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Hi everyone! My husband was transferred to Elkhart in March and my family will be joining him in August. I have researched the area on the internet and we chose to live in Granger. I see the schools test quite high which is a plus. I was wondering if anyone can give me some information on some of the neighborhoods that we should look in to. We are looking at the price range of 200-260k. Are there any community pools in Granger, or at least pools that you can buy a membership to? I appreciate any information I can get! Thanks!
We moved to Granger last summer. Not sure about neighborhoods in that price range, though. If your husband will be commuting to Elkart, that will be a factor -- you might want to live close to the Toll Road (but not so close that you can hear it, which is definitely an issue with some neighborhoods). One thing to consider is whether you want newer construction. There are not many trees in some of the newer neighborhoods. Granger is on well and septic, but so far we haven't had any issues with either.
There aren't really any "community pools" here, though some of the older neighborhoods have very small pools. Knollwood Country Club, which is located near the corner of Adams and Grape Road, has several outdoor pools and an indoor pool.
My husband is fine with the commute to Elkhart, he is used to commuting! Do you like Granger? I have a 10 year old girl that is very involved in school and sports and we want to keep it that way. Our son is graduating from high school in a few days so we are also looking into a community college for him. His plans WERE to go to a community college in Roanoke and transfer to Va Tech his junior year. Do you know if they have pools in South Bend? Swimming is a big thing for us during the summer! Thanks for any information!
We spent nearly every summer day at our neighborhood swim club back in Virginia, where there were a dozen such clubs within a five mile radius of our house.
When we moved here, we discovered that there are far fewer outdoor pools open to the public. There are several TINY community pools in the South Bend/Granger area (Twyckenham, Swanson, and Farmington are three that come to mind), and there is a large outdoor pool at Merrifield Park in Mishawaka. But there are pools at the country clubs, such as Morris Park in South Bend and Knollwood. And we ended up buying a house with a pool.
Ivy Tech is the community college in the area. He could also consider IUSB -- Indiana University at South Bend, which is essentially a commuter/community college type school, with some new but limited campus housing.
We do like living here, though life is lived at a slower pace than DC, which took some getting used to. Everyone has been extremely friendly and welcoming.
We moved to Roanoke just 1 1/2 years ago from Va Beach. We had a beautiful inground pool in Va Beach that our kids grew up in. I am thinking that a membership to the country club would be a little expensive for us, but maybe we can look into it. I noticed in my house search on line that there are not very many houses with pools. Having a pool in the backyard again would be ideal. I think Ivy Tech is the way we will go. I started back to school 3 semesters ago and would love to continue, but right now I have to worry about my son and I think Ivy Tech is what we will be looking at. He isn't mature enough to live away from home yet ! Thanks for your information!
Welcome! I am also a transplant. Hubby and I moved to the area last summer for his job. We just moved into our Granger home two months ago. We rented in Mishawaka for about 9 months and our rental was a block away from the Mishawaka pool at Merrifield park. It looks like a nice pool. We did not use it though as we moved here last August and due to the school year running from August to May, the pool was closed already when we arrived.
Granger is very nice and it is spread out. There are several subs built along the toll road. I live in one of them. It was a factor in our decision as I would prefer to live away from it but I will point out some things to keep in mind. Some of the subs in Granger actually are Clay schools and not Penn. The school boundries are kind of wacky here so make sure you know what school district is what when looking in Granger. Knollwood is very popular and quite lovely but again, I believe Gumwood road is a dividing line between school districts.
Although I hated renting it did give us the opportunity to experience a Michiana winter. Yikes! I am used to snow as I come from an area that has snowy winters but I never experienced a lake effect snow area and let me tell ya, this place gets a lot of snow! So I was grateful we got to experience the winter because it opened my eyes to things i would not think about otherwise. Granger has some nice subs further out and these roads are only two lane and cross through farmland. It seemed like every time we had a house showing it was during a blizzard. It was a white knuckle drive to say the least and we knew that we did not want to live that far out.
Also most of the shopping is off of US 23 and I wanted to be closer to the shopping. I am a city slicker and I didnt want to live so far out that a trip to the grocery store be an excursion. Also there are railroad tracks that cut through the area. The tracks are used daily and can make you late for work. So that being said, the toll road area looked less of a annoyance but a perk. I can hear the toll road from my yard and yes some days it can be a bit loud. I have lots of trees in my yard and cant see it. But from where I am from, there was lots of traffic and the noise I hear from the toll road doesnt compare to the noise I used to hear back home. So its just a matter of preference.
I have moved quite a bit and this is the first time I have ever lived in a city that doesnt have a "bad area". Pretty much you cant go wrong with any part of Granger. One thing I did find interesting though is that Granger has somewhat of a reputation that people are snobby. Mishawaka people seem to have a distain for people in Granger. Im not sure why. Even our realtor at the time tried to talk us out of Granger but she could not give me a valid reason as to why. Its kind of odd. Even my son got some back lash when he told his friends in Mishawaka he was moving. We let our son finish out the school year in Mishawaka and his classmates accused him of being rich. Well let me say that is the first time in my life, anyone has accused me of being rich!
