possible relocation to West Lafayette (Indianapolis, Gary: homeowners association, new house, neighborhoods)

[Hokieed]

Sponger42: Thanks for all the great info about West Lafayette. We are visiting there for the weekened of Feb 1st - Feb 4th. Very soon. I'll be sure to take the tips with me as we look around. We are planning on learning more about what neighborhoods to look at for housing when we buy in a few months. I also have to look at the commericial properties available to me since I am moving a business there.

Do you have any other tips?

I'll be booking a room for the weekend in a hotel too. Do you have any recommendations as far as they are concerned?

[sponger42]

Originally Posted by Hokieed

Sponger42: Thanks for all the great info about West Lafayette. We are visiting there for the weekened of Feb 1st - Feb 4th. Very soon. I'll be sure to take the tips with me as we look around. We are planning on learning more about what neighborhoods to look at for housing when we buy in a few months. I also have to look at the commericial properties available to me since I am moving a business there.

Do you have any other tips?

I'll be booking a room for the weekend in a hotel too. Do you have any recommendations as far as they are concerned?

Eat here:

Elmwood and N 21st St, lafayette, in - Google Maps

Arnis is a local franchise and this is the original store. Get the pizza (it's thin crust, I recommend asking for "a little extra sauce") and/or the Arni's Jr. Salad.

Edit: As you go in, turn right for the toy room (noisy, but worth looking at), turn left for the quieter dining area.

Look for houses here: (Near campus, nightlife, and downtown/fun.)

North & N Chauncey, west lafayette, in - Google Maps

Here: (Near downtown/fun, some cheap big houses here, bus/bike to campus)

Rush and N 18th, lafayette, in - Google Maps

Or here: (nice neighborhood, bike-friendly, near Purdue's small business incubator facilities)

Cumberland and N Salisbury, west lafayette, in - Google Maps

I also know a good guy with a big house for sale in a great rural location--meadows, ponds, and forests, but it's kind of a mansion near a golf course with like 4-5 bedrooms and around 500K, so it might not be what you're looking for. Send me a direct message if you want more information.

Hotel: Hm... I don't know, I always stay with friends or family. You can check out the Levee area easily by staying at the Hilton on the Levee or the Holiday Inn Select downtown if you want fancy. There's also the Union at Purdue. Just type "hotels" into "find businesses" in the google maps thing. They show up on the map near the spots I pointed out.

There's a cluster of motels (and chain resturants) where 26 intersects I-65. They might be cheaper, and it's not that much of a drive down 26 into town/campus.

You can go ice-skating on a teeny-weenie little city ice rink on the Levee. I think their hours are 1-4PM and 6-9PM. It's $2 to skate and $3 to rent skates.

Good luck!

[Hokieed]

More great tips. Thanks so much.

[cancunian]

Hi there.I moved to West Lafayette from Can Cun,and obviously the cultural shock is big,but after 3 years here ,I really think that West Lafayette,and Lafayette are a good towns to live at,definitly the crime is low(thank God)consider cities the same size so if you are planning to move here I will highly suggested to do so,you just need to adjust to the limited places to have fun,but about restaurants we have a lots per capita,great dinning.Biking walking some hiking and we are near to Indianapolis and Chicago,so go for it.

[patken44]

From a school standpoint, there are 3 school corporations in the area. Lafayette School Corporation is slightly below average in Indiana. Easily the worst in the county. Tippecanoe School Corporation covers pretty much the entire county that isn't Lafayette and West Lafayette (and some small parts of them as well). Above average schools for the state. Also rated a "best buy"; by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce -- upper half of the state in test scores, lower half in dollars spent per student. West Lafayette Community School Corporation is among the best in the state, and their property taxes reflect it. There are also the Lafayette Catholic School system and a couple other parochial schools if you're looking for private schools.

As for neighborhoods, a good chunk of the homes immediately surrounding Purdue are rented out to students. Outside of that ring you'll be fine. I'd personally stay out of most of the older neighborhoods in Lafayette (schools, vacant homes, and higher crime, for the area at least). There are new homes all over the place, especially south and east of Lafayette and north of West Lafayette. The housing bubble never really happened here (home appreciation in the Lafayette metro area was ranked 272nd out of 275 nationwide), so unless you're looking for a LOT of house or a substantial yard, 175K will go a long way.

