From SC to IN (Indianapolis, Fishers: fit in, transplants, for sale)

[Indianaherewecome]

My husband and I (with three elementary age children) are being relocated to Indianapolis! We are very excited about the move!
We have never been to Indiana, so I am sure we will be in a bit of shock with the colder weather since we have always lived in the south.

We have heard from several of my husbands counterparts that Carmel, IN is the place to be with small children.

Schools are our top priority. We have been redistricted several times because of the growth in our area. We want to be SURROUNDED by top rated schools in case that happens in IN.

My husbands office will be downtown Indianapolis.

My questions are:
Are Noblesville and Fishers just as good as Carmel as far as amenities, schools, shopping, safe, sports programs for the kids, etc?

Is the commute to any of the above areas better than the other?

Our budget is $325K. We would love to get a new home with TREES in the neighborhood! I know that is probably very rare with new homes. It is here! The builders come in and knock everything down in their path! Any neighborhood that comes to mind?

If not a new home, we would like an updated one on or around a golf course? Any suggestions there as well?

Thank you all! Input is much appreciated!

[sweetana3]

you can get some quick ideas of houses by checking mibor.com. If you input on the map, your general search area and the price it will give you a quick idea of houses and maybe trees. Remember Indiana is pretty flat but there are some areas with trees and topography. However, a large percentage of homes are built on former corn/soybean fields. There are 78 houses on the for sale list between 275,000 and 325,000 in Carmel/Clay and Eagle (part of Boone that contains the village of Zionsville).

Not many golf courses. At least not as many as where you come from.

Decide on the distance you want to be from grocery, child friendly parks, walking trails, etc. It will help the agent who tries to find the perfect house for you. Most transplants are led to Carmel/Zionsville/Fishers because they are the suburban areas with good schools. I might try for something closer to the line between Carmel/Clay and Boone County. Michigan Road has the shopping you might need, there are a lot of trees around Zionsville, I65 was already improved.

Carmel's entrance to downtown, 31, is under a huge hiway improvement project right now which will dramatically help with the drive along 31. So dont let a temporary hiway project remove a house that might be closer to it right now.

[masters1]

Carmel, Zionsville, Fishers would probably be best as far as the commute on the north side. Once you get above those cities into Noblesville and Westfield, the commute will be even longer. All have top notch schools. The one negative about Carmel is that they only have one high school and it's the largest in the state (over 4,800 kids). A lot of competition in sports, clubs, ect. Fishers added a second high school a few years ago which helps with the congestion. Carmel/ Zionsville are two of the most affluent suburbs in the area. Fishers is more reasonable but still a great place to live.

While Carmel probably has the most going on (shopping, restaurants, ect), all of these cities run together and you have acess to everything on the north side within a short drive.

Golf Course location: I would check out the neighborhoods around Plum Creek golf course/Hazel Dell Rd. This is a great area to live in.It's in Carmel.While the neighborhoods are not new, their still very nice and most would fit in your budget.

In the end, once your able to look around, you will see what works for you. Hamilton County is a great place to raise a family.

[Serious Conversation]

I've lived in SC (Greenville area for a bit in college, Orangeburg for a but growing up) and now I'm here.

$325k will not go as far here as it will in most areas of SC. Carmel and Fishers are very affluent areas and I don't think SC has anything like that, aside from some parts of Charleston.

This is a good budget but a lot of Carmel and Fishers are very new. This means a lot of cookie cutter housing without many trees. There are places with more trees, but the homes are not new. If you want more woods and are willing to tolerate a longer commute, look toward Zionsville.

[ischyros]

As many have mentioned, it will be hard to find a new house with large trees. Carmel has been established longer than Fishers so you're more likely to find more homes with large trees but again, they won't be new. Most likely nothing more recently built than the late 90s. That's not to say there aren't nice homes with modern amenities and large trees! Fishers is cheaper than Carmel or Zionsville. Zionsville's access to I-65 could probably give you the best commute into downtown Indy. Fishers has improved with the widening of I-69 and redoing the I-69/SR 37 interchange but SR 37 north can still get very congested, especially in the afternoon. Carmel already has Keystone Parkway that runs all the way through the east side of town with interchanges, no stoplights. And by the end of next year, US 31 on the west side of the city will be the same way. But both of these roads still have plenty of stoplights once you get into Indianapolis. That won't ever change because there are homes and businesses all along them, which Carmel didn't allow. If you live in Fishers, depending on what part of town you live in, you can get to much of Carmel, including the downtown area which has some little shops, art galleries, and several good restaurants, in 15-20 minutes. Fishers downtown is undergoing a lot of changes and I think in a couple years it could be very nice. Downtown Ziosnville is famous for its mom & pop stores, art galleries, antique shops, and restaurants. It's surrounded by lots of tall trees and still has a cobblestone road running through it. I find it charming but most of the shops are fun to go to occasionally but I've never had any urge to buy anything they sell. Noblesville and Westfield are also very nice. Noblesville has a charming town square surrounding the court house as well. But both would be a much longer commute because they are the outer ring of suburbs. Anywhere on the north side, even inside Indy itself, would be a decent place to live.

[Serious Conversation]

I think it's also important to note that Noblesville and Zionsville feel more like independent towns in their own right (and historically have been) rather than just extensions of Indianapolis.

I work in a "border zone" between Carmel/Indianapolis, with the address being in Indy, served by Carmel police/fire, inside the 465 loop, and in Hamilton County, but a few hundred yards from a county sign. To me, the areas on the "far north side" from 96th down to 86th/82nd street don't really feel like they are in the city limits. There are some good, wooded neighborhoods through there that are less hectic than most of Carmel/Fishers, but they wouldn't be new and are probably zoned for North Central.

Fishers, Carmel, and the far north side of the city limits all kind of run together, generally getting a bit more affluent the further north you go into the suburbs. Zionsville and Noblesville are fairly well away from all the hustle and bustle.