Thinking of moving to Indiana. (Indianapolis, Carmel: apartments, assessor, crime)

[Chevere]

Plymouth, maybe? There is subsidized housing for seniors. I think there are three, two of which are nice and the other is kind of crummy. There are lots of lakes. Ancilla College is there, although it's out in the country and maybe 20 minutes from town. Ivy Tech is up in South Bend, maybe 40 minutes away.

Lapaz is just north of Plymouth and is way dinky. You could probably find cheaper housing there, but it's not as nice, IMO. You know about realtor.com and zillow and all of that, right?

Feel free to PM me with questions. We moved there from a big city over 15 years ago and now that I'm not there, I miss it.


I wish you the best!

[Veniceman]

Fort Wayne might work for you. I havent lived there since 2013 but there was a VA hospital there when I lived there. I assume it's still there. Fort Wayne has lots of affordable housing and it has IVY Tech as well as Indiana and Purdue university extensions. Fort Wayne is a great city.

[Juiced2014]

Not sure where I'm going to exactly end up yet but taking everyone's suggestions and checking into them. But, digging through the real estate ads, trying to balance out cost and ease, and everything else. Saw a few more homes open up in the areas I've was originally focused on. Even saw a few out near "Indiana Beach" but probably not going to do that because of possible crowds. But as pointed out, still looking and taking advice.

[johnd393]

Please look at how your income will be taxed in Illinois vs Indiana.

[Juiced2014]

Lol, I have. Even my parents tell me not to think about moving back to Illinois because the direct taxes are bad but the indirect taxes worse. My dad just retired and now they're looking at jumping the line to Indiana as he delayed his retirement to close down the company plant in Illinois when they moved it to Iowa due to ongoing tax and infrastructure issues with Illinois (promises not kept, like maintaining a road that 80 trucks+ used a day that was almost gravel for extra tax payments.) Now that the plant is closed, he's fully retired and getting ready to make a jump as well just across the line because of family still in state.

[johnd393]

Indiana taxes my pension. I think Illinois would not.

[Juiced2014]

I'm VA pension, that is non-taxable income no matter how the state looks at it. Work pension is a horse of a different color. The VA pension is give to those considered disabled but not service related and is on-par with VA disability benefits and both are non-taxable by the feds or states. If I had retired from the military, that would be taxable but body fell apart before then. And Illinois taxes many sort of pensions, just many that aren't state union or state workers. My dad retired from there and his income is taxable since he was private sector and my mother was a teacher and her pension is not.

[ischyros]

I'm sure you probably already know that Indiana Beach is in the middle of nowhere. Unless I missed something, I thought your plan was to be in Indiana but closer to Kankakee? Indiana Beach is a good hour and a half from Kankakee. It's not much farther to Lafayette which you said before was too far. I'd think distance would be the issue over crowds. Crowds would only be a problem during the summer, maybe 3 or 4 months of the year. Even then, I believe it's only 2 months from mid-June to mid-August that it is open during the week. So crowds would be more limited to just weekends.

[Juiced2014]

Yeah, I was just broadening my search and saw a few properties in the area that were affordable. It wasn't a serious thought, but trying to keep the search open up as much as possible. I just remember the Indiana beach commercials from when I was younger. Still keeping focused on the areas around Kankakee, but with my parents announcing they were crossing over to Indiana last week when they found a house, it opens up a lot more of the state. Just don't know where they'll be settling and then I'll have to find a place where it's not a burden if I have an emergency but far enough to give us our own spaces.

[Yamaneko]

Indiana is a low-tax state for corporations. For individuals who rent, it is comparable to Massachusetts. For people with an inexpensive house, results vary a LOT by county.

Our state income tax is 3.06%, which is lower than Illinois' but all 92 counties have a local income tax. Along the Illinois border, Lake County has a 1.5% county income tax while Newton County has a 1.0% county income tax, so in either case you'll pay Indiana over 4% where Illinois lowered its income tax to 3.75%.

Kankakee County has no county sales tax, but cities may charge one -- the highest is 2.0%. The statewide sales tax is 6.25% where Indiana charges 7%.

Granted, we don't have a pension monster looming over us, but if we vote to amend our Constitution a second time, our legislature will get the same tools to divert pension savings elsewhere in the budget that Illinois politicians enjoy.

It's true that property tax in Illinois is a dark and bloody mystery. In Indiana, there is a 1% cap for homeowners that is shared by school districts, municipalities and the county, at least in theory. School districts can ask for more on a temporary basis and communities that are not circling the drain tend to approve so 2% is a possibility.

Property taxes on a $200,000 house (as if such exist in Chicago) range from 0.75% to 3.00% in Illinois.

Now, there are some aspects of Indiana culture that are more pleasant than Illinois culture. If you stay off I-465, our drivers tend to be much nicer.