Journal
Issue 45 · September 2026 · Indianapolis to Greater LafayetteNotes on the Indianapolis to Greater Lafayette corridor, the numbers behind the questions people actually ask before they move.
What does $400,000 buy in Lafayette right now?
Ten neighborhoods sold near that price, built across eight decades. The largest houses in the group were the older ones.
Read October 9, 2026What does $500,000 buy in West Lafayette right now?
Seven neighborhoods sold near that price. The houses were not the same size, and the newest were among the smallest.
Read October 8, 2026How do you read the Lafayette neighborhood map?
Ninety-four neighborhoods, seven columns and a shaded map. Here is what each piece is, and what it is not.
Read October 7, 2026How do you read the West Lafayette neighborhood map?
Fifty-two neighborhoods, seven columns and a shaded map. Here is what each piece is, and what it is not.
Read October 6, 2026What sells in New Chauncey, West Lafayette?
The range here is wide, and in houses built before 1955 most of that width is the houses themselves.
Read October 5, 2026What is a transfer on death deed, and should it be on your house?
A one-page document that decides where the house goes, recorded now, changeable later, and easy to get wrong in ways nobody notices until it is too late.
Read October 5, 2026What sells in Barrington Woods, Lafayette?
Most of the sales here are new houses. An owner reselling is priced against the builder.
Read October 4, 2026Why do you have to sign an agreement before an agent shows you a house?
It feels like being asked to commit before the first date. It is actually the first time the terms are written down before anybody is relying on them.
Read October 4, 2026What sells in Hills & Dales, West Lafayette?
Six sales in two years is too few to call a market. In homes this age, the house tells you more than the neighborhood does.
Read October 3, 2026Pre-qualified or pre-approved: what is the difference, and does it matter?
The word on the letter matters less than what the lender looked at before it wrote the letter. Neither one is a loan.
Read October 3, 2026What sells in Concord Ridge, Lafayette?
The sales here sit close together. That makes pricing easier to read and harder to argue with.
Read October 2, 2026Do you need a survey, and which kind?
Title insurance covers the ownership history. Where the line actually runs is a different question, and a different professional answers it.
Read October 2, 2026What sells in Belle Terra, West Lafayette?
Most of the sales on record here are new homes, and the range runs more than $300,000 end to end. Both facts shape any price in this neighborhood.
Read October 1, 2026What is the final walkthrough actually for?
Not a second inspection and not a chance to renegotiate. A check that the house is in the condition the contract says it will be in.
Read October 1, 2026What sells in Provenance, West Lafayette?
A young neighborhood with both new homes and early resales on record. The mix is what a seller prices against.
Read September 30, 2026What does the Indiana seller's disclosure actually require?
It is not a warranty and it is not an inspection. It is a signed record of what the seller actually knows, handed over before the offer is accepted.
Read September 30, 2026What sells in Chesapeake Pointe, Lafayette?
Every sale on record here is a new home. There is no resale history yet, and that is the most important fact about the numbers.
Read September 29, 2026What is title insurance, and why do you pay for it once?
Every other policy you own covers the future. This one covers the past, which is why it is paid for once and then forgotten.
Read September 29, 2026What sells in University Farm, West Lafayette?
An established neighborhood where the range is wide and houses come up slowly. The median is the least useful number here.
Read September 28, 2026What are closing costs, and who pays them?
The number at the bottom is real. Most people are surprised by what is inside it, and about a third of it is not a fee at all.
Read September 28, 2026The Capilano neighborhoods: one name, three price ranges
Three neighborhoods, one name, homes built across four decades. Knowing which Capilano a house is in comes before anything else.
Read September 27, 2026What does a home inspection actually cover?
It is treated as a verdict on the house. It is a visual survey with a date on it, and the useful part is knowing where it stops.
Read September 27, 2026What sells in Baker Farms, Lafayette?
Almost every sale here so far was a new home. An owner who sells early is competing with the builder.
Read September 26, 2026Do you have to be in the room to close?
The answer is usually yes, you can. The trouble is that people find out how in the last week instead of the first one.
Read September 26, 2026What sells in Three Meadows, West Lafayette?
Most of the homes that sold here were brand new. The first resales set the prices that come after them.
Read September 25, 2026What is earnest money, and when do you actually lose it?
It is described as money at risk. It is really money on deposit, and the risk lives entirely in the dates.
Read September 25, 2026What sells in Oak Ridge, West Lafayette?
The homes that sold here are recent builds. Selling a nearly new house is its own kind of sale.
Read September 24, 2026What is the difference between contingent and pending?
Both mean somebody else got there first. Only one of them is usually worth a phone call.
Read September 24, 2026What sells in Raineybrook, Lafayette?
One name, homes built across six decades, and a price range that runs past a million. The median is the least useful number in this note.
Read September 23, 2026Should you fix it, or price for it?
Some things a buyer will discount rationally. Some things stop the sale. The trouble is that they do not feel different when you are standing there.
Read September 23, 2026What sells in Arbor Chase, West Lafayette?
A neighborhood still being built. If you are selling a house there, some of your competition is brand new.
Read September 22, 2026What happens if the appraisal comes in under the offer?
