Elkhart Indiana–Worst Place to Buy a House (This Week)
Where in the hell is Elkhart, Indiana?
If you were asking yourself that question yesterday as President Barack Obama made a special trip to Elkhart to talk about his economic recovery plan, and as Elkhart Indiana was being splashed all over the cable news media and hailed as the city with "the highest unemployment rate in the U.S." (15.3% and climbing), let me help you out here.
Elkhart Indiana is just east of South Bend Indiana which is just east of Gary Indiana which is just east of Chicago.
I know because I grew up in South Bend Indiana, and I've been to Elkhart many times. It's a 15 to 20 minute drive from South Bend, and if you take Lincolnway West (a.k.a. highway 20) to get there, you will notice right away that it is also one of the most butt-ugly drives ever. The drive to Elkhart could be in a guidebook entitled, "Top Ten Most Butt-Ugly Drives In America" and it would make the top five easily.
The road from South Bend to Elkhart is a grey, busted up, pot-hole infested two-lane state highway that runs alongside a poorly-maintained railroad track that once serviced defunct, abandonned factories on one side, and out-of-business auto parts places, junkyards, and liquor stores on the other side. A few dead drivein restaurants punctuate the relentless decay.
These conjoined trailers in Elkhart Indiana are listed at $11,000, cash only.
The road to Elkhart takes you from one rust belt hell to a even uglier rust belt hell, a place that until mid-2008 was the "Recreation Vehicle manufacturing capital of the world." Now it holds the dubious distinction of being the unemployment capital of the U.S.
Elkhart must be so proud.
In fairness, Elkhart Indiana is in microcosm what the U.S. is becoming at a macro level: A city comprised of a few multi-millionaires (the ones who own the RV factories) and lots of poor people (the ones who used to work in the RV factories). Even when the factories were hopping, Elkhart was a real rathole--a place where every cheeseburger came with a side of despair and a free case of gum disease.
The Saint Joseph river meanders through downtown Elkhart, and the most beautiful and stately homes are located on that riverfront. Stray a few blocks away and you're going to want a gun, or at least a really big, really mean-looking dog on a really long leash.
Working in a trailer factory [sic: a recreational vehicle factory] is a crappy job even in the best of times, and these are not the best of times. Obama spoke directly to a large crowd in Elkhart and took uncensored, unfiltered questions from that crowd, some rather tartly phrased. He handled himself well. He usually does.It was refreshing to see a President who did not shield himself from reality the way former ones have, a President who was brave enough to not only look poverty and despair in the face, but actually invite it to speak.
But it's hard to see how recreational vehicles or the jobs they created are going to be coming back any time soon, not to Elkhart, not to the United States. Detroit can't even sell subcompacts (such as it has). A single RV, by contrast, costs upwards of $100K. When people need to cut back on luxuries (or necessities), an RV is a hard luxury to miss. Some RVs are even bigger than the trailers the workers who build them live in.
Or used to live in.
That's the problem with hope. it has a dark side. Hope is cruel. Hope sounds good on a campaign trail. In a place like Elkhart Indiana, hope just sounds like the latest form of waterboarding.
Today, Obama is in Fort Myers Florida, a city that has been devastated by foreclosures, talking directly to residents of that sunnier, but just as desperate, locus of misery. During his talk he was asked for shelter by a woman whose entire family was homeless and living in a car, and then asked for a better job by a college student who has been unable to advance past his McDonald's counter work position for the past four years.
I predict these tours might end soon. Or at least the questions will be screened.
Maybe I underestimate him. But it was painful to watch.
Investing in real estate in the U.S. is not for sissies, not right now, and what's more, making a good judgment about where to put your money is very, very difficult. If you do decide to take the plunge, here's a bit of advice:
Make sure you ask for fries with that house.
Filed under Investing in real estate by 
Comments on Elkhart Indiana–Worst Place to Buy a House (This Week)
You should be so proud of that article. A natural born optimist; it’s obvious. How about leaving your name as the author for all of us to admire. Keep smiling.
Kim -
The author’s name is clearly written at the bottom of the article. But I assume you have something constructive to add to the discussion. Perhaps some information that we are unaware of? You know something we don’t? You see glimmers of hope shining through the black clouds of depression? You found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? What?
Please feel free to drop by again and share, because just leaving a sarcastic comment about P Grundy’s optimism is not really very constructive.
Seriously – We would all like something optimistic to report, but are not prepared to “spin” anything. So if you have some positive information, we will happily share it with our readers.
