Backyard Knowledge in the Northwest Indiana Market

[Shawn Long]

Hello BP crowd,

     I am fairly new to Bigger Pockets but not to real estate. I keep my ear to the ground here in Northwest Indiana and I want to offer a networking/knowledge source here in my back yard. I wanted to share just a couple of things that I think are going to shake up the real estate market here & why I believe so many investors are flocking to the area. I would love to connect with anyone that wants to discuss real estate in further detail. 

     1st I want to lead by saying I believe the main reason investors are pouring into Northwest Indiana is the diversity. In times of uncertainty the coastal markets can be very risky. A lot of people think steel mills when they hear NWI but the truth of the matter is that we are not tied to any 1 specific industry. We have a very robust & ever evolving commercial/agricultural/real estate market. 

     With ever increasing taxes & cost of living rising in Chicagoland more & more homeowners & renters desire to live here in the Northwest Indiana area and commute to their places of employment in the Windy City. With very high occupancy rates and an influx of investment the sale prices & rents have been rising exponentially over the last 6 months to a year. For example the rent on a 3 bedroom in Hammond,IN could be found between $8-900 per month less than a year ago. Currently you cannot find the same for any less than $1500. I could go on all day about the market here but I want to leave you with a couple big changes happening.

3. The town of Griffith is succeeding from Calumet Township as they are well over 10x the income for the township. It is now a question of whether they will be annexed by the city of St. John or Schererville which has and will likely continue to have a huge positive impact on the real estate market there.

2. The $300 million dollar land based casino coming to Gary, IN broke ground in early January this year and is scheduled to be open for business on New Years Eve this year. This will bring a huge influx of foot traffic and likely increase of occupancy rates and & property values to an area that had been since long forgotten by commercial investors. The property values here are still extremely low and it may be a good area to consider a buy-&-hold strategy. There is another company appearing before the council regularly for an attempt to get a permit for a $300 Million dollar housing complex. There is also a company that current owns over 800 units (and looking to acquire more) that is considering a complete rehab. 

1. The Double-Track!

     Indiana has already been awarded over $200 Million in Federal funding to add a second rail line on the South Shore which runs from Chicago all the way to Michigan. Chicago is on board as well. This will entail an enormous amount of construction, (moved roads & stations) as well as a huge increase of foot traffic to the NWI region. With trains set to run every 15 min or so the double track will drastically reduce the average trip/delay times to Chicago from the current 1 hr & 40 min. Commercial & residential investors alike have already begun adding businesses and upscale apartments in anticipation. New information about the diagrams and construction have just been released and it is definitely not too late to get your piece of the action. The Double-Track project is set to break ground in June of next year with a the first trains running in 2023. The projects real estate acquisitions have just begun! The project itself is still accepting major investors as well. 

[Scott Swanson]

Shawn, I am going to have to disagree with certain portions of your statement. Yes, Gary does have a casino coming. However, as you know, there are 2 "boat" casinos very close by, that have been for several years. Everyone claimed that economic expansion would flourish, once the boats came to town. About the only "flourish" we saw, was a Speedway gas station opening up, right off the grounds of the boats. The owner of the new Gary casino, is putting up a small hotel.  So I'm not certain any other hotels will build there. Plus, they built a AA baseball stadium right downtown years ago and that was suppose stimulate economic development. It didn't happen. The restaurants that opened up around it, are now all closed. There wasn't any type of expansion, like they hoped. Gary also has an airport and maybe what, 8 years ago, they touted that that would bring in all kinds of business's and it didn't. All of the major airlines that flew out of there are no longer there. It's pretty much a ghost town and back to being a small plane and cargo airport. The city is deeply in debt and there are thousands of vacant properties in Gary. They can't seem to give them away! IMHO, the city may be too far gone. The crime rate is very high and they just don't seem to be able to fix things. Investors that don't know the area, are going in and buying properties for maybe $20k, rehabbing them and then try to flip them. Only to find out the houses aren't worth much more $40k or $50k, if that. Don't get me wrong, there's a few "pockets" of decent areas. The area that butts up against (the city of) Merrillville, around 51st and up, seem to be doing well. But that's because it's on the edge of the city. Quite a few business's over the years, have come in hoping to change things, but it hasn't worked. Maybe this apartment complex will help. But the government came in several years ago and built very nice low income housing units near downtown, but that hasn't seemed to help either. I REALLY hope I'm wrong. I'd like nothing better than to see Gary come back to life. Certain areas have some beautiful old homes that could be fixed up and worth a pretty penny. But the market doesn't justify buying them and fixing them, because of the rest of the city. Business's can't seem to survive there either. Again, I hope I'm wrong. I really do. I just wanted to let people know the other side of the coin.