Carmel, IN Reviews

Midwest upper middle class town - 6/14/2019
I moved to Carmel from France and I lived there for 20 years. I moved to Indianapolis recently (I miss Carmel).
I liked Carmel because it is clean, safe, pretty, it has a good infrastructure, it has a great public library. They renovated the little (tiny) downtown.
I am glad they built roundabouts like in Europe as they make the traffic flow much better. The problem is that a lot of people are missing the point: they stop even when there's no coming cars!
People drive here, they don't walk or bike (very few bikers). They have started adding bike lanes but many car drivers still don't respect bikers (they don't anywhere in Indiana).
It is an upper middle class town. Carmel high school students don't ride the bus, they drive (expensive cars). ~6000 students in the 1 high school. A lot of pressure is put on the students to achieve/perform and make the school look good. My children did not like the other kids' attitude for the most part (cliques). I found Read More

Prosperous EdgeCity Suburb Filled with Roundabouts - 4/16/2018
This place has just about every corporate chain hotel imaginable. I come for business, and it is a nice place to do business. Carmel seems to sucking the corporate lifeblood out of the Indianapolis area. Be forewarned, this place has so many roundabouts driving is very maddening. Three and four story apartment and condo buildings fill the landscape. You get the feeling that they are trying to create a new higher density suburban mini Indianapolis north of the real one. There is 'Carmel by the Sea,' and this one is 'Carmel by the Interstates' surrounded by flat corn fields to the north, east, and west. This is a growing suburb on steroids, and probably Indiana's highest wage area for corporate jobs. If you like your buildings newer than 10 years old, this place is filled with lots of them, but the architecture is vanilla Read