Northwest Indiana vs. Indianapolis

[Jack Liu]

Just curious if anyone has experience investing in the Northwest Indiana market. The cash flow looks promising there and it seems like it is attracting a lot of people from the Chicago area. How does it compare to the Indianapolis market? Thank you. 

[Adrien C.]

Originally posted by @Gloria N Gear:

I grew up in Northern Indiana and now live in Indianapolis.  I know some people that are doing great cash flow in the Gary/Hammond area, but it is much more "slum lord" type of housing.  However, in the outskirting areas - Chesterton, Merrilville, Portage etc., is becoming very affluent and people are leaving Illinois to come to Indiana because of lower property taxes, etc.

I personally feel Indianapolis is much more economically stable and diverse and within 20 minutes from the center of Indy, you can have any type of property that you wish to invest in -- $30K-$500K.  Let me know if you would like to connect and have further conversations.

Hammond is far from slum and it's less slumlord than Portage. Maybe back when you grew up in this area. Hammond has exploded with renovations and prices going up 40-60% in the last 2-3 years. Back in 2017, you could get a 3/1 slab for $75K and get $1000/m rent. Now I'm flipping those for $125-145K depending on size. Even Gary has pockets where prices have jumped. Surrounding cities in Lake county (Munster, Dyer, Schererville, Crown Point) are solid A areas. Merrillville is B but trending down. Porter county is decent but you'll pay the same for stuff as Lake county but get lower rents. But by all means, avoid Hammond. I've pulled out $500-600K in income from Hammond each of the last 3-4 years from wholesaling/flipping so yeah, that place sucks :)

Back to the original question, they are both decent areas with a variety of A-D options. I think prices (and rents are going to be lower in the Indianapolis market. But neither market is better than the other. Both have access to airports near by so if you're OOS, you can get to either location easily. If you're local, you probably want to invest in the one you're closer to.