

Areas/neighborhoods considering are:
Brownsburg
Clermont
Lincolnwood
Avon
Plainfield
Southport (between there and Greenwood)
Beech Grove
Hearth Stone
Driftwood Hills
Yorkshire

I would love Fishers, but that seems to be a bit further of a commute than what my husband wants. He's done the 30 min commute before and neither of us liked having him be that far away. So 15 min would be about as far as we are willing to be from his work.

I need to know if these areas are nice upper middle class areas, which areas I should avoid, if there are good schools (pre-schools included), good shopping (not necessarily upscale shopping but the normal grocery stores (Meijer, Walmart, Target, Kroger, etc), and clothing shops/malls (Old Navy, Aeropostale, GAP, The Childrens Place, etc) and if an area is safe. Thanks in advance for all your help, this is a big, big decision and we want to make good choices, because we might be here a while. Thanks and PLEASE, PLEASE HELP!!

[Southside Shrek]

I believe that good schools, good shopping with malls and a 15 minute commute from Wishard could be very difficult to put together. A 25 to 30 minute commute opens up much more.

[greyhoundgirl79]

A 20 minute commute could be doable, but that would be max. Aren't there any nice areas on the west, northwest or southwest side of Indy?

[mkat321]

The others will be along shortly but I will highly recommend Avon and Danville. At the right time of day I can get from downtown Danville, In to the VA Medical center a couple blocks west of Wishard in 20 minutes without abusing speed limits much. Avon between Danville and West Indy, and depending on where you are would add 15 or shave 2-3 minutes to the trip.

[greyhoundgirl79]

I will check that area, as I was searching Avon already, but not finding much in the way of newer homes. What about ranch style homes? I am looking preferably for a ranch and it seems that most are two story. Any ideas on a good real estate site local to the area that would be best to search, I've tried all the usual suspects, Remax, Realtor and Century 21 and not finding much in the ranch style, newer 10 yrs or less around 2000 sq ft for around $200,000. Any ideas or thoughts on that would be great too. Thanks!

[Toxic Toast]

You can get from Southport to downtown in 15 minutes no problem. Greenwood is maybe 20 minutes at worst.

[sweetana3]

15 minutes is not enough time to "get out of town". On the West side (Avon, Brownsburg, Plainfield) your husband will be coming in on I70 or one of the few feeder roads. It takes me about 20 minutes to just get to the Plainfield exit during non traffic hours. More when anything happens on the interstate.

South of Indy (Greenwood and surroundings) takes about the same. The issues are 1. you have to get to the major road, 2. drive the distance, and 3. get from the major road to parking and then to the office. Wishard area is heavily trafficed since it has the university and 9 hospitals and is downtown.

I bought downtown (no kids) to get the commute down. We lived in both Broad Ripple and Butler Tarkington and each took about 15-20 minutes to get downtown most days. Your price range would get you a small house with garage in Broad Ripple but all but possibley schools would be there. You would need to be involved with the school a lot but a whole lot of young families live in Broad Ripple and love the trees, park, stores, easy access to all the malls, etc.

Investigate the school for the area and talk to some realtors about the area. You should not buy there without someone to help you and take this suggestion seriouslyl.

Remember that Indy is really spread out and the times given are when there are no problems whatever on the routes. In the winter some of my coworkers spent hours getting home on a few days due to snowstorms. Broad Ripple and surrounding areas still took less than 30 minutes because of all the downtown snowroutes.

[greyhoundgirl79]

Where is the Broad Ripple area, not seeing it on a map? Also, what is considered small? Seems many, many of these houses are 3000-4000 sq ft. That is way too big. I want something around 2000-2500 sq ft. I want nice not huge.

[Toxic Toast]

Broad Ripple is a neighborhood centered around 62nd and College on the north side. It is IPS schools; so unless you are magnet program or private school, you may want to look elsewhere if schools are a concern.

[greyhoundgirl79]

So ok, let me narrow down my search here. Schools are super important, #1 actually. #2 would be commute (20-25 mins from Wishard), #3 would be finding a newer nice home for around $200,000. Shopping (when I say shopping I mean grocery) does not have to be super close, but within a 10-15 min drive would be good. Safety and a nice area are up there with the schools, which usually go hand in hand. Thoughts or suggestions for an area would be great. Thanks! I'm kind of at a loss right now. Not finding much in the way of houses that are newer, mostly old homes that have been partially updated. Not interested in renovating at all. Want move in ready and not finding it at all.