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Munster is good. I'm from there. The only thing is that there is a fair amount of property crime, attempted and successful break ins, thefts. We had one garage break in, one attempt, an unattended mower stolen and a brick thrown at a car window, plus a few of those sketchy people who pretend to be town workers. People in my neighborhood have been burglarized. I'm not saying that it's unsafe but if you subscribe to the police newsletter, you'll see that there's at least a dozen things like that per week.
If you like older, vintage homes Whiting is a viable candidate. The beach is right there and the homes are way cheaper. I think Whiting is really starting to get hot bc I see homes under contract in 1-2 days.
One person's personal experiences are not indicative of the town as a whole. Like anywhere, while a certain neighborhood may have issues that doesn't mean it's reflective of the whole town. Overall, Munster is a very safe place on par with most of the nicer towns in the Chicagoland area: https://www.safewise.com/blog/safest-cities-indiana/
I lived in Carmel for three years and am from and currently live in TN, though in a very depressed area compared to NWI or Nashville.
One thing to keep in mind is that for many fields, job opportunities in Chicagoland are going to far outweigh those in Nashville, and are likely to pay much better, even if you consider COL differences. Yes, TN has low taxes, but Nashville's rising real estate prices, even in relatively undesirable areas like Antioch, are rapidly eroding the tax advantages of TN vs. other areas of the country. If you didn't lock in years ago, good luck getting into the real estate market there now. The price difference between desirable suburbs like Brentwood vs. Munster could easily negate all the income and property tax rate savings. Antioch to Munster should be a big step up in quality of life and prestige.
IN's sales tax rate is lower than TN's, but only by a couple percent - certainly not enough to make a big difference. IN does not tax food. Groceries are almost always lower in IN than TN, sometimes substantially so.
One person's personal experiences are not indicative of the town as a whole. Like anywhere, while a certain neighborhood may have issues that doesn't mean it's reflective of the whole town. Overall, Munster is a very safe place on par with most of the nicer towns in the Chicagoland area: https://www.safewise.com/blog/safest-cities-indiana/
True. thanks for the info.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serious Conversation
I lived in Carmel for three years and am from and currently live in TN, though in a very depressed area compared to NWI or Nashville.
One thing to keep in mind is that for many fields, job opportunities in Chicagoland are going to far outweigh those in Nashville, and are likely to pay much better, even if you consider COL differences. Yes, TN has low taxes, but Nashville's rising real estate prices, even in relatively undesirable areas like Antioch, are rapidly eroding the tax advantages of TN vs. other areas of the country. If you didn't lock in years ago, good luck getting into the real estate market there now. The price difference between desirable suburbs like Brentwood vs. Munster could easily negate all the income and property tax rate savings. Antioch to Munster should be a big step up in quality of life and prestige.
IN's sales tax rate is lower than TN's, but only by a couple percent - certainly not enough to make a big difference. IN does not tax food. Groceries are almost always lower in IN than TN, sometimes substantially so.
Yes, the real estate market here is certainly booming. Thankfully (or unfortunately depending on how you want to look it) we got into the market in January and purchased a new townhome. It's nice but considering we're only 6 months in, moving in less than 2 years presents real estate tax challenges. I do wish we would have bought outside of davidson county because the tax advantages are slowly eroding.
Geez I knew Hammond wasn't the best area but I didn't know the crime extended all the much into munster. Good to know. We will definitely have to look at those suburbs more in the future assuming we get serious about moving.
If you are really interested in an area, I would try to not let some property crime deter you, as your interest in being in close access to the city, as well as access to shopping, activities, etc and being in the area with the absolute lowest crime are going to be at odds with each other. Look for communities that have a variety of homeowner types, including elderly and stay at home or work at home parents who will be there to keep an eye on their neighbors houses during the day and areas with strong neighborhood watches. I can tell you from the last year of experience in SE Hammond that the neighborhoods south of 165th and west of Monon trail are especially diligent in watching for crime and looking out for their neighborhood, and it makes a significant difference in the number of crimes there. I assume something similar is experienced in Munster.
