Where to live in NW Indiana

[domergurl]

I remember when we lived in Valpo, one day, Valpo and Chesterton got nailed with 16 inches of snow and nobody else got anything. When I looked at the weather map, it was like a snowthumb was pressing down on Valpo & Chesterton. It was weird. Now LaPorte County gets really ugly weather. Lake County, by and large is pretty safe.

[Chuckity]

Originally Posted by domergurl

I remember when we lived in Valpo, one day, Valpo and Chesterton got nailed with 16 inches of snow and nobody else got anything. When I looked at the weather map, it was like a snowthumb was pressing down on Valpo & Chesterton. It was weird. Now LaPorte County gets really ugly weather. Lake County, by and large is pretty safe.

That was actually pretty cool.

My husband works in East Chicago and all day as it kept on snowing I'll call him and tell him how much snow we had and he didn't believe a word of it ... until he drove across the county line.

It was THAT dramatic - once you crossed into Porter there was TONS of snow.

[ekrz44]

haha...yes Chuckity you blew their cover!!

[knappyjen]

I live near the DeMotte area and would also recommend that you take a look at Hebron and DeMotte. Neither of these areas are big, however, they are 30 to 40 mins south of Gary via I65, nice areas with great school systems that are growing enormously! I went to school in DeMotte, my children attend there and I believe that hands down they treat their teachers better than most neighboring school systems do. Good luck!

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by Mustang219

Hi!

I think most towns in Lake and Porter can be considered middle to upper class and are a reasonable commute to Gary. However, some of the faster growing towns for Lake County seem to be Schererville, St. John, Dyer, Crown Point, Winfield, and Munster. All are family friendly with great schools and a wide range of housing.

I am not as familiar with Porter County but it seems to be growing as well in Valpo and Chesterton. The schools are consistently great in Porter county and the South Shore train system can be easily used to commute to Gary if you head out that way.

But the South Shore line doesn't go to Valpo, or has that changed since my daughter left Valpo last year? That was the most difficult thing for her at Valpo, how to get to the airport. She had to get a ride to Merrillville to catch the Coach USA bus to the airports. One time her ride got there just as the bus was taking off. But I digress. I thought I heard there were plans to maybe extend the S. Shore line to Valpo, but nothing had happened yet.

Originally Posted by ekrz44

Moving here? I recommend Lake county.
What's not mentioned is what I think is the most important. Anything east of Lake county is a snow belt. So take into consideration commutes in the winter. Many times Portage and Valpo get nailed with lake affect snow when lake county sees only a few inches.

There are too many good areas in Lake to run away to Porter.

The two years my daughter was at Valpo (05-06 and 06-07), there was hardly any snow. She kept waiting hopefully from Halloween on (the start of snow season in Colorado). Now that may not be the norm.

[pnbben]

Dyer is currently in the middle of a huge annexation, attempting to double the size of the town, which is $61 million in debt (most towns around here are less than 1/6th of that.) Real estate value instability is a probably because this looks headed for a long court battle - unincorporated residents don't want to foot the bill for the town's mismanagement of a TIF district and are willing to fight. If they fail, Dyer residents tax burden will increase, or the town will drastically cut services - it's already looking to assess for simple street repair, or scrape the asphalt and have gravel roads!

Beware, the township and town are both St John. Township only is under annexation attack, Town of St John is not.