CARMEL, IND — Carmel has been ranked the number one place to live in the nation for 2025 by neighborhood search site Niche, as the Hamilton County city continues to attract new residents.
The city highlighted its 2025 achievements in its year-end review report, including awarding 27 new art grants and adding two public sculptures as part of its commitment to arts and culture.
"It encourages local artists, which is always very cool because they're very unique, and I think it just encourages people to get out and walk and just see everything along the downtown, along midtown," said Marie Taylor, a 40-year Carmel resident. "It's just a really cool development."
However, as Carmel's popularity grows, so do housing costs. Indianapolis realtor Mark Dietl told WRTV Monday that while prices have stabilized over the past couple of years, affordability remains a significant challenge.
"There is an affordability issue just simply related to inventory and simply related to interest rates and simply related to just the cost of living in general," Dietl said. "So from a standpoint of an affordability issue, I'd say that's one of our biggest challenges."
Despite rising costs, Carmel realtor Zach Horowitz said homebuyers haven't been deterred by the price increases.
"Home prices have increased in a way that you would think deter people from moving to Carmel, but because of the culture and the community here, we've seen so much growth and it's been amazing," Horowitz said.
Long-time residents like Taylor said they're happy to benefit from increasing property values.
"To see our property values increase because of the amount of people that want to come and be a part of this community, it's OK with us," Taylor said with a laugh.
Looking ahead to 2026, the city outlined several priorities in a statement to WRTV, including "continued redevelopment of the U.S. 31 corridor, ongoing dialogue with legislators as we continue to be good partners with our state leaders while keeping Carmel special, and our efforts to modernize government and effectively use data to inform our decisions and initiatives."
You can find the city's full "year in review" report for 2025 by clicking the link here.