Also Hokieed: the only trains to Chicago and Indy are Amtrak. I cannot stress enough how much you absolutely should NOT take Amtrak to Chicago, at least if you have any time-pressing needs. That stretch is one of the most delayed in the country.

[phlute23]

Thanks for the school info Patken. My husband and I are visiting west lafayette this week. I am anxious to check out the area and look at homes. We are really interested in buying in an area that has great schools. I will be sure to check out the West Lafayette Community School Corporation area.

Any other tips on the area before we make our trip on Wednesday? Thanks!

[patken44]

The big tip is if you're looking at houses in West Lafayette, make sure you know what school corporation you're in. WL recently annexed some land north of Kalberer Rd, but those homes are all in TSC, not WLCSC. WLCSC is starting to try to launch a hostile takeover of that land, but it's not going to happen. TSC is a fine corporation (but I graduated from it, so keep in mind I'm biased), so don't be shy about homes there.

Something else I should have mentioned is that TSC and LSC have an interlocal agreement such that if you live within LSC boundaries, but you want to send your kids to a TSC school (or vice versa), you can do so tuition free but you have to provide your own transportation. So, if you find a home in Lafayette that you like, you're not necessarily locked into their schools.

As for homes, Tippecanoe County has a fantastic GIS website (broken link). Click on "Search" there, and you can search properties to find out their assessed valuation and how much the property tax has been recently, at least under the current owners. However, the Indiana Legislature is supposedly working on some kind of property tax reform (at the expense of pretty much every other law making) this session, so who knows what it will be like in the next couple years. General rule of thumb would be that property taxes will probably be highest in West Lafayette, especially within WLCSC boundaries, followed by Lafayette. The smaller surrounding towns like Battle Ground, Dayton, Clarks Hill, Romney, etc. would probably be lower still, and the unincorporated areas would be the cheapest.

You didn't mention how much of a commute you'd be willing to put up with. Really, anywhere in Tippecanoe County is within 30 minutes of Purdue. Also, how close are you wanting to be to shopping, restaurants, etc.? And what type of residential area are you looking for? Basically, here are your options as I see them:

Short (i.e. < 10 min) commute, closer to shopping: basically, anywhere in West Lafayette. It doesn't have a downtown, so take your pick of anywhere you like that's not filled with student rentals. Some of the newer subdivisions to the north would also fit in here.

Short commute, but more remote: go west out of West Lafayette along SR26 or US52.

Longer commute, closer to shopping: southern Lafayette. Subdivisions grow like weeds there, so take your pick. Same tip about making sure you know what school corporation you're in. I'm not sure exactly where the LSC/TSC boundary is.

Longer commute, more remote: this is why I asked about the type of residential area you're looking for. Do you want to be in a city of close to 90,000 or so? (Lafayette 61K, WL 29K) Do you want to be in a new subdivision that was farmland a few years ago? Do you want to be in a no-stoplight town of 500-1500? Do you want a house out in the country? You can get any of these within 15-30 minutes of Purdue.

So, the short story is that you have a large number of options. If you can narrow it down a little I might be able to point you to something more specific. My only real general suggestion is to stay out of any part of Lafayette that wasn't a cornfield 10 years ago.

[phlute23]

Thank you for all of the great info Patken! I appreciate it. Since I am coming from out of state, I am not familiar with all of the acronyms that you used in reference to the different schools districts. Could you please (or anyone else who knows) let me know what all of the letters stand for? We are flying to Indiana tomorrow and are looking forward to checking out the area! Thanks!!

[patken44]

Sorry about that.

WLCSC = West Lafayette Community School Corporation
TSC = Tippecanoe School Corp.
LSC = Lafayette School Corp.

Also, if you end up looking at anything in the far northwest part of the county, you could end up in the Benton Community School Corporation. But that's primarily farmland, so I doubt you'll end up there. Just noting that for completeness.

[Hokieed]

Great Info Patken! A while back, I posted that I was going there for a weekend trip to scout out neighborhoods. Well, a big winter storm rolled through so that never worked out for us. So now, I will take the trip the first week in April and plan on finding and purchasing a house then. Lets hope it all works out.

Phlute: How did your trip go? Did you find a good place to call home? I am in the completely same position as you... minus the kids. I'd just like the good school districts so that it is easier to sell one day.

And patken, so, you say Amtrak is really relayed. So, are you saying that it would be better to just drive there instead? I cringe thinking of the traffic.