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I was born in the early 50s and raised in central Indiana but moved to Fort Wayne in 1979 and lived there 34 years. I preferred living in Fort Wayne because it was big enough to provide jobs and yet the cost of living was more reasonable than the Indianapolis area. I moved to southwest Florida in 2013 and I can tell you for certain that the summers are much hotter than they were in Fort Wayne. I never knew what dew point meant until I came to Florida but I'll tell you that, in short, the higher the dew point the more miserable you will be. Dew point here in summer averages between 75 to 80 and that is off the charts miserable. Our AC runs continuously from June to November. I rarely turned my AC on in Fort Wayne.
I concur with other posters about mosquitoes. Actually, I found mosquitoes worse in Indiana because they do an effective job spraying for them in my area in Florida. The mosquitoes in Fort Wayne would come out about dusk and be the worst at that time. I never noticed them much in daylight hours. Depends on where you live I suppose. I didn't live near any standing water so I had relatively few mosquitoes.
There are threads on the Indiana forum complaining about how backwards Indiana is. I read them and had to laugh. IMHO Indiana is a great place to grow up and raise a family. I went to school in Pendleton (near Indy) and my education there was very good. I went to college in Fort Wayne at the Indiana-Purdue University extension and I had no trouble finding work after graduation. I believe that Indiana University has left Fort Wayne but Purdue is still there. Fort Wayne has other colleges like St.Francis and I believe Indiana Wesleyan is there too. Indiana Vocational Technical College (Ivy Tech) is also located in Fort Wayne. Notre Dame is located in South Bend about 90 .minutes or so from Fort Wayne and there are other great colleges like Ball State and Hanover that are located in Indiana. Indiana may not be Ivy League but you can get a decent education leading to a good job in Indiana. Indiana isn't as backwards as many people think.
Many people who are from more scenic areas of the country might find Indiana and Fort Wayne boring. Certainly the state has no oceans or mountains but it's not entirely without beauty. The southern part of Indiana is hilly but central and northern indiana is pretty flat. The rivers aren't large in most of Indiana and might seem like creeks to someone who is from a state that has large rivers. The Ohio River is the largest River in Indiana and it's quite a long way from Fort Wayne. Lake Michigan does border Indiana but it's up closer to the Chicago area. Fort Wayne isn't far from what is known as the lakes area of northeast Indiana. Homes are pricey on most lakes but they are located within an hour drive of the city. Pokagon State Park is nice and is located about 45 minutes north.
Fort Wayne has a semi professional hockey team and a semi pro baseball team. The baseball park is fairly new and is located downtown. The hockey team plays at the Memorial Coliseum located in the northeast part of the city. Many events are held there. Fort Wayne also has a bike/ walking trail that runs throughout the city known as the River Greenway. Fort Wayne has many nice parks and golf courses. I used to go to Foster Park several times each year and there are some nice flower gardens and a golf course located there. The Fort Wayne Childrens Zoo is nice and is located at Franke Park on the northwest side of Fort Wayne. The Zoo is open year around I believe.
Some Hoosiers may relocate to orher states but most people who are born in Indiana stay in Indiana. They tend to be very family oriented and life tends to revolve around children's sports such as soccer, baseball, basketball and football. People moving from other states may have a hard time fitting into that especially single people. Fort Wayne also has many churches and tends to be a conservative area. Fort Wayne has had Democrat mayors but the area tends to vote Republican on the Federal level. I'm not political but I never felt threatened by either Democrats or Republicans. As I said, I grew up and lived in Indiana most of my life so I guess I'm used to the lifestyle there. I've lived in Florida for 7 years and have found it easier to fit in here but that's mainly because I'm older and I'm single. There are many old single people here, far more than there were in Fort Wayne.
Other posters have described the winters in Fort Wayne and they are correct that ice will cause most power outages and the outages won't last long. Fort Wayne does get ice storms but they aren't frequent. The city is located in an area that gets lake effect snow from the Great Lakes so it will usually snow more than areas farther south. When I lived in central Indiana we had more ice storms than Fort Wayne. Cold weather usually sets in in late October or early November and can last into late April and early May. Springtime is wet but temps are mild. Fall is, IMO, glorious in Fort Wayne. There are lots of hardwood trees that provide beautiful Fall colors. Temperatures are perfect then.
You won't beat the overall cost of living in Fort Wayne. I sold a nice 20 year old 1200 sq ft. home in a nice neighborhood for $110,000 there in 2011. I rented a nice 1 bedroom apartment for $550 a month in 2012-13. I recently bought a 20 year old home here in southwest Florida for $289,900. A 1 bedroom apartment in my city runs $1300 on up (if you can find one). $289,000 will buy you a damn nice home with acreage in the Fort Wayne area and $1300 will rent you a super luxury apartment in Fort Wayne. The relatively low Cost of Living is why it is hard for a Hoosier to relocate outside the state. In my current area the majority of new residents are from New York, Boston or Toronto. They are used to high prices and they bring tons of equity with them to buy new homes. They think nothing of spending $400,000 for a house. I moved to Florida with $110k to buy a home here. My house was paid for in Indiana so it was definitely harder for me to get started here in Florida. I doubt the OP will have trouble getting started in Fort Wayne. You cannot beat the overall cost of living in Fort Wayne. Even if you factor in state and county income taxes it was still far less expensive for me to live in Fort Wayne than it has been for me in the no income tax state of Florida. Everything costs more here. OP will probably be financially better off if they stay in Fort Wayne long enough.
Very well said. I agree with pretty much all you stated.
I forget that Pokagon isn't far away. Chain'O'Lakes is even closer, though not as big. Oubache State Park isn't far away either. Oubache had a small herd of bison and a fire tower you can climb still in use when I was at the park last in 2011.