So far we really enjoy our neighborhood and the area. My son will start Penn schools in the fall. I did meet with the middle school counselors and they were so informative and polite. The programs offered seem cutting edge and education is a top priority. Let me know if you need any further information. This is a great website and the people I have met on here were so helpful when I was making the decision to buy.
Thanks for the info! The reason I picked Granger is because of the test scores in the elementary schools, the low crime and small town. When we moved from Va Beach we were told that Salem was also snobbish and very clique-ish(spelling!!). It is about the size of Granger and about 7 miles outside of Roanoke. It has been wonderful for my children. Very low crime, the basics like movie theater, Walmart etc. This is not an exciting move for us, we just moved here 1 1/2 years ago. My husband has been in Elkhart since March 1st, we wanted to wait until my son graduates on June 9th before the kids and I moved. I am going to give my children the summer to spend with their friends before we leave. I am not good with change, but I will adjust. I just don't think that children should be moved around a lot, that is my problem. Are there a lot of people that move in and out of Granger? Here in Salem, most everyone grew up here and they all know each other. In the beginning that was a slight problem, but it has greatly improved! I guess I am just scared of moving and starting all over again!
Thanks for the info! The reason I picked Granger is because of the test scores in the elementary schools, the low crime and small town. When we moved from Va Beach we were told that Salem was also snobbish and very clique-ish(spelling!!). It is about the size of Granger and about 7 miles outside of Roanoke. It has been wonderful for my children. Very low crime, the basics like movie theater, Walmart etc. This is not an exciting move for us, we just moved here 1 1/2 years ago. My husband has been in Elkhart since March 1st, we wanted to wait until my son graduates on June 9th before the kids and I moved. I am going to give my children the summer to spend with their friends before we leave. I am not good with change, but I will adjust. I just don't think that children should be moved around a lot, that is my problem. Are there a lot of people that move in and out of Granger? Here in Salem, most everyone grew up here and they all know each other. In the beginning that was a slight problem, but it has greatly improved! I guess I am just scared of moving and starting all over again!
Moving is hard. I wanted to move from my hometown of Detroit. The economy is terrible and pretty much everything was going down hill. However, I didnt plan on moving to Indiana. I was hoping when we left Detroit we would move someplace a tad more exciting. I am completing my degree in Graphic Design and was disappointed there are not many opportunities here in my field. But I am adjusting and getting used to the area. I am not sure if people move out of Granger as people seem to move in. Many transplants live in the area. I think this has mostly to do with Notre Dame. Mishawaka is more of a town where people grew up there and stayed.
My husband moved here first last May and my son and I followed a few months later. He needed to start his job right away and I had a lot of things to get settled back home. My husband found a rental in Mishawaka. I liked the town, its cute, lots of charm, lovely parks but the graduation rate is around 49% which I found discouraging. There also seems to be a problem with teen pregnancy. There are also parts of Mishawaka look rough and in the short time I have been here, crime seems to be on the rise there. Its a working class town with lots of friendly people. Our old neighbors were awesome. But we wanted certain things Mishawaka couldnt provide. From the on set, and everything I researched Granger seemed to fit what we were looking for. What I didnt realize until moving here was the divide between Mishawaka and Granger. There seems to be a real divide in social class. It seems to me that Mishawaka is mostly blue collar and Granger is mostly professionals. From where I am from, the social classes are mixed so being accused of being "rich" or "snobby" was a bit of a shock to me.
I wish we hadnt bounced around so much in the past 6 years. I feel bad for my son as he is tired of moving. I hope this is it for us until he graduates from high school. I hope he has an easier time making friends in Granger. He seemed to have a little trouble fitting in when we lived in Mishawaka. The Penn school district seems really good. Im not overly thrilled by the size of the high school. I think its too big and wish they would have built a second high school instead of expanding the existing one.
Moving from Va beach was a little hard for me. Our son was in the middle of his junior year in high school so I thought he was going to rebel and start drinking, hanging with the wrong crowd etc. The exact opposite happened. He just won " Craziest Senior" and "Senior of the Year". This move was wonderful for both of my children. My daughter was in 3rd grade at the time and she fit in perfectly. As a matter of fact, she was voted in to the Student Council at the end of her 3rd grade year. I was a little depressed, but I started going to school and everything was good after that. My husband was offered a promotion on a Saturday evening at 5pm in February. He was told he needed to make the decision within 4 hours. Then he was on the road to Indiana first thing Monday morning! My son is okay with moving since he is done with high school. My daughter was okay until she realized that school was almost over, then it really hit her. She does not want to move.
The bad thing with the railroad is once you accept a promotion, they can move you at any time. My husband does not expect to be in Elkhart for more than 2 years, sooooo we would have to move again. We are certainly not rich or snobby and it is too bad that the two towns are like that. Is your son going to Discovery middle school? If we are still there when my daughter reaches middle school that is where she will be going. Thanks for all your info!
Lesliann,
Are you building or buying an existing house?
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