Best Place to Live Close to Hammond?

[Bigdee06]

I have a friend/co-worker that has a job offer in Hammond IN and want's some advice on town within a decent commuting distance to relocate to. I am a southern Indiana guy and really don't have any good suggestions for him. He lives in Pittsburgh right now and is looking to get more towards the suburbs rather than in the city, any ideas?

 

[Kick]

The southern part of Hammond (Hessville) is nice. So are Highland, Griffith, Munster, and Schererville. Those are most likely his best bets.

Gary, East Chicago, and Whiting are also close. There are good areas in all of those towns but, there are also some bad areas.

The town of Hammond itself isn't too bad either. There are some bad areas but, like I said above, I prefer the south side of Hammond. There are a good amount bars, restaurants, Cabela's, and Deb's Gun Range!

EDIT: I currently live in Crown Point. It is nice here but, it's about 1/2 hr to 45 mins away from Hammond. Depending on how far he wants to drive, Crown Point and St. John would be worth checking out too.

 

[eatsnopaste]

Valpo

 

[Kick]

Valpo

Valpo is even farther from Hammond than Crown Point!

 

[Bigdee06]

I forgot to add that he want's to be in Indiana not Illinois, kind of a no-brainer in my opinion. All good advice so far, he has a couple of small children too so school districts and generally "nice" neighborhoods are a big considerations as well.

 

[Kick]

If he is looking for School Districts, I would go with Schererville, St. John, or Dyer. They are a little farther away but, the Lake Central School District is one of the best around. Crown Point schools are also excellent.

EDIT: Links.

Stats, Test Scores, ect.

Lake Central School Corporation Home Page

 

[magic man]

I love it here in Highland. Munster is also an option, but expect to pay a little more than Highland, Griffith, etc.


If he has kids I would suggest this area of Highland. There is a grade school, middle, and high school within walking distance. Along with a a couple parks and a walking/bike trail.

[ame]http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Highland,+IN&aq=0&sll=-89.194642,172.96875&sspn=126.594971,0&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Highland,+Lake,+Indiana&ll=41.543084,-87.448726&spn=0.014743,0.038581&t=h&z=15[/ame]

In the upper right corner of this pic is Southridge Elementary and if you move to the left a little bit you can see the middle and high schools.

 

[warangelcometh]

Portage, Valpo or Chesterton - Well worth the commute and Porter County taxes are alot less than Lake County.

 

[aclark]

Munster. Now there are plenty of other towns around the area that are "close", but Munster is literally the next town south, and is still holding strong as a nice community. Most the rift raft has stayed out and the schools are top notch too.

If he wants to drive a bit ~30min I would strongly suggest Chesterton. That's really where I would prefer to be, but the commute to chicago is too long for my fiance from there.

 

[combat45acp]

Get out of lake county, cleaner air, cheaper taxes, shoot in your yard. I drive to Gary for work from DeMotte...totally worth the drive! 39 miles, about 45-50 min

 

[spec4]

St. John is a very nice what I would call bedroom community, and fairly close to country. Hammond is not that far going up 41.

 

[jedi]

OP is your friend looking to rent or buy a house?
Also does he care about race? (ie. too many of 'xyz' in the area, he would prefer more of 'abc' and 'def' types)?
You mention he has young kids so he is looking for an area with younger families? Or would he want an area with older people?
How far is he willing to commutte to/from work?
10min, 30 mins, 1 hour?
Any must have activities that he and family can not live without (canoeing, shooting, shopping, horseback riding, scrapbooking, etc..)

This would help in giving you a better answer for him.


Here is a list of NWI ranges BTW.
NEED YOUR HELP
List of ranges in NWI; Is your range here?:
https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/break_room/106004-nwi_ingo_general_post-3.html#post1252132

 

[Bigdee06]

Keep it coming, he's not a INGO member (yet) so hes looking at this on my laptop then going back to his and checking everything out. As far as some more details on what exactly he is looking for.


Housing can go either way on renting/buying, he has three kids so it will be a house as opposed to a apartment.


Race isn't an issue with him.


The older versus younger is not really important either, he is 31 and currently lives in a neighborhood thats mostly retired people.


Between 30 minutes and an hour is the commute he wants but its not a real deal breaker for the right place.


As far as the must have activities go its mostly kid oriented type of stuff, with the adult types of things as a added bonus.

If you have any other questions let me know.

 

[jedi]

Well that helps & as much as I'm gonna hate myself for "dissing da region" [I was born/rasised in East Chicago and now live in Griffith afetr coming back from the East/West coast] if I were in his shoes (ie. moving to a new area with no roots/family in the area) I would vote for PORTER county before LAKE county.

LAKE is a ceaspool of corruption politics wise. It's the 'mecca' of Democrats in northern IN. I think only Bloomington and Indy can rival it for liberal points of view. Taxes are higher in LAKE than in PORTER granted the recent property tax limit (ie. state law) has helped curb the tax increase to a certain degree. PORTER is also less populated than LAKE so you can buy a bigger house (structure and/or more land) then you can in LAKE county (expection being in SOUTHERN LAKE county but why live with LAKE county politics/environment in SOUTHERN LAKE when PORTER is better pricewise).


I hear that Chesteron is nice and close to the 80/94 highway to get you into Hammond and back out again. Traffic on 80/94 can be a nightmare at times however. & once you go EAST of I-65 (ie into porter county) they do get hit with more bad wheater (thunderstorms, snow storms, etc.) that we do. The lake effect snow from Lake MI tends to go east and hit them much harder then us.

Now if he wants to focus on a smaller commuttie and stay in LAKE county then the following would be my pick:

Munster (retails its property values, and it one of the richest towns in IN. There is a subdivision that has million dollar homes and only the wealthiest of wealthiest can afford).
Highland
Schereville
St. John (if you are white only, other colors hum you will be welcomed but it's not for us.)
Crown Point

Note that as you go down the list you get further from Hammond.
US-41 will most likely be his main road to/from work for him and that road is a nightmare during rush hour. It's all streetlights and while it has been expanded over the years they is now just too much traffic on it.

School wise are they going to public or private? If Public all those listed above have good systems. The Schereville/St. John system is a bit better last time I checked vs the others.