Editor’s Note: This is not investment advice, and we are not financial advisers.
Suppose real estate is the most significant investment a majority of people make in their lifetime. In that case, it’s best to understand the places in Indiana with best potential return on investment.
After working in real estate adjacent roles for over a decade, I had the hypothesis that the best place to buy for a return on investment would be up-and-coming cities. Smaller cities where crime might be high now, but people still move to.
To test my hypothesis, we are going to look at places in Indiana that are growing faster than average, but where home prices are below average, and crime rates are higher than average.
In everyday terms, these might be “deals”. The best deal in Indiana at the moment according to Saturday Night Science? That would be Pendleton.
4.0% population growth · 0.6% home price growth
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
18.4% population growth · 0.6% home price growth
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
7.6% population growth · 6.3% home price growth
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
0.2% population growth · 1.3% home price growth
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
0.1% population growth · 0.7% home price growth
Winona Lake is a town in Wayne Township, Kosciusko County, in the U.S. state of Indiana, and the major suburb of Warsaw. The population was 4,908 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
1.2% population growth · -0.2% home price growth
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
0.5% population growth · 1.8% home price growth
Tipton is a city in and the county seat of Tipton County, Indiana, United States. The population was 5,106 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Kokomo, Indiana, Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was named after John Tipton, a politician.
Data | Movers
0.2% population growth · 1.4% home price growth
Alexandria is a city in Monroe Township, Madison County, Indiana, United States. It is about 46 miles northeast of Indianapolis. According to the 2010 census, its population was 5,145, a decrease of 17.8% from 6,260 in 2000.
Data | Movers
0.5% population growth · 1.1% home price growth
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
-0.1% population growth · 0.3% home price growth
Monticello is a city in Union Township, White County, Indiana, United States. The population was 5,378 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of White County.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Indiana’s statewide median.
Indiana statewide median: $254,122
On the map
Where Indiana’s best buys are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How do you determine the best places to buy a home in Indiana for 2026?
We were in real estate for almost five years and have worked on this site for over a decade. Suffice it to say we’ve put a lot of thought into finding an excellent place to buy a home.
So all that thinking has come to this moment where we get to spell out how we’d approach finding an up-and-coming place to live in Indiana. Put differently, the analysis will try to find places in Indiana with undervalued homes relative to pent-up demand using Saturday Night Science.
To do that, we looked at the most recent American Community Survey Census data for 2020-2024 and compared it to the previous vintage. Specifically, we used the following criteria:
- Y-o-Y Change In Population (People want to live here)
- Y-o-Y Change In Median Home Prices (People are willing to pay for it)
- Home Prices Relative To The State Average (It’s still kinda cheap)
We want places that are growing, have seen home prices increase in recent years, and are still “cheap” for Indiana, with these caveats: home prices had to be within 20% of the state average, home prices increased in the last year, and the city had above 5,000 people.
So of the 680 cities and towns in Indiana, only 125 places made it through our initial filters to even be considered.
We then ranked each place from 1 to 125 for the above criteria, with 1 being the best. We averaged the rankings to create a “best place to buy” index, with the place having the lowest index being the best.
Turns out that Pendleton is the best potential gem in the not-so-rough in the Hoosier State. The median Indiana home is 49 years old — old enough that it pays to compare home warranty plans before something expensive breaks.