A low appraisal is not a verdict on the house. It is a gap between two numbers, and the only question is who closes it.
Read September 22, 2026What sells in Winding Creek, West Lafayette?
Nineteen sales in two years. Enough to describe the neighborhood. Not enough to price a house in it.
Read September 21, 2026What does a listing agent actually do after the sign goes in the yard?
The attention before you sign is sales. The work after you sign is the job. Here is what the job is.
Read September 20, 2026What happens to everything in the house?
The house is the part everyone plans for. The contents are the part that stops the move, and nobody schedules them.
Read September 19, 2026What is a Seniors Real Estate Specialist, and does the designation mean anything?
Letters after a name are worth exactly what the coursework behind them is worth. Here is what is behind this one.
Read September 18, 2026Appraisal, market analysis, online estimate: three numbers that are not the same number
People compare the three as though they are competing guesses at one number. They are not guesses at the same thing.
Read September 17, 2026Why does the square footage of your house keep changing?
Three sources, three numbers, and the seller is told one of them is a mistake. Usually it is not. They are answering different questions.
Read September 16, 2026What should you do to the house before the photographer comes?
Sellers tend to prepare for the showing and forget that the photograph is what decides whether the showing happens.
Read September 15, 2026Should you rent for a year before buying in a new town?
Renting first is not the safe answer and buying immediately is not the confident one. Each is a bet, and they are bets on different things.
Read September 14, 2026What does a relocation package actually cover?
People plan the move around what they assume the package covers. The document usually says something narrower, and it says it in writing.
Read September 13, 2026Who should be in the room when a parent is deciding to move?
The hardest part of a move at this stage is rarely the house. It is the number of people who have an opinion about it and the order they arrive in.
Read September 12, 2026Sell first or buy first: which risk you would rather carry
There is no correct order. There are two risks, they point in opposite directions, and the only real question is which one you are built to carry.
Read September 11, 2026The Symbio Score: data in service of an emotional decision
Most people only ever get one number about their home, what it is worth. That number tells you nothing about whether you should still be in it.
Read September 10, 2026Stay, renovate, or move: how to decide without guessing
The renovate-or-move question is usually asked about the house. It is almost always about the life.
Read September 9, 2026The 30-year mortgage: an American advantage most countries never got
It is so ordinary here that nobody notices it is extraordinary.
Read September 8, 2026Relocating to a new city: the questions that decide it
A relocating family knows its life and not the map. The job is to connect them, in the right order.
Read September 7, 2026How far in advance should you talk to someone about moving?
Most people call when they have decided. The useful conversation happens before that.
Read September 6, 2026Buying versus renting: what the net worth numbers show
Rent versus buy gets argued as a monthly-payment question. The Federal Reserve answers it as a net-worth question, and the answer is not close.
Read September 5, 2026Millbrook: the Carmel builder bringing 1,200 homes to West Lafayette
The builder that shaped Westfield's best-known neighborhoods is making its first move into Tippecanoe County, and it is a large one.
Read September 4, 2026A second anchor: what SK hynix means for West Lafayette housing
The town was already the most educated of its size in Indiana. Now a second anchor employer is arriving with a date attached.
Read September 3, 2026Can you live in Lafayette and work in Indianapolis?
The honest answer is in the state's tax returns, and it is smaller than almost everyone expects.
Read September 2, 2026Taking a job at the Lebanon campus? Start with the housing math
Over 1,000 jobs are coming to the Lebanon campus by next year. Roughly thirty homes sell in Lebanon in a month.
Read September 1, 2026West Lafayette, Indiana, by the numbers: the town inside the college town
Read the city-wide figures and you see a student town. Read them correctly and you see one of the most unusual small cities in the Midwest.
Read August 31, 2026Lafayette, Indiana, by the numbers: a working city with a sixteen-minute commute
Lafayette is the corridor's working city, and its numbers are the most practical on the list.
Read August 30, 2026Lebanon, Indiana: the county seat with the world's largest limestone columns
Before the campus and the headlines, Lebanon was a courthouse town with a square, and it still is.
Read August 29, 2026Whitestown, Indiana, by the numbers: from 2,867 people to a town of families
No town in Indiana grew faster over the last fifteen years. The numbers show who moved in.
Read August 28, 2026Zionsville, Indiana, by the numbers: the village that kept its bricks
Zionsville decided fifty years ago what it would not give up. The market has been rewarding that decision ever since.
Read August 27, 2026Westfield, Indiana, by the numbers: the fastest-growing city in Indiana
Growth is the easy part of the Westfield story. What the city did with it is the interesting part.
Read August 26, 2026Fishers, Indiana, by the numbers: a city that outgrew its suburb
A generation ago Fishers was a place people drove through on the way to somewhere else. The numbers show what it became.
Read August 25, 2026Indianapolis, by the numbers: one median, a hundred neighborhoods
The most useful thing to know about Indianapolis real estate is which number to ignore.
Read August 24, 2026Carmel, Indiana, by the numbers: a city that was built on purpose
Carmel did not happen by accident. The numbers show what four decades of deliberate building produced.
ReadNo notes match.