South Haven (near Valparaiso), Indiana (Portage, Chesterton: hardwood floors, middle-class, real estate)

[Montana1948]

After reading real estate ads for Porter County for nearly a year, I noticed that homes in South Haven take a long time to sell and are offered at very low prices. I haven't lived in NW Indiana since the 70's, so I don't know the current conditions. South Haven prices sure are attractive but much lower than surrounding areas. How come?

[grmasterb]

Speaking as someone who's only driven through the area, South Haven just seems like a not-so-hot little burg. Definitely a step down from Portage, Chesterton and Valpo.

[mhouse2001]

South Haven has the distinction of having the one of the highest median family incomes for the lowest educational attainment. I will insult someone when I say that the common perception of this place is that it is trailer trash. Crime is rather high and houses are average at best. No rich or poor sections, because it's all poor. There is no real town there, either. It's just a bunch of houses with a couple of businesses. It is not a crossroads to anything and if you aren't paying attention, you will miss it. Or point and laugh, or roll up the windows quickly, take your pick.

[Chuckity]

Though it has a Valpo address, it doesn't have the benefit of Valpo schools.

That alone brings in housing value down.

(Though there are other reasons that the previous poster mentioned.)

[andreo]

When I was still living in Indiana (about 4 years ago). I was looking to upgrade to another house. One place that I looked which was well within my price range was South Haven. The house seemed OK from the outside. The realtor was unable to get in the house for me to look around.
I told a co-worker about the house and was told the following:
"You may want to have a look elsewhere. South Haven is not as forward thinking as the rest of the region". The co-worker went on to mention some of the less appealing things about the area, which I've long since forgotten. But this quote has stuck with me as if I just heard it this morning. I ended up buying a house in Portage and was very happy there until I moved.

[summer22]

Everything here is pretty accurate.

The whole subdivision was built by a local developer/speculator in the mid-1960's who really only had a profit motive. The homes are for the most part structurally sound and built with fairly good construction, but there are other problems.

Most of the ground itself is rather muddy (clay soil.) Most of the houses are built on a crawl space, without great planning for drainage, and many of them will have heavy seepage in the crawl during heavy rains. If you buy in South Haven, look for a house where someone has paved or improved the crawl or basement, and installed a good sump pump. Keeping a nice yard is a challenge, and people have been known to truck in sand to build the soil so that grass/sod can grow more easily. If you have a dog who digs, your dog will come in with very muddy paws pretty often.

The houses can be absolute gems on the inside, though... I've seen some South Haven homes with hardwood floors, remodeled kitchens/baths, and thoroughly updated interiors. Some of those were gradual remodels/improvements by people who lived there for years... and others were remodels done by real estate speculators for investment purposes.

It seems like the original homebuyers did their best to establish a healthy community at first... you see a lot of basketball hoops on the driveways, and basic organizations (church, baseball league, American Legion post) but after the initial building boom of the 1960's, no one invested or built anything more.

Its Education and point-of-view that really make the difference though. If you're looking for an upper middle-class environment, this is not it.

There's no organizations that bond the community together, except maybe the Catholic parish. There is a park with community sports -- but its little league and adult softball only. So, that's kind of a throwback to the '50s or '60s -- no soccer, tennis, anything like that. The festivals in town give off the same kind of feel. As do the stores along Route 6. Very blue-collar, 1950s-ish way of living.

There is a Boys & Girls Club that serves the community's kids and teens, and they run a tight ship. The library branch on County Road 700N is only about ten years old, and IS a very nice facility. It may be one of the best libraries in the county. Its about the only amenity that the county has invested in, though. There's not much else for kids to do in this area that they can walk or bike to. Also keep in mind there's no sidewalks, so walking the dog means walking in the street. Any other sports, recreation, or shopping mostly means driving 15 minutes to Valpo, Portage, or Chesterton.

The elementary schools are probably equal to elementaries in the rest of the region. Its not going to be especially challenging. Depending on what part of South Haven you live in, you'll be served by Wheeler's school district, or Portage. Most of the area is served by Portage schools. That means middle and high school in Portage. I don't know about their middle schools, but I know that their high school is probably something to avoid. Its an old building, huge student population, and instead of a full renovation or building a second high school, they added on and added on and added on to their existing building so the whole place is very hard to navigate and they've completely lost any type of personal touch due to the size of the school.

South Haven is unincorporated, and you'll be relying on county police and services. The whole county is decently safe, but you could have at least a few bad neighbors on each block. Meaning, you'll see squad cars in front of their house fairly often. Domestic disputes, drug habits, petty crime. Occasionally something more major.

Another problem is pollution. I was never able to figure out if it was coming from the Asphalt Plant (just north of 6 on Juniper Road) or from the Burns Harbor steel mills, but at least once a week there would be a wind coming from the north and it smelled like fumes. You do get some fog in that area, and on nights when it was foggy the odor would just sit there. Those were nights to close the windows and run the A/C because that smell would come in the house.

Summary: You can get a fairly well built, cheap house, and basic services, and most likely you won't have to worry about safety. (Taxes were only a few hundred dollars a year.) But you really lose out on a lot of quality of life.