INDIANAPOLIS -- Listen up, millennials: Our city is where you want to be.
According to real estate site Trulia, Indianapolis is the best city for young professionals to get out of mom's basement, buy a home and have a decent-paying job to support that youthful lifestyle.
Recent surveys on best price per square foot and best job market revealed a mixed bag of different cities in each study, with only city showing up in the top 10 of both: The Circle City.
MSNBC points out the two categories are often at-odds. Seekers of high-paying jobs are willing to pay high rents and high home prices for limited housing in cities such as San Francisco and New York City. On the other side, cheap housing usually pairs with poor job markets, like Detroit.
The median home price in Indy is $130,000, which according to property site Zillow is $58,900 below the median home price across America: Woop woop!
The average square footage of a starter home in Indy is 10th highest in the country at 1,152 with a price of $56.40 per square foot, according to Trulia's study.
Indy also came in as the second best city in Trulia's nation-wide study of the best metro markets for college grads based on an assigned score that weighs entry-level job availability, income and quality. Nice work, Naptown (but don't call us Naptown).
"Roughly two of every five renters in Indianapolis earn enough income to qualify to purchase a typical-priced home in 2015 with a pretty modest down payment," Danielle Hale, the National Association of Realtors Managing Director of Housing Research, told MSNBC.
Although often pegged as a generation plagued by crushing student loan debt and harsh prospects to choose from in entry level jobs that force 20-somethings back into mom's basement after their higher education experience, NAR says millennials recently topped Baby Boomers as the largest buyers of homes for the first time.
And while our fine city may have previously had the reputation of being a quaint, transitional city rather than a sought out destination with all the happenings, the YPs that have already made the transition here will tell (and show) you that there's tons happening to compete with the Chicagos and Bostons of the world, all a bonus on top of the affordability that it offers.
Think Broad Ripple, Mass Ave, Fountain Square, the booming retail district at Castleton, the unique cultural and walking trails, sprawling parks, water activities at Geist and Eagle Creek, a downtown shopping mall immersed among the architecture of a walkable, bikeable, likeable city-scape, two top-league professional sports teams, three more that are right behind them, nationally-renowned museums, critically-acclaimed restaurants, a deep-rooted arts scene, booming craft beer options, an urban winery, multiple distilleries, top-talent-booked concert venues; all within a 20 minute drive of each other - There's a lot to love about Indy outside of its well-priced homes.
Retailers MSNBC spoke to weren't able to identify an out-of-state millennial trend of new home buyers, but with all this in mind, it's likely only a matter of time.
So, fellow Hoosiers, stick your chest out today, share this on Facebook and brag: You're not only living in a progressive urban town, you're getting value unlike any of your peers around the country.
