Your analysis is very good and correct about Fishers. I am a local appraiser in Indianapolis.

No one is saying Fishers is not desirable. It is perhaps the most affordable and easiest to acquire (supply) of the desirable. If one wants to buy a home in Fishers, a builder will see to it…if you want to buy a home in Crows Nest (very small supply), you better have some cash because even some of the newer homes in there did not skimp on quality!

It is very important to separate Geist, a waterfront community, from Fishers. A simple home price median analysis will show you a striking difference between Geist and Fishers.

In aggregate, Geist construction quality is often comparable to that typical in Carmel.

Readers should drive around Carmel where it is hard to find vinyl box additions and then drive a round Fishers where that is more than typical. The same visual difference can be seen crossing the line from Carmel to Westfield.

However, Fishers growth has come with a heavy price: construction quality and zoning density have created a tremendous supply of low to average quality homes in Fishers (not found on Geist). Zoning density has created traffic jambs that are now having a negative affect on desirability.

That is the difference in the older neighborhoods you correctly sighted and a modern pop-up ones like Fishers. The older ones, because of their construction quality hold their value and their appeal.

Unfortunately, as hinted at by Dr. Higley, zip codes are not reliable for Indianapolis as they tend to span very large areas, often miles in each direction. 46208, for example, includes both very wealthy and very modest neighborhoods. As a Realtor who has served these areas for 25 years, I would be more than happy to help you as you consider moving to Indianapolis. (And, yes, I do apologize for my commercialization of this blog!)

Since the net doesn’t do much of a job with sarcasm. That was indeed it.

PS. All professors that are within two years of retirement are sarcastic and cynical. It’s an occupational hazard that they don’t tell you about in grad school

I think the flak you are receiving regarding Fishers is simply that of definition and how it is viewed by the public. The academic terms you are using are upper middle-class and lower middle-class. If the label were available to use, Fishers (overall) would simply be dead-on middle-class in terms of housing stock. It is a combination of newer starter and move-up homes. The word “lower” conjures up “messiness” in the non-academic public’s mind. It would be hard to find any messiness in Fishers in terms of condition, types of businesses operating there, and so forth. There are certainly several Fishers neighborhoods near Geist Reservoir and elsewhere that would fit in the upper groups, but they are apparently individually too small or suffer from some statistical anomaly that rendered them unusable for your work.

Indianapolis probably does differ in some ways from other cities in that many of its upper-end neighborhoods tend to be smaller and separated from each other. We are clumped. Tiny North Side neighborhoods such as Buttonwood Crescent, Pickwick Drive, Wynnedale, sections of Cedar Knolls, and other less-defined areas of Washington Township are resistant to analysis when viewed only from statistics. One zip code or census tract may reflect both the wealthiest and poorest homes. Things are clearer when geographical elements are seen in person. A street here, a commercial zone there. In person, the situation with Brendonwood would be very clear. Some mention of the Zionsville area would probably also be warranted in the future.

Fortunately, you made the effort to see our city and did your best with the time you had available.