Ft Wayne also has the G League (semi-pro) team that is an extension of the Pacers in Ft Wayne too.
IPFW is officially PFW now, but IU does maintain IFW on the same campus. I think the split was essentially now that all health care type majors fall under IFW. All Science, Engineering or other majors fall under PFW. All sports fall under PFW as well.
I've lived in 5 states including 23 years in Palm Beach and I so wish I'd discovered FW decades ago.
Unless one wants world class arts/restaurants akin to NYC there is nothing missing here. It has everything one needs and at a ridiculously low COL.
The so called "bad sections" are a joke. NO bars on windows, no graffiti, no garbage strewn streets with wandering shady looking characters, yards with lawn decor which would be stolen within hours in a truly bad 'hood. The natives have no idea how kickass this city is.
You really need to come from away, where actual high crime, dangerous areas where all businesses and most houses have bars and are covered in graffiti, are the norm like I was used to in SoFl and in NY, to appreciate this awesome city.
Love love love it. I live pretty centrally in a senior apartment house (by State and Coliseum) and am closing on a house next week in the same section; super convenient (no traffic jams ever, anyhow) and SAFE. Kids on my current street leave bicycles on their lawn overnight; they are still there in the morning.
Hi there, FW native here (~40 yrs). FW has exploded over the past 20 yrs. It has plenty of positives: low COL, moderate in politics, nice place to raise a family, a relatively short drive to bigger cities (Chicago or Indy or places in Ohio or Michigan) or to the Great Lakes. It also has some negatives: winter weather (I vaguely remember that somewhere in the sky there exists this big bright hot ball...haven't seen it in some time but I KNOW it's still up there somewhere!), some hot and humid summer weather (but with the extended daylight hours there's much more to do here in the summer), flat flat flat land with farms and manure smell in the rural areas and corn and soy beans are everywhere in the country.
As someone else mentioned, Fall can't be beat here!
I don't have specifics on Ft. Wayne, but I'm born and raised in Indiana and never left (going on 40+ years), so I can speak in general to some things about the overall region.
Most areas in Indiana have very mild winters compared to Wyoming. A good ice storm will absolutely knock power out during the winter, but those are rare. Your biggest worry would actually be strong storms with very high winds and/or tornadoes. Even a brief and weaker tornado can knock out power for a while. This usually depends on who runs the grid in that area. Is it a decent sized co-op, a large corporate company, or maybe a small municipal owned power company? The larger the entity, the more supplies they will likely have on-hand. The larger the metro, the more supplies available through third party companies and the like. Ft. Wayne is large enough that they should be able to get power restored somewhat quickly, unless the storms are very strong and very widespread.
I've read articles that Ft. Wayne has a nice downtown riverfront area, and really the entire state is trying to connect various bike paths for all the metro regions. Each city, and even small towns, are trying to add these as well, but it will depend on funding and such.
I'm also into scenic drives. Depending on what you feel is scenic will determine if you'll be happy in the area. The northern 2/3rds of Indiana is pretty much flat. Pockets of elevation here and there, but one doesn't really get any serious elevation changes unless they are from Brown County and points south/east of that area. That being said, Indiana does offer some scenic views, and mostly they are views that go on for miles. Scenic drives are best done in combination with a goal to reach some point-of-interest. Restaurant, museum, park, historic point, etc.. I like to make road trips to well known eateries in parts far off from the Indy metro area. I really like cast iron pan fried chicken, and places near Ohio from the Richmond area south towards Cincinnati are known for their special version of pan fried chicken that includes their special pepper/spice blend (not hot though). So I'm gotten out to about half the places who are well known for that. We've also seen a huge explosion in the craft beer and other alcoholic beverage scene. I'm not a huge drinker at all, but there are some festivals devoted to craft beer and most of the major metros have a handful of places serving their concoction.
The only real downside is somewhat related to the scenic driving issue. We don't have mountains or oceans here. While Indiana is a small state land wise, we do have a decent population throughout the state. Lots of our areas were built up as factories would locate in many small cities and towns decades ago. Many of those places closed up. There really isn't much large scale wilderness areas given how the state developed in the past. True wilderness getaways are going to be hours worth of driving. A true mountain getaway is likely going to be around a seven hour trip, to somewhere in the Appalachians. The Atlantic is going to be around a fourteen hour drive depending on traffic and breaks.
Thanks to all who participated in this thread. I am considering a move to Fort Wayne and this is helpful information. I wonder if apartment and housing prices have jumped in Fort Wayne since 2020? I currently live in Texas and rent has almost doubled since 2020.
Thanks to all who participated in this thread. I am considering a move to Fort Wayne and this is helpful information. I wonder if apartment and housing prices have jumped in Fort Wayne since 2020? I currently live in Texas and rent has almost doubled since 2020.
Yes rent and housing prices are up here as well. It's probably cheaper than Texas but salaries are also lower here as well. So called "Luxury Apartments" are super expensive for what you get. If at all possible try to buy a house. Cheap apartments are often full of problems (drug and crime issues etc).
Yes rent and housing prices are up here as well. It's probably cheaper than Texas but salaries are also lower here as well. So called "Luxury Apartments" are super expensive for what you get. If at all possible try to buy a house. Cheap apartments are often full of problems (drug and crime issues etc).
Thank you for responding. I will do my homework before picking a place.
Thank you for responding. I will do my homework before picking a place.
You're welcome I've lived here my whole life (over 40 years) so I know the area well. I haven't lived in an apartment for 20 years though so I'm less well versed on those. If you have any questions about neighborhoods/zip codes etc I 'd be happy to help!
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Good to know
I've lived here my whole life (over 40 years) so I know the area well. I haven't lived in an apartment for 20 years though so I'm less well versed on those. If you have any questions about neighborhoods/zip codes etc I 'd be happy to help!
