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Why I Moved From Southern California to Indianapolis (Twice)
I'm filming this one from a mountainside in the Inland Empire, back in Southern California for a wedding, looking out at the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. Objectively, it's beautiful. So the question I get asked a lot is a fair one: why in the world would I leave this for Indianapolis?
Here's the short version: I grew up in Indianapolis, moved to Southern California and met my wife there, and after a few genuinely great years, the last two started wearing on us. We looked at a long list of cities — Nashville, South Carolina, North Carolina, and a handful of others — before landing back on Indianapolis. Growing up here and having lived elsewhere gave me a pretty clear comparison point, and every time we ran the numbers, Indianapolis came out on top or close to it.
Here's what actually drove that decision.
1. Housing Prices — and a Market That Doesn't Keep Me Up at Night
Southern California housing wasn't even that bad before COVID. Then, like everywhere, prices exploded. But the bigger issue for me isn't just price — it's that Southern California is a genuinely cyclical market. That's a real concern when you're buying a home, because you can end up purchasing at the top of a bubble right before it corrects.
The Midwest isn't immune to cycles either, but it's historically far less volatile. We bought our house in Indianapolis in 2022–2023: 2,300 square feet, four bedrooms, for $375,000. As someone who's more risk-averse by nature, that kind of stability matters to me. If you're the type of buyer who loses sleep over market swings, the Midwest is worth a serious look.
2. Pollution
This one drove me crazy more than I expected going in. Most days in Southern California, the air just isn't clean. You'd see smog sitting over the valley, trash along the highways, and on bad days I couldn't even see the mountain I was standing on. It wasn't just a visual thing — it didn't feel clean, driving or otherwise.
To be fair, Indiana isn't pollution-free. We get smoke drift from Canadian wildfires some seasons. But visually and day-to-day, it's not in the same category as what I dealt with regularly in Southern California.
3. Sporting Events and Things to Do
I lived out in Rancho Cucamonga, in the Inland Empire, while downtown LA — where the Lakers and Clippers play — was over an hour away. I went to one Clippers game because the tickets were cheap, and the arena was empty. For a Lakers game, I'd have looked at three hours of round-trip travel, parking hassles, and roughly $200 for a ticket to watch a team that, frankly, wasn't better than the Pacers. It didn't add up.
In Indianapolis, that same equation flips. Games and events are close, tickets are affordable, and the return-on-effort is just better. It's not that Southern California lacks options — if anything, it has too many. Indianapolis has a healthy amount without the overwhelm: venues like the Egyptian Room and HI-FI regularly bring in solid acts, and while we might not get a huge headliner every single week, there's always something worth going to, downtown or in the suburbs.
4. School Districts
Getting into a genuinely top-tier school district in Southern California often means spending well over a million dollars on a home. In the Indianapolis suburbs, that math looks completely different.
Carmel and Zionsville are consistently ranked among the top school districts in the metro. In Zionsville, the median sales price runs around $670,000. In Carmel, you can find a home for around $500,000 — it might be a little older, but it's still in a top district. And if that's still more than you want to spend, Fishers and Noblesville offer strong schools with homes closer to the $400,000 range. You simply don't need a seven-figure budget to land your kids in a great school system here.
5. Cost of Living
Gas is the most noticeable difference — roughly a dollar cheaper per gallon in Indianapolis, which works out to about 25% less. Grocery prices are a little lower too, though I didn't notice as dramatic a gap there.
Housing is where it really shows up. We have two large dogs — a pit-Rottweiler mix and a German Shepherd mix — and finding a pet-friendly rental in Southern California that would take both of them was genuinely difficult. Our last place there was 700 square feet and cost about $2,500 a month.
After moving to Indianapolis and buying at a 6% interest rate with some money down, our monthly mortgage is $1,700 — for a home more than three times the size.
6. Travel and the Airport
When you're not burning through your budget on rent, you can actually travel. And Indianapolis makes that easy in a way Southern California didn't. The Indianapolis airport is close, simple to navigate, and painless to get in and out of. Parking runs somewhere around $10–20 a day depending on the lot.
Compare that to my last experience flying out of LA: parking in an off-site garage, no shuttle running when I landed, and a $100 Uber ride just to get from the terminal back to my car. It was absurd.
Indianapolis has also been adding more direct flights — including a new direct route to Dublin, Ireland, which tells you there's real business traffic flowing between the two cities. I noticed it myself the last time I flew out; there were noticeably more people with Irish accents in the terminal, and it didn't look like tourism traffic.
The Bottom Line
None of this means Southern California doesn't have real advantages — the ocean, the mountains, the year-round weather are hard to argue with. But when we ran the full picture — housing stability, air quality, cost of living, school access, and how easy it is to actually enjoy your time off — Indianapolis won out for our family, twice.
If you're weighing a move to the Indianapolis area, or you're already here and trying to figure out which suburb fits your budget and priorities, I'd be glad to help you think it through.
Thinking About Moving to Indianapolis?
I'm Sean Hartwick — also known as The 317 Agent on Instagram — and I specialize in helping families relocate to the Indianapolis area. I work directly with every client (no team handoffs), and I'd love to be a resource for you and your family as you navigate this move.
Whether you have questions about neighborhoods, school districts, the home buying process, or just want to know what area is the best fit for your lifestyle, feel free to reach out. My personal cell and email are always available — just look in the description or contact me directly.
Let's get you home.
Sean Hartwick is a licensed real estate agent serving the Greater Indianapolis area. Follow him on Instagram @317agent.