I am a retiree living in southwest Florida. My companion grew up in Elkhart when it was the band instrument capital of the world and his adult children still live there. He has fond memories of his youth there and we love to visit in the summer. We are thinking of buying a little summer home there on the river.
It’s only a few miles from South Bend and about 100 miles from Chicago. also near the Michigan border. PGrundy does not tell the whole story.
There are definitely some nice places on the River in Elkhart, and in better days Elkhart itself was a better place. Those days are gone. I found it interesting that Obama chose to speak there, since it isn’t as though the town has been on the upswing anytime recently and the area is very, very conservative. Not a hotbed of liberal thought. Elkhart didn’t vote for Obama–it went with the other guy, the guy who supported the policies that trashed the U.S. economy.
In terms of real estate, Elkhart has been a town of sharp contrasts for years. Surely your partner must know this, unless its been awhile since she visited there. I grew up in nearby South Bend, Indiana. In the 50s and 60s and even into the 70s South Bend was also a lovely place to live–even the bad neighborhoods didn’t LOOK bad. But it has gone downhill starting in the 80s as manufacturing plants bailed, one by one, and then many at a time.
Today South Bend is very depressing. Driving into town from the North it feels like I’m entering a DMZ or something. And Elkhart presents an even more depressing first view when you enter it from the west on 20. If you haven’t made that drive lately, I challenge you to do it and then tell me I overstated this. I feel sad about the destruction of my home town and I’m not thrilled about what has happened to Elkhart either, but I do not believe I distorted anything in this post.
Thank you for sharing an alternate view. If you want to pick up a nice summer home in Elkhart on the St. Joe River, this would be a good time to make your move. Real estate is dirt cheap there right now.
It’s true many cities have vacant buildings and driving by them is depressing…however, around the corner are new buildings going up everywhere…you should pick a different road …take CR 6, across…big difference
I grew up in Mishawaka and 40 years ago my parents said
” Elkhart is a horrible place to go to, it’s very dangerous…make sure you never go there” then I met my future husband and after we were married we moved to his home town of, you guessed it Elkhart. And we live in that little house on the river and love it. Things could be better both my husband and I are now unemployed due to the demise of the RV industry, but we aren’t burying our heads or crying because the sky is falling…
We are doing the best we can and know that there are others who are doing worse than us..and if we can help them we will.
We may end up having to sell our home on the river, if you want to talk about it you can email me. But you know what, in the mean time I thank God for each day and enjoy the sunshine…and the wonderful view out my back door..
Elkhart is a city full of entrepreners and hard working people who are survivors. There a lot of great restaurants and wonderful country drives that can take you to Shipshewana and Middlebury…and there’s always island park music events and fun gatherings downtown…
Mishawaka and South Bend have lots of wonderful areas and great things to see and do also….it’s not the cities that are so depressing…it’s you.
I write about the real estate situation in the U.S. and in my opinion it is not good right now. Elkhart was in the news, I wrote about it as I see it. You can take it personally if you want–I happen to think that’s a waste of your energy and mine. I’m glad you’re happy there. Thanks for your comment.
You’re a real piece of shit.
Wow Jizz – that is a great contribution there. Please come on back and lend us your considered opinion any time.
You say you’re simply writing on the real estate situation in Elkhart and also “calling it as you see it”? Well, perhaps you REALLY haven’t seen it. First off, Elkhart for many years was listed as one of the most affordable areas in the country to own a home, it has an amazing sense of community, and the residents, including myself, don’t really care to have you portray our fine city as “another rust-belt city”. It is not, was not, and is now turning around. For all your first hand knowledge, I would expect that you would also know that the RV industry has historically been the first in and the first out of economic difficulty. Since you did such a fine job slamming the community, why not come back now and see what’s happening. I’m no fan of MSNBC, but they didn’t just slam our hometown and move-on………they took up residency to do a year long documentary on the plight of an American manufacturing community. Check it out, they aren’t from here, they just simply report accurately!!
the author failed to mention that elkhart county still has one of the highest ammounts of millionares in the u s. elkhart area has more people that own a buisness than most places in the country and cr 17 is about to burst as the new grape road. I grew up in goshen which is close and a nice place to live. obviously the author has a beef with the the elkhart area. i plan to finish my associates then get a buis admin degree and open a small buis in the later future. once we get a more buisness friendly president more people will do the same and the economy will recover. we just have to play the waiting game.