Geez I knew Hammond wasn't the best area but I didn't know the crime extended all the much into munster. Good to know. We will definitely have to look at those suburbs more in the future assuming we get serious about moving.
It's not a bad area and it's nothing like Hammond but I think there's a false sense of nothing happens there. I never felt scared in the least, I'd often walk my dog in the middle of the night, even down the isolated walkway between Columbia and White Oak.
I was just pointing out that things do happen. I didn't live in the area nearest to Hammond where you find the majority of the crime, I lived in the Fairmeadows neighborhood. The incidents with the garage is likely due to the fact that our garage was detached. If you read the police reports, you will often see that garage break ins appear to be detached ones.
I agree with the poster who says that you can't judge a town by just one person's experience but I will tell you that you may tell someone that your garage was broken into and in the grand scheme of life, it doesn't seem like a big deal but it does shake up your world.
It's not even the fact that your tools/snowblower/etc is gone. It's the not knowing who did it, will they come back, the random thoughts when you're outside doing work and cars drive by and you think is the person who did that driving by, the panic when you notice that the garage light is on and you're trying to remember if you left it on in the daylight or if you're getting robbed again.
But again, Munster isn't unsafe and I'd still be living there if not for personal reasons. If I was to move there again, I'd definitely look for a neighborhood that doesn't get a lot of random traffic. A lot of the streets like Columbia, Calumet, Fran Lin, Camellia, 35th, Ridge, White Oak, etc are used by non residents and exposes your life to hundreds of strangers. I never liked that and think it made us more vulnerable to the things that happened bc if you drove by enough, you'd know only a single woman and an elderly lady live there.
You can sign up for the weekly police newsletter here Neighborhood Crime Watch / Town of Munster, IN
I'm not sure about the mills. Afaik, the mills are in Gary/East Chicago. I know plenty of people who work in the mills but not like when I was a kid and pretty much any non professional male worked in the mills. The generation before that were pretty much going from diapers to the mills, lol. Whiting has the BP refinery. I'm not sure what the state of jobs are there but again, I know quite a few people who worked there for their entire careers (it used to be amaco).
Whiting is ones of those places that is diversity positive. People get along. It's funny how times have changed bc it used to be a joke that it was called Whiting for a reason.
The old timers keep their eyes open and there's a real sense of community, the younger generation is invested into making it feel like a place with personality instead of just where you live.
I don't think the schools are the best but I guess Bishop Noll is an option for private school. All my Whiting friends who graduated in the 90s all turned out fine. Most are really successful but all of them are hard working non bums, lol.
It is really nice there and the homes have the architectural details that the majority of towns south of Ridge Rd lack. The sad thing about the region is that the interesting and beautiful workmanship happens to be in the undesirable towns. Whiting is the best of the region (Imo) bc it's relatively safe, has the beaches/bike trails, close to Chicago, has unique homes and the mayor/citizens are committed to keeping it up.
I only see it exploding in price/popularity in the next decade. There's really nowhere "cool" to live in the region. People who don't want to/can't afford to live in Chicago still want a unique place that offers amenities/quality of life. My friend moved back to the region and works for Johnson Controls. He rented in Whiting for a year, then last year bought a cool house for 75k.
I think the point you're trying to make is that you wouldn't recommend someone move to a town whose school is majority minority, correct? Either that, or you wouldn't want it for yourself/your kids? However, your compliment to the town saying it looks pretty nice is inherently a compliment to the town's residents. You don't think all those Hispanics have anything to do with the perception of the town that you're stating?
As stated above, it's the BP Refinery that's active in Whiting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hellob
I'm not sure about the mills. Afaik, the mills are in Gary/East Chicago. I know plenty of people who work in the mills but not like when I was a kid and pretty much any non professional male worked in the mills. The generation before that were pretty much going from diapers to the mills, lol. Whiting has the BP refinery. I'm not sure what the state of jobs are there but again, I know quite a few people who worked there for their entire careers (it used to be amaco).
Whiting is ones of those places that is diversity positive. People get along. It's funny how times have changed bc it used to be a joke that it was called Whiting for a reason.
The old timers keep their eyes open and there's a real sense of community, the younger generation is invested into making it feel like a place with personality instead of just where you live.
