Considering buying in Richmond, In (Muncie, Anderson: for sale, crime, vacation home)

[pancakewife]

Married couple, no children, considering purchasing a home in Richmond, In. I'm interested in the real opinions of people living in Richmond/Wayne County in particular. I've seen a lot to like online, and other things that make me dubious, so the deciding factor is going to be input from people who actually live there.
So, lay it on me...good and bad...what is there to decide me on investing in a summer home in/near Richmond?

[MissingIndiana]

Richmond definitely would not be my first pick for a place to build a summer home. It wouldn't even be in the top 100. Where are you from and what are you looking for in a place to live? My fiance lived there for a while and I spent a considerable amount of time there visiting, so I will tell you what I can.

Richmond has an interesting history, but has gone through a lot of decline. Back in the day, it was the birthplace of recorded jazz and the recording place for a lot of other music as well. It also has the less positive distinction of once having the strongest KKK presence in the country. Today, the Klan is no longer an issue and the city is trying to draw on its music history and revamp it's downtown area.

Downtown is in the process of redeveloping its image. There are a lot of great murals going up reflecting the music history I mentioned and a few interesting stores. There is a furniture store in an old rail depot that is 3 or 4 stories high and has some great furniture as well as a lot of neat historic items. Attached are a few pictures I've taken.Attached are a few pictures I've taken (Richmond, IN - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/32838849@N08/sets/72157625089990973/with/5104105412/ - broken link))

As for places to go out and eat, there is a lot of standard chain stuff on US 40 on the east side (Red Lobster, O'Charleys, Texas Roadhouse, etc). More locally, the Old Richmond Inn is fantastic. It's an old home/B&B that serves food now and is one of the better places to eat in town. There is a branch of Ghyslain chocolatiers in town that is amazing (Ghyslain Bistro, Gourmet Dining in Richmond Indiana | Ghyslain Chocolatier). I've also heard good things about Little Sheba's, although we never went. There are also some other neat little places around this area including a cool little italian market.

All that said, there are still quite a few empty store fronts and skeezy looking bars along Main St. There are also a lot of older homes that have beautiful architecture, but have not been kept up throughout the years. I also felt like there were a lot of shady looking people hanging around and in general I just didn't care for the overall feel of downtown. If you wanted to go anywhere else in the area, it's about 45 minutes to 1 hour to Dayton or 1.5 hours to Indy (realtors will tell you 1 hour, but this is at best only to the far east side which isn't where you would want to be visiting anyway). Oxford, OH is a cool little college town about 30-35 minutes away with some unique places to eat. Cincy is also about 1.5 hours away.

The landscape is nothing to write home about. Pretty much flat open fields. There is a pretty little valley/ravine of sorts that runs through town along the river and Sam Hodgkins Parkway. Sometimes there is a guy there in the summer selling some great corn and other veggies. Brookville Lake is about 30 minutes away which is nice, but not anywhere near the prettiest place in Indiana. If you visit Richmond, try not to get lost. It can be a little confusing due to the street names. Most east-west streets are lettered and there are multiple different streets with the same letter (ie North A St., South A St., SW A St, NW A St).

Honestly, if you're looking for a similar sized town in Indiana to buy a home I would look around Columbus, IN. It's roughly the same size as Richmond, but has been on the upswing as opposed to in decline. It's world renowned for modernist architecture, has a couple of great parks (ie Mill Run), some neat restaurants and attractions (ie Zaharakos), is only 45 minutes from downtown Indy as opposed to 1.5 hours, and is less than 30 minutes to little Nashville which has a lot of art and candy shops and is likened to being like a miniature Gatlinburg. It's in amongst all the hills and trees of Brown County where everybody in Indy likes to flock in the fall. One of the prettiest places in Indiana, although not my personal favorite

Let us know what you're looking for. If you seem interested in Columbus, start another post here about it and I'm sure domergirl can answer anything for you.

[vashdown]

I have also been looking at a beautiful Victorian in downtown Richmond, IN for sale.... would love to hear more comments.

[indy_317]

I also don't have anything positive to say about Richmond. I've been through there a handful of times. They are somewhat connected to the antique alley since Centerville, IN is so close. I knew a guy from there and he ended up staying in Indy. His family was in county LE. I know another guy that came to Indy and ended up staying. There just doesn't seem that much going on in Richmond, IN. From my understanding, a friend applied for some tech job (upper level admin) for a company based in Richmond. A large, global company. The thing is, this job was in Indy as a portion (maybe the whole thing?) of their tech division was in Indy as well. Kinda makes you wonder if long term plans mean a move to Indy for this company?

If you got money for a summer home, I agree with the other poster about Columbus, IN. To me, this sounds almost like a vacation home, and you would be better off in Columbus than Richmond.

[jking3002]

Grew up in Richmond, lived out of state for about four years now. It has it's good and bad factors. I don't know how familiar you are with the rest of the state, but most of East-Central Indiana (Muncie, Anderson, New Castle, Richmond etc) has suffered from declines in manufacturing for about 3 decades now.

Richmond has an amazing Depot District on the north side of downtown. There are about 80 different locally owned specialty stores and restaurants with new ones opening all the time. It's really cool.

Beyond that and a few other neat local attractions (Wayne County Museum, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, the Garr Mansion, Levi Coffin House, etc) its pretty much your standard Indiana town (which means generic). It has the standard chain outlets- Wal-Mart, Meijer, Khols, Best Buy, etc and the standard chain restaurants- Applebee's, O'Charley's, Chili's, Texas Roadhouse, etc.

I would recommend you visit Richmond, check out some of the things I've mentioned and see if you like it. Also, I've noticed that Columbites seem to always knock against Richmond. I live about an hour and forty-five minutes south of there, and it really isn't anything special either. I would say it is cleaner than Richmond, and is on the "upswing" so long as Cummins remains viable. Property is also more expensive in that area, by a considerable amount.

[pancakewife]

We are totally not building. We like to rehab older (turn of the Century) homes. I grew up in North East Ohio, so I get the economic situation up there fairly well, having moved away from it a decade plus ago. We're not into chain stores/franchises, and part of what draws my interest to Richmond (in addition to really really really affordable housing prices), is that from what I've seen online there appears to be a fairly decent progressive community there. In particular, the aforementioned Depot District, and the food co-op.
I used to know the Dayton, Ohio area a little bit, from working down there with a YSU dig on the mounds.
Another thing I like is that there are multiple Colleges there. After a decade plus of living in the southern part of the US, I miss being around smaller, private, liberal arts schools, instead of the large state schools that are more prevelent here.
And, yes, I'd probably be mostly Downtown...our winter home is a Texas Ranchette (10 acres, 12 miles from "town" and 45 miles from a smallish city) I'd enjoy not HAVING to drive everywhere, plus, my husband's family is about 2 hours from Richmond...close enough to visit reasonably easily, but far enough away to have our own lives. They'd be closer if we bought in Columbus.

[jking3002]

If you like rehabing old homes, Richmond would be one of the very best places to buy! Tons of amazing old homes around and for very cheap. However, petty crime ("tagging," vandalism, etc) is fairly high in most areas of town with those cheap older homes.

There is a fairly large progressive community in town, probably a fair amount of that comes from Earlham College and the town's Quaker roots. There are also large conservative blue and red collar crowds in town- so be warned, it isn't some progressive Mecca.

There are a few colleges in town, but Earlham is the traditional liberal-arts type school, while IU East is mostly a commuter branch of IU (although it is growing faster than any other branch in the system over the last 3 years or so, and you can really notice it around town), and Ivy Tech is just a community college found throughout the state, and Richmond has a branch.

Again, you really need to visit, and see for yourself if you are interested!

[IndieIndy]

I've always wondered about Richmond when on trips to the east, good stuff here.

[vashdown]

Try this Brian-


Renaissance Properties - Home

[MissingIndiana]

Originally Posted by vashdown

Try this Brian-


Renaissance Properties - Home

My fiance rented through this property group. They weren't bad to deal with