Diversity In Lake County (Indianapolis: relocating, gated, house hunting)

[ExPatDiva]

My family is relocating from Mid-Michigan to NWest Indy. Our House Hunting trip is coming up quickly. From the basic stats, it looks like Lake County isn't very diverse. I also hear there is a trend of Chicago-area people relocating to NWest Indy. I'd like some honest reflections on the situation.

[Chuckity]

Just so you know, NW Indy reads like Northwest Indianapolis. Indy = Indianapolis.

Anyhow, yes, NWI is very segregated.

And NWI has seen an influx of people from Illinois (myself included) for years. Mostly from the south suburbs.

[LIS123]

NWI is diverse in the sense that people of various backgrounds live here. That said, many of them tend to 'stick to their own kind,' so it is quite segregated.

The closer parts of Chicagoland (on the IL side) to NWI are the South side of Chicago and the South and Southwest suburbs. Many of those areas aren't the most desirable places to live and, thanks to the fact that they're in IL, are often more expensive than much nicer areas here in NWI. Hence, people have been moving from Chicagoland to NWI for years.

The caveat is that the 'growth' of NWI is largely due to people moving in from the IL side of Chicagoland or less desirable areas within Lake county. There's not as much growth from complete newcomers relocating here for work, school, etc (though it does happen). It's kind of like jobless growth; the local economy is still mediocre at best and very limited in scope. The nice thing is you can live here and work in and around Chicago.

In addition, it has been getting a lot more crowded in recent years. Our traffic and crowding situation is much better than many areas in IL, but we are catching up. Forty one is going to be that much worse once all the new malls, restaurants, etc are complete.