I don't think the schools are the best but I guess Bishop Noll is an option for private school. All my Whiting friends who graduated in the 90s all turned out fine. Most are really successful but all of them are hard working non bums, lol.
It is really nice there and the homes have the architectural details that the majority of towns south of Ridge Rd lack. The sad thing about the region is that the interesting and beautiful workmanship happens to be in the undesirable towns. Whiting is the best of the region (Imo) bc it's relatively safe, has the beaches/bike trails, close to Chicago, has unique homes and the mayor/citizens are committed to keeping it up.
I only see it exploding in price/popularity in the next decade. There's really nowhere "cool" to live in the region. People who don't want to/can't afford to live in Chicago still want a unique place that offers amenities/quality of life. My friend moved back to the region and works for Johnson Controls. He rented in Whiting for a year, then last year bought a cool house for 75k.
I'm not sure that I'd call Whiting "really nice", but I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's blue collar, it's old, kind of grungy... but relatively clean and quite safe with respectable schools. It has an identity, for sure. The older Polish and other Eastern European residents and their more recent generations of family members who've stayed in Whiting seem to have blended well with the Hispanic crowd that's moved in over the last several decades.
I think the point you're trying to make is that you wouldn't recommend someone move to a town whose school is majority minority, correct? Either that, or you wouldn't want it for yourself/your kids? However, your compliment to the town saying it looks pretty nice is inherently a compliment to the town's residents. You don't think all those Hispanics have anything to do with the perception of the town that you're stating?
As stated above, it's the BP Refinery that's active in Whiting.
I'm not sure that I'd call Whiting "really nice", but I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's blue collar, it's old, kind of grungy... but relatively clean and quite safe with respectable schools. It has an identity, for sure. The older Polish and other Eastern European residents and their more recent generations of family members who've stayed in Whiting seem to have blended well with the Hispanic crowd that's moved in over the last several decades.
I meant it's nice in the way of the old region. If you want to be in a safe, affordable, non cookie cutter area with beach access, great bike trails, a lot of community activities,etc it's really the best choice.
But yeah, you're not going to impress anyone when you say you live in Whiting, lol. People might feel sorry for you but then again, they value things that I don't.
Anyway, if you're from the region, you're not really that impressed by where anyone lives. I'm not like "oooh you live in the newest overpriced subdivision in St John!" or "you live in Miller? Omg, ur going to get murdered!".
I lived in Gary until we white flighted to Munster. My grandma's sister lived in east Chicago and both our old house and hers were just so beautiful and unlike the white flight towns. The homes are boring. I love Munster but I'd rather have a house in East Chicago if it was safe.
I do really see Whiting increasing it's cache bc like I said, there's nowhere cool to live. There are successful people who don't strive to get a house in the Munster/St John area. I can really see new Illinois people who are used to the more vintage Chicago feel being interested in Whiting instead of Munster.
Some people want to be in a safe but not sterile town. They like a little grunge, they like blue collar, they like having non stepford neighbors. That's how the majority of people my age grew up. I liked having the cool old guy next door who drank a case of strohs everyday. I liked teenagers having rock band practice and the whole block heard.
No matter if I won the lottery, this idea that there should be no signs of life in your neighborhood is the worst. I'm not trying to be invisible.
Bottom line is Whiting still has the flavor but I'm not worried about getting robbed.
I think people took my statements the wrong way. Northwest Indiana, had it been an hour from Chicago rather then being right next door, would have a more well rounded economy. It would have had to.
But since its next door, it became too dependent on the rest of the Chicago area. We need to be less so.
And when I am talking about jobs, I am talking about all jobs, not just the white collar jobs of DT Chicago. Those types of jobs only employ a small percent of people. Most jobs don't need an expensive DT address. In fact very few do. Those firms could be here, no problem.
We need to be able to survive Chicago and Illinois being stupid. And the only way for that is to increase employment here. The rest of Indiana does much better then NWI. We need to be more like the rest of the state of INDIANA!
^Well, not THAT much like them. I'd still like to have stuff to do and not be isolated.
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