I've lived in this area all my life. I grew up in Michigan City and now live in Hammond. Northwest Indiana is great because it's so close to Chicago. Because Merrillville, Shererville, Munster, Hammond, Highland and St. John are so close to the Illinois border, there are many people who live here and work in Illionis (myself and my hubby, my boss and several people I work with). The property taxes in Indiana are lower than Illinois, too.
Merrillville is a thriving business community with a lot of opportunity. If there's already a job opportunity, you've got it made.
Gas right now is about $2.89 a gallon. Milk is about $1.79 for a half gallon. I can pick up a pound of ground beef for about $2.80.
Housing in the area is a little higher than where my mom lives in rural Kansas, but the water bill and phone bill is cheaper! For a nice apartment with 2 bedrooms, you can figure an average of $700 to $1000 a month, depending if you want big, a yard, a garage, a complex... If you rent the top floor of a house, you'll get more for less.
If you're looking to buy, a house in a nice neighborhood can cost anywhere from $90,000 on up. It depends on the neighborhood. I bought my house 7 years ago for $77,000, have 1200 sq. feet and 2 bedrooms. The house is now worth about $92,000 and we're looking to move into a better neighborhood now. Now, of course, we're looking to upgrade and the range we're looking in to get what we want is $150-175K.
Gary is close, but not that close. A lot of what is heard about Gary is hype. Personally, I just don't go to Gary. I drive on the highway around it. I have driven through on occasion and have 2 friends that live there, but I can't say I'm comfortable there. So I just stay away.
Because of the proximity to Gary and Chicago, there is gang activity, but it's usually confined to the poorer neighborhoods that you're not going to venture into. I work in Harvey, Il and it's a very repressed area. We have security guards who will escort us to the parking garage. But that's Harvey, not Merrillville.
Now, the choices for housing are endless. My in-laws just moved to Griffith, which is about 15 minutes from Merrillville. There's Valparaiso, too. A little longer of a drive, but it's a very pristine community. Hard to navigate, but nice. Expensive, too. Griffith is nice and not so hard to navigate. It's close to both Merrillville and Highland (nice shopping).
The thing that is cool about living in this area is that the cities themselves are rather small and they're all side by side. Around my house in Hammond, I can drive for 15 minutes in any direction and be in a different city that has good shopping or food or services. And it's all toll free calling! Whoo hoo!! In 15 minutes, I can be in Lansing, Il, Calumet City, Il, Whiting, Griffith, Hobart, Highland, Schererville, Dyer, St. John or Hessville. Everything I need is in my reach. It's all suburbs, really. You can get to the busy downtown area and 6 blocks away is a park and peace and quiet.
Now, I choose to work in Illinois because the wage for my job is higher there. However, there are ample opportunities for me in my own state should I need it. I'm a Med Lab Tech and there are 10 hospitals within 40 minutes of my house. My husband does not have a college education and he needed a job this year. He spent about 3 months looking before he found a front office management job that does shipping and receiving. But when he found it, he started out at $36K per year but he has experience.
Unskilled labor can expect to earn $8-10 an hour. This is forklift work and whatnot. There's tons of retail and wait staff work and that's pretty typical. You didn't mention what kind of work you might be interested in, so I can't give you examples of those kinds of markets right now.
Some of the larger companies in the area did close. That has left a lot of skilled labor without jobs. A lot of people did move out of the area about 5 years ago and property taxes did go up in Hammond because of the lack of company tax revenue.
If you want, email me at
[email protected] and I can get together some housing magazines for you so you can see what the real estate around here looks like. We have apartment guide magazines, too. And a realtor will always be the biggest resourse you have for deciding what type of neighborhood and city will work best for you. I could even send you some sale flyers that I get in the mail. Or feel free to ask me more specific questions about the area and I'll give you my opinions. And heck, if you move here, you'll automatically get a fitness buddy!! Whoo hooo!!
Edited to add: Oh yeah, the other girls are correct!! Licence plates for the cars are outrageous!! Up to $400 for a new high end car! And to get your licence and registration in Indiana if you're from out of state costs your first born child, according to my blood bank supervisor.
