People ask what $400,000 buys in Lafayette as though there is one answer. In the last two years there were ten, and they were not the same house.

The short answer

Ten Lafayette neighborhoods had a median sale within $25,000 of $400,000 between September 2024 and September 2026. At that price the typical house that sold ran from 2,182 to 3,307 square feet, and the three largest were in neighborhoods whose homes date back to before 1980.

What "right now" means here

This note is built on closed sales, because a sale is a price someone actually paid. An asking price is not. The record runs through September 2026. Where a neighborhood has homes for sale, they are on its card on the Lafayette neighborhood map, with the date they were read.

Neighborhoods built from 2000 on

  • Masons Ridge: median $422K from 6 sales, typical 2,717 square feet, built 2007 to 2025.
  • Roberts Ridge: median $417K from 18 sales, typical 2,372 square feet, built 2013 to 2018.
  • Hickory Ridges: median $390K from 27 sales, typical 2,189 square feet, built 2006 to 2023.
  • The Landings: median $385K from 8 sales, typical 2,420 square feet, built 2000 to 2004.
  • The Commons: median $375K from 23 sales, typical 2,385 square feet, built 2002 to 2011.

Neighborhoods that date back before 1980

  • Ben La Del Estates: median $412K from 5 sales, typical 2,182 square feet, built 1972 to 2000. It sits outside the area the map draws, so it is in the table with no shape.
  • Cedar Ridge: median $410K from 5 sales, typical 2,602 square feet, built 1977 to 1996.
  • Jesco Hills: median $409K from 15 sales, typical 3,307 square feet, built 1966 to 2005.
  • Watkins Glen: median $400K from 15 sales, typical 3,232 square feet, built 1976 to 2017.
  • St Josephs: median $380K from 7 sales, typical 2,866 square feet, built 1940 to 1986.

Half of the ten, Masons Ridge, The Landings, Ben La Del Estates, Cedar Ridge and St Josephs, had fewer than ten sales. Those samples are small, and a single sale moves the median.

What the pattern says

At this price, the three largest typical houses, in Jesco Hills, Watkins Glen and St Josephs, were in neighborhoods whose Built column starts before 1980. The five built from 2000 on sold houses of 2,189 to 2,717 square feet at about the same money. That is a trade, not a ranking. A newer house usually asks less of you in repairs for some years. An older, larger one usually asks for updating and gives you room. Which is right depends on how you live and how long you plan to stay.

What this note does not answer

Whether $400,000 is the right budget is a question for your lender, not for me. What a particular house in any of these neighborhoods is worth depends on that house, not on its neighborhood's median.

Every one of these neighborhoods is on the Lafayette neighborhood map, and the Lafayette page covers the city.

Source: Indiana Regional MLS closed sales via Redfin, September 2024 through September 2026, single-family, condo and townhome, as compiled for the Lafayette neighborhood map.

This note is general. It is not an appraisal or lending advice. What a specific house would bring depends on that house.