The full plate
Best Places To Buy A Home In Indiana
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Median Home Price | Population Change | Home Price Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pendleton | 5,321 | $334,739 | 4.0% | 0.6% |
| 2 | Whiteland | 5,173 | $296,965 | 18.4% | 0.6% |
| 3 | Winchester | 5,284 | $152,403 | 7.6% | 6.3% |
| 4 | Porter | 5,217 | $297,623 | 0.2% | 1.3% |
| 5 | Winona Lake | 5,080 | $297,378 | 0.1% | 0.7% |
| 6 | Cicero | 5,509 | $401,400 | 1.2% | -0.2% |
| 7 | Tipton | 5,280 | $237,894 | 0.5% | 1.8% |
| 8 | Alexandria | 5,155 | $182,198 | 0.2% | 1.4% |
| 9 | Lawrenceburg | 5,179 | $248,401 | 0.5% | 1.1% |
| 10 | Monticello | 5,496 | $235,505 | -0.1% | 0.3% |
| 11 | Linton | 5,260 | $171,819 | 2.1% | 3.7% |
| 12 | Gas City | 6,076 | $157,194 | -0.3% | -0.5% |
| 13 | Hartford City | 5,794 | $139,704 | 1.9% | 4.4% |
| 14 | Westville | 5,279 | $357,284 | -0.2% | 1.1% |
| 15 | Cumberland | 6,267 | $289,409 | 1.8% | 0.1% |
| 16 | Winfield | 7,816 | $476,915 | 4.2% | -4.6% |
| 17 | Portland | 6,416 | $162,775 | 1.2% | -0.9% |
| 18 | Rochester | 6,215 | $210,468 | -0.5% | 1.5% |
| 19 | Rensselaer | 5,573 | $242,741 | 3.8% | 0.6% |
| 20 | New Whiteland | 5,704 | $228,047 | 1.1% | 0.6% |
| 21 | Salem | 6,489 | $208,086 | 0.1% | 1.4% |
| 22 | Rushville | 6,036 | $202,258 | -2.4% | 0.5% |
| 23 | Huntingburg | 6,396 | $240,498 | -1.7% | 3.7% |
| 24 | Garrett | 6,642 | $187,134 | 1.6% | 3.2% |
| 25 | Boonville | 6,702 | $230,217 | 0.3% | 3.9% |
| 26 | Mount Vernon | 6,400 | $221,083 | -0.5% | 1.2% |
| 27 | Ellettsville | 6,698 | $274,445 | 0.7% | 1.6% |
| 28 | Scottsburg | 7,362 | $187,044 | 0.3% | 0.8% |
| 29 | Batesville | 7,282 | $317,505 | 6.4% | 1.1% |
| 30 | Nappanee | 6,815 | $288,904 | -3.2% | 1.6% |
| 31 | North Vernon | 7,078 | $212,243 | -1.9% | 2.5% |
| 32 | Hunte | 11,379 | $347,292 | 3.6% | 8.9% |
| 33 | McCordsville | 10,329 | $375,788 | 6.5% | 0.3% |
| 34 | Tell City | 7,505 | $181,285 | 0.2% | 2.0% |
| 35 | Bargersville | 10,752 | $442,137 | 5.8% | -1.3% |
| 36 | Brazil | 7,831 | $188,386 | -2.9% | 2.8% |
| 37 | Charlestown | 8,294 | $302,064 | 2.2% | -0.2% |
| 38 | Elwood | 8,356 | $148,429 | 0.4% | 6.2% |
| 39 | Angola | 9,408 | $302,980 | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| 40 | Princeton | 8,372 | $187,283 | 0.3% | 1.3% |
| 41 | White | 12,466 | $434,989 | 10.6% | 1.5% |
| 42 | Columbia City | 9,897 | $279,168 | -0.8% | -0.0% |
| 43 | Sellersburg | 10,137 | $296,867 | -0.8% | -0.0% |
| 44 | Kendallville | 10,556 | $220,523 | 4.6% | 2.3% |
| 45 | Decatur | 9,811 | $229,668 | 0.4% | 2.1% |
| 46 | Mooresville | 9,751 | $308,099 | 1.5% | 0.2% |
| 47 | Lowell | 11,073 | $329,211 | 1.5% | 0.8% |
| 48 | Wabash | 10,358 | $179,809 | -0.2% | 1.8% |
| 49 | Plymouth | 10,664 | $238,868 | 1.5% | 0.1% |
| 50 | Bluffton | 10,529 | $183,603 | -0.1% | 1.0% |
| 51 | Greencastle | 9,864 | $243,386 | 0.0% | 1.3% |
| 52 | Danville | 11,714 | $337,029 | 6.0% | 0.5% |
| 53 | Yor | 11,699 | $217,436 | 0.7% | -4.2% |
| 54 | Greensburg | 12,229 | $261,666 | 5.6% | 1.8% |
| 55 | Peru | 10,901 | $149,304 | 0.6% | 2.3% |
| 56 | Madison | 12,223 | $240,680 | -0.4% | 1.4% |
| 57 | Martinsville | 11,933 | $288,805 | 0.2% | 0.4% |
| 58 | Lake Station | 13,185 | $151,774 | 0.6% | -1.0% |
| 59 | Speedway | 13,968 | $236,684 | 2.5% | 0.0% |
| 60 | Washington | 12,367 | $147,888 | 1.4% | 0.8% |
| 61 | Cedar Lake | 15,295 | $328,156 | 4.1% | -0.8% |
| 62 | Connersville | 13,109 | $157,813 | -1.0% | 1.8% |
| 63 | Auburn | 13,565 | $275,151 | 0.8% | 2.2% |
| 64 | Bedford | 13,837 | $207,924 | 0.1% | 2.8% |
| 65 | Chesterton | 14,446 | $340,855 | 0.8% | 0.9% |
| 66 | Beech Grove | 14,913 | $191,935 | -1.1% | -0.2% |
| 67 | Frankfort | 15,917 | $209,856 | 2.5% | 4.1% |
| 68 | Jasper | 15,991 | $266,264 | -2.6% | 3.4% |
| 69 | Warsaw | 16,768 | $271,691 | 1.1% | 2.2% |
| 70 | Dyer | 16,400 | $355,530 | 0.0% | -0.6% |
| 71 | New Haven | 15,698 | $240,073 | 2.3% | 2.5% |
| 72 | Crawfordsville | 16,491 | $219,773 | 0.5% | -0.6% |
| 73 | Griffith | 16,273 | $247,099 | 0.3% | 0.7% |
| 74 | Lebanon | 17,812 | $299,032 | 1.3% | 3.0% |
| 75 | Huntington | 17,030 | $192,024 | 0.0% | 0.3% |
| 76 | Vincennes | 16,586 | $164,630 | -0.5% | 1.6% |
| 77 | New Castle | 17,367 | $164,336 | 0.1% | 0.9% |
| 78 | Logansport | 17,790 | $153,143 | 0.1% | -1.2% |
| 79 | Avon | 23,437 | $352,859 | 3.3% | 1.5% |
| 80 | St. John | 22,567 | $450,806 | 4.3% | -0.3% |
| 81 | Shelbyville | 20,296 | $222,049 | 2.2% | 0.4% |
| 82 | Seymour | 22,371 | $230,829 | 3.9% | 0.6% |
| 83 | La Porte | 22,449 | $271,481 | 1.5% | 0.4% |
| 84 | Clarksville | 22,016 | $203,069 | -0.5% | 2.2% |
| 85 | Highland | 23,680 | $262,852 | -0.3% | -0.5% |
| 86 | Greenfield | 24,940 | $285,066 | 2.6% | 0.7% |
| 87 | Munster | 23,733 | $347,952 | 0.0% | -0.6% |
| 88 | Franklin | 26,168 | $279,168 | 0.7% | 1.6% |
| 89 | Brownsburg | 31,215 | $356,184 | 3.0% | 0.6% |
| 90 | Marion | 27,531 | $136,313 | 0.5% | 1.7% |
| 91 | Zionsville | 32,095 | $680,117 | 2.1% | 1.8% |
| 92 | East Chicago | 26,022 | $128,171 | -0.5% | -2.3% |
| 93 | Hobart | 29,558 | $238,196 | -0.3% | -0.2% |
| 94 | Schererville | 29,701 | $352,735 | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| 95 | Crown Point | 34,393 | $354,995 | 1.0% | 0.2% |
| 96 | Michigan City | 31,814 | $187,488 | -0.3% | 1.8% |
| 97 | Valparaiso | 34,733 | $355,845 | 1.0% | 0.4% |
| 98 | Plainfield | 36,369 | $331,618 | 1.6% | 1.2% |
| 99 | Goshen | 34,420 | $275,120 | 0.1% | 2.0% |
| 100 | Merrillville | 36,476 | $240,329 | 0.4% | 0.6% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024 via Saturday Night Science. 125 Indiana cities cleared the filters.
Summary
Summary: The Best Places To Purchase A House In Indiana for 2026
There’s our analysis of the best places to buy a house in Indiana. And, to be clear, we aren’t necessarily saying these places are the best places to live, just that it looks like they might be in a couple of years based on the data.
In fact, every place in the following table meets our criteria, so even though it may not look super long, remember we started off with all 680 places in the state.
The best cities to buy a house in Indiana are Pendleton, Whiteland, Winchester, Porter, Winona Lake, Cicero, Tipton, Alexandria, Lawrenceburg, and Monticello.
So if we could rent or buy in these cities, we’d definitely buy. Not sold on Indiana? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Best Places To Buy A House In Indiana FAQs
What is the best city in Indiana to buy a house?
Pendleton is the best place to buy a house in Indiana for 2026. Its population is growing, home values are rising, and the median home still costs $334,739. Whiteland and Winchester are next on the list.
What are the best cities to buy a home in Indiana?
The best cities to buy a house in Indiana are Pendleton, Whiteland, Winchester, Porter, Winona Lake, Cicero, Tipton, Alexandria, Lawrenceburg, and Monticello. Only 125 of the 680 places in Indiana cleared our filters on growth and home prices.
How much does a house cost in Pendleton?
The median home value in Pendleton is $334,739, versus $254,122 across Indiana. Across the full top ten, the median home runs $272,683.
How do you pick the best places to buy a home in Indiana?
We look for Indiana places where the population is growing, home prices are climbing, and homes are still cheap relative to the state average, using Census American Community Survey data. Cities that hit all three get the highest Buy Index scores.
Is this a guarantee home values will go up?
No. This is not investment advice — just where the data points to potential value. The Buy Index says these markets look healthier than most of Indiana, not that any single house is a good deal.
