What's the catch? (Indianapolis, Anderson, Lafayette: realty, housing, rent)

[patrickmich]

I live in Florida where the cost of housing is high. I am from the Midwest
(Chicago area), but have not been there for 15 years. I would like to return to the farmland where I grew up, i.e., the Midwest. Illinois does not appeal to me. Indiana does. I have spent many hours over the past few days studying Indianapolis. By my best calculation, it appears that I can buy a new
home by a builder such as KB Homes, for example, in certain parts of town
for around $110,000-120.000. Is there a catch? The areas that seem to have these
types of prices are: Cumberland, Greenfield, and to a lesser extent, Brownsburg and Noblesville.
According to a book I read last night at Barnes/Noble, most of Indy's new
growth is heading North and Northwest. How accurate is this statement?

Of course the same builders who sell houses for 110K also have much more expensive homes in the
same subdivision; the homes under 110 are their lower end models,
presumably. Although I suppose the land's value is also a factor.
Please offer any other areas of Indianapolis where new houses can be
bought for 120K. Internet research can be abstract. It is good to
hear from people who actually live there, rather than relying on web sites
and stats. Thanks for your thoughts.

[sweetana3]

You dont even have to buy a cookie cutter vinyl clad house in one of the stuffed full subdivisons, you can buy a nice house just south of downtown for less than $90,000 or in Irvington in areas around the parks. flockrealty.com has a picture of one inside and out.

Call almost any realtor in Indianapolis and they will point you to what you want. Best to already figure out the area you want to live in because as we have pointed out to others, Indy is huge and varied and some areas will "fit" what you want while others will not. They can run a quick search and do for you in minutes what you might spend days doing. Plus it is free.

Example, you probably wont want to buy in Noblesville (far NE) if you are going to work for the airport or FedEx (southwest) since there will be better deals for you closer to your work.

A coworker just bought a new ranch in Northern Fishers for about $130/140 with her options.

[domergurl]

Best advice is to come and visit and rent for a little while before you jump into buying a house. Hate for you to dive headfirst into a vinyl village only to find out that the neighborhood stinks. Don't forget, Indiana has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the US.

[patrickmich]

vinyl village, now that is a fun use of words. Lately (meaning most of today)
I have been reconsidering the vinyl villages as a place to buy. Having followed threads about cheap, production houses, I am beginning to lean
toward older neighborhoods, such as sweettana (?) suggested. I think
you are also correct sweet T. that i might be putting the cart before the horse. Work should dictate where I chose to buy a house to a large extent.
But the thing is, I still am not sure WHERE I want to go. It might be Indianapolis, or some other city or state where housing
is affordable, but where population is still growing. I looked at Louisville
and Cincinnati quite closely until I learned they are losing population.
I am still looking at a big picture before I decide to fly somewhere
and spend $$$ for motel rooms while checking out the city. To do so would cost me about a $1000, easily. At this point,
I cannot find anything as attractive as Indianapolis. What about
Lafayette? How would you rate Lafayette as a place to live?
Any other cities that come to mind as a place where populaton influx
and job creation are growing, but housing remains affordable? My lease is
up at the end of this month, and then I will be on my way to a new
adventure. I would like to have a good idea of where I'm going before
I put my truck in reverse and back out of the driveway. Although it's
not mandatory. I'll be lugging a U-Haul trailer, that's the only bad thing.
Btw, I am single, and completely on my own. Thanks for any and all
thoughts.

[stx12499]

Originally Posted by Power up

vinyl village, now that is a fun use of words. Lately (meaning most of today)
I have been reconsidering the vinyl villages as a place to buy. Having followed threads about cheap, production houses, I am beginning to lean
toward older neighborhoods, such as sweettana (?) suggested. I think
you are also correct sweet T. that i might be putting the cart before the horse. Work should dictate where I chose to buy a house to a large extent.
But the thing is, I still am not sure WHERE I want to go. It might be Indianapolis, or some other city or state where housing
is affordable, but where population is still growing. I looked at Louisville
and Cincinnati quite closely until I learned they are losing population.
I am still looking at a big picture before I decide to fly somewhere
and spend $$$ for motel rooms while checking out the city. To do so would cost me about a $1000, easily. At this point,
I cannot find anything as attractive as Indianapolis. What about
Lafayette? How would you rate Lafayette as a place to live?
Any other cities that come to mind as a place where populaton influx
and job creation are growing, but housing remains affordable? My lease is
up at the end of this month, and then I will be on my way to a new
adventure. I would like to have a good idea of where I'm going before
I put my truck in reverse and back out of the driveway. Although it's
not mandatory. I'll be lugging a U-Haul trailer, that's the only bad thing.
Btw, I am single, and completely on my own. Thanks for any and all
thoughts.

Louisville is most definitely NOT losing population! In fact, we are growing very steadily. Where did you get that idea?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville

[domergurl]

Check out this list ...

http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifesty...OE=click-refer

[patrickmich]

I was just looking at Cities Ranked and Rated last night at the bookstore.
They still had the old edition. Didn't know there even was a new edition, thanks. Gainesville is VERY nice, but not affordable in my opinion. I don't
know where i got the lousville population numbers, perhaps they are wrong,
thanks .

[Lethal_Poison]

Originally Posted by domergurl

Best advice is to come and visit and rent for a little while before you jump into buying a house. Hate for you to dive headfirst into a vinyl village only to find out that the neighborhood stinks. Don't forget, Indiana has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the US.

That might have something to do with its position in the rust belt. It seems jobs are fairly plentiful and pay well for the cost of living in the Indianapolis area though. I have seen more open accounting/finance jobs in one month in the Indianapolis metro area then Id likely see in 1 year in the Hampton Roads, VA area.

I havent been there, but it seems Indianapolis is one of the few major great lake area cities east of the Mississippi that has managed to insulate itself from the blights that Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and other mid century manufacturing boom towns have become.

[Lethal_Poison]

Originally Posted by stx12499

Louisville is most definitely NOT losing population! In fact, we are growing very steadily. Where did you get that idea?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville

Louisville city has been growing at a snales pace since they started bulldozing out their blight, but still has not reached its 1990 population.

Louisville continues to suffer from a high murder rate and high unemployment rate.

[patrickmich]

True, Lethal, Indianapolis seems to be the only true star in the midwest,
comparatively speaking. Cities Ranked and Rated has the same opinion
of Indianapolis in its narrative description. It seems like a good choice
to me. Its population growth hasn't been high, but it has been steady
and this has probably kept the housing prices managable. Here are
some popuation figures I got from the census bureau.

Louisville: 1990-2000 -5%, 2000-2003 -2.9% (pop growth has been positive since 2003)

Indy: 1990-2000 +6.9%, 2000-2003 +2.9

NoblesVille: +55.2%, +15%

Fishers: +280.6%, +26.3%

Greenwood: +32.7%, +8.8%

Anderson: +0.4%, -2.3%