Fishers or Fort Wayne? (Indianapolis, South Bend: apartment complex, rentals, new home)

[devinmarie]

Hello,

My husband and two kids are planning on moving to Indiana next summer, coming from horribly expensive Southern California. I have been looking at Fishers and Fort Wayne. Fishers seems to have much more rentals available, and good schools all around. Plus I like the fact that it is so close to Indianapolis. I am under the impression Fishers has a little less snow since it is lower. Is that true? I will graduate in December as an accountant and there is an accounting firm located in both cities I would love to work for.

Can you give me insight/pros or cons of both places?

Thanks

[Toxic Toast]

Fishers is a pretty typical suburb. Fort Wayne is a larger city that anchors its region. It is true we get less snow than Fort Wayne in the Indy area, beyond that your question is too broad to get useful answers. It is like asking the difference between Pasadena and Phoenix. Do you like suburbs? Fishers is great. Do you prefer older neighborhoods? Fort Wayne will offer more of that. However, you could work in Fishers and commute from Indianapolis/Noblesville/Carmel/Zionsville.

[devinmarie]

I guess that is part of my problem, haha. I don't know exactly what I like. I just want out of Cali, we can't survive here. I want to be able to buy a home. It will never happen here. We are 38 and 40, together we make 75,000 a year and sometimes don't have gas money to get to work.

I want good schools for the kids, a relatively safe area to live, and more modern surroundings. So it seems like maybe Fishers is more my style. I want to be near water of some sort. We aren't super outdoorsy but definitely want to get a boat one day. I also want nearby colleges and/or vocational schools.

My husband and I don't mind a small commute, but we have been doing a hour+ commute for the last two years and we are over it. I read somewhere commuting from Fishers to Indy can be pretty bad on the I-69. But I wonder what "pretty bad" actually means.

From my research we could afford a house in either city. But seems we could potentially make more money in Fishers (and surrounding areas).

[ImmerLernen]

Originally Posted by devinmarie

I want good schools for the kids, a relatively safe area to live, and more modern surroundings.

Like you, we're looking to relocate away from Southern California, have two school-age kids, and want some of these same things. I've been researching for a good year now, so I'll share what *I think* I know.

I can't speak to the Ft. Wayne area at all, but for the Indianapolis area (which would include Fishers), you may want to focus on the school districts that include these high schools (in no particular order): Westfield, Carmel, Hamilton SE, Center Grove, Brownsburg, and Zionsville.

And this link has been helpful at looking into schools:

https://www.schooldigger.com/

[ischyros]

Fishers and Fort Wayne are two very different beasts. I currently live in Fishers but have lived in Fort Wayne. Fishers has boomed with new homes. My wife and I have two kids and make close to what you make annual combined. We feel like we're getting priced out of Fishers. We had thought about moving but decided to stick with our house for that simple reason. We'd likely have to move out of Fishers. The schools are great and while we like the proximity to Indy, we honestly rarely ever travel into the city limits since she works just across 96th St and I work in Carmel. Fishers is mostly new stuff. Infrastructure is playing catch up because of the rapid growth but it will never be great. I-69 is much better since it's been widened and usually flows as long as there isn't an accident, but traffic is still very heavy.


While Fishers is through and through a suburb, Fort Wayne is a big city, the second largest in Indiana. It's a great city, though. There are lots to do and several areas with good schools. There are a lot of safe neighborhoods and much of what you can find in Indy, you can find in Fort Wayne. I honestly prefer Fort Wayne's zoo over Indy's and our kids have been there more than the Indy Zoo. They have a nice art museum (though Newfields is much, much bigger). Science Central is a cool place if you have kids. Parkview Field downtown is a great place for minor league baseball. And if you want to, it's not a bad drive down I-69 to get to Indy. Less than 100 miles of interstate between Fort Wayne and Fishers.

[devinmarie]

Originally Posted by ischyros

Fishers and Fort Wayne are two very different beasts. I currently live in Fishers but have lived in Fort Wayne. Fishers has boomed with new homes. My wife and I have two kids and make close to what you make annual combined. We feel like we're getting priced out of Fishers. We had thought about moving but decided to stick with our house for that simple reason. We'd likely have to move out of Fishers. The schools are great and while we like the proximity to Indy, we honestly rarely ever travel into the city limits since she works just across 96th St and I work in Carmel. Fishers is mostly new stuff. Infrastructure is playing catch up because of the rapid growth but it will never be great. I-69 is much better since it's been widened and usually flows as long as there isn't an accident, but traffic is still very heavy.


While Fishers is through and through a suburb, Fort Wayne is a big city, the second largest in Indiana. It's a great city, though. There are lots to do and several areas with good schools. There are a lot of safe neighborhoods and much of what you can find in Indy, you can find in Fort Wayne. I honestly prefer Fort Wayne's zoo over Indy's and our kids have been there more than the Indy Zoo. They have a nice art museum (though Newfields is much, much bigger). Science Central is a cool place if you have kids. Parkview Field downtown is a great place for minor league baseball. And if you want to, it's not a bad drive down I-69 to get to Indy. Less than 100 miles of interstate between Fort Wayne and Fishers.

This is a great response, thank you! What you said about getting priced out of Fishers has me a little worried. I have done a lot of research on Fort Wayne and it does seem great in certain areas, and more affordable than Fishers. Coming from Southern California the snow kinda scares me, so the fact that Fishers get a little less is welcoming.

Do you find a different attitude of people between the cities? Fort Wayne seems to have more diversity, which I like.

Is there a special website for rental listings for Fort Wayne? I've looked on Zillow, Rent.com, and i think Craigslist. I can hardly find any, and especially have a hard time finding ones that allow pets. It's one of the main reasons I started looking in Fishers. My budget is 1600 max for a 3+2 house.

[ischyros]

Originally Posted by devinmarie

This is a great response, thank you! What you said about getting priced out of Fishers has me a little worried. I have done a lot of research on Fort Wayne and it does seem great in certain areas, and more affordable than Fishers. Coming from Southern California the snow kinda scares me, so the fact that Fishers get a little less is welcoming.

Do you find a different attitude of people between the cities? Fort Wayne seems to have more diversity, which I like.

Is there a special website for rental listings for Fort Wayne? I've looked on Zillow, Rent.com, and i think Craigslist. I can hardly find any, and especially have a hard time finding ones that allow pets. It's one of the main reasons I started looking in Fishers. My budget is 1600 max for a 3+2 house.

I guess what I mean about getting priced out of Fishers is we were hoping to get a decent home with 4 bedrooms for $200,000 or less. That is becoming harder and harder to find in Fishers, it seems. We could spend more by making sacrifices elsewhere, but we don't really want to do that. But homes in our neighborhood that sold for $130k to $150k ten years ago when we bought our house are now selling for $160k-$180k. There are even a few 3 bedrooms going for $200k+.



Fishers is more affluent than Fort Wayne, though you can find areas of Fort Wayne similar, but not on the same scale. Fort Wayne is obviously more diverse since it is the full city while Fishers is a suburb. Fort Wayne gets more snow but not a ton more. It's about 10 more inches. Indianapolis would be slightly more prone to ice storms than Fort Wayne.


I don't know of any special rental websites for Fort Wayne. I think Edward Rose has at least one apartment complex in Fort Wayne. I've lived in two of their neighborhoods (Elkhart and Mishawaka) and loved both of them. I would highly recommend AGAINST Canterbury Green. I lived there for bit over a year and while the part I lived in was decently quiet, it's sandwiched between the IPFW campus and Pieres nightclub. The north end by Pieres especially could get rowdy. We also had several problems with our apartment ranging from heat not working right to an invasion of flies to some animal living in the attic above us. To each maintenance always said they couldn't find anything wrong. I think when I looked for apartments I just used apartmentguide.com.


If you're looking for apartments in Fishers, when I first moved here I lived for a year at Sunblest Apartments and I loved them. They were a bit pricey but especially now they are located by so much to do that you can just walk to.

[cdr18]

I can provide some info here:

Fishers - Very typical suburb for a major city. The city is growing at an exponential rate along with all of the suburbs of Indy. Like previously said, everything is relatively new which can be great, but you do lose that charm of a city when you're there. But that doesn't appeal to everyone so I understand.

Fort Wayne - 2nd largest city in Indiana, and also growing decent for a Midwestern city. Fort Wayne doesn't have suburbs per se, but there are numerous neighborhoods and subdivisions surrounding the city. They're just incorporated into the city unlike Indy. Fort Wayne's proximity to water bodes well, since you are a decent drive to Lake Erie or Lake Michigan. Also, northeast Indiana is known for having several lakes.

Fort Wayne does get snow, but not too much. You can have a bad winter here and there, but generally it's relatively lacking any major snows. They are just south of the major snow belt in the South Bend / Elkhart area.

[WildWestDude]

Originally Posted by devinmarie

Hello,

My husband and two kids are planning on moving to Indiana next summer, coming from horribly expensive Southern California. I have been looking at Fishers and Fort Wayne. Fishers seems to have much more rentals available, and good schools all around. Plus I like the fact that it is so close to Indianapolis. I am under the impression Fishers has a little less snow since it is lower. Is that true? I will graduate in December as an accountant and there is an accounting firm located in both cities I would love to work for.

Can you give me insight/pros or cons of both places?

Thanks

Just curious, what made you pick Indiana out of all the states?

[devinmarie]

Originally Posted by WildWestDude

Just curious, what made you pick Indiana out of all the states?

I have looked at a few states. My main goal is to find a state with a good cost of living, that has the same education requirements to sit for the CPA exam as California. I was first looking at Texas, but they have different requirements. I have been in school for a long time. I will be done in June of 2019. I refuse to move to a state that will cause me more schooling.

So Indiana popped up on my radar. The cost of living is great. The weather doesn't seem so bad. The drive from Cali will suck. Other states either have homes over priced or homes that are too small. I was interested in
Oregon, but the houses in my budget are far too small.