(Be our Realtor) With this List - Choose a Suburb for Us! (Indianapolis: transporting, house)

[IndySeeker]

Hi everyone! We appreciate all the information we've gathered from reviewing the forum. We have some initial ideas but want to make a first post to ask a general question.

Considering a move to the Indy metro. If you were our realtor, and we gave you the following list, where would you direct us to look to purchase a home?

House Budget: $300k - $350k
Lot: Preferably 1+ Acre - would love a tree filled or ideally lake view lot. Don't want cookie cutter.
Commute: Within 30 minutes of downtown Indy for work. My wife strongly despises heavy traffic.
Schools: 9+ ratings on Great Schools (just as an example I guess) - we want a school where our kids will be challenged (two boys) and academics are a priority. Also important to have sports and extra-curricular offerings. Ideal school size is 600-1200 students. (Yes, we can go ahead and eliminate Carmel/Ben Davis/Pike/etc.)
Amenities: Within 5-10 minutes of a highly rated golf course(s). Our family loves to golf.
I wouldn't call us extensive shoppers, but we'll occasionally go out to enjoy a meal and shop once a month or so.
Both grew up in smaller towns, so we appreciate the smaller town feel but enjoy access to the big city for Colts/Pacers/Indians games, concerts, etc.

I think that's about it! Let me know if I can expand on the list, and we really appreciate your input and guidance!!

[Serious Conversation]

Look south or west of Indianapolis. You won't be able to get anywhere close to the lot size you want on the north side.

[SWOH]

Closest I could find:

7636 Peach Blossom Pl, Indianapolis, IN 46254 | MLS #21400751 | Zillow

[SWOH]

Another (use the Mt. Comfort Rd. exit)
11573 Seafan Ct, Indianapolis, IN 46236 | MLS #21404893 | Zillow

[IndySeeker]

Thank you very much for sharing the listings! We particularly like the one across the street from Geist but are concerned with traffic in NE Indy. I think it's probably most important to us to come up with a school we want for our kids and backtrack the wish list from there. So many to choose from! Thanks for everyone's help.

[mike0618]

Look in zionsville

[Knox Harrington]

Simple.

Franklin Township and send your kids to Roncalli.

Here you go:

https://property.mibor.com/listing/8...9529fee67001ea

[IndySeeker]

Thank you for the advice, Knox! We have looked into Roncalli and other area elementary/middle schools for earlier years, and it's definitely an option! We hadn't even considered Franklin Township, though. It seems like a great area to get some space. I don't understand why more people haven't moved to this area? Because it's technically in Marion County? 15-20 minutes to downtown is pretty tough to beat!

[Knox Harrington]

Originally Posted by IndySeeker

Thank you for the advice, Knox! We have looked into Roncalli and other area elementary/middle schools for earlier years, and it's definitely an option! We hadn't even considered Franklin Township, though. It seems like a great area to get some space. I don't understand why more people haven't moved to this area? Because it's technically in Marion County? 15-20 minutes to downtown is pretty tough to beat!

For the record, I do not live in Franklin Township, nor do I work for the township or any business in the township.

Franklin Township used to be known for exorbitant property taxes, as there weren't a lot of businesses in the area and the high school built a multi-million dollar football stadium in the early-mid 2000's. It was well known that a house in Franklin Township would cost you thousands more in property taxes than a similar house in neighboring Perry Township.

Several years ago, the state legislature capped property taxes at 1% of the home's assessed value, statewide (someone correct me if I'm wrong on any of these figures/facts). That meant that the townships could no longer set their own rates and tax the hell out of homeowners.

Now, the law does allow for the townships and school districts to raise property taxes for projects via referendum, but these are voted on at election time by the people who live in that township/district, so it is not automatically approved. Sometimes the voters approve the tax increase and sometimes they don't. I've seen it go both ways all over central Indiana.

Anyway, development is way up in Franklin Township. The big drawback I see is that a lot of the development is still 10-15 minutes from the interstate and I can't stand to be more than 10-15 minutes from downtown, let alone the interstate. If you don't mind being 20-30 minutes from downtown and want some acreage, I would definitely consider FT.

[rrah]

I forgot about the school budget issues in Franklin Township. Are they transporting students there or did they stop the buses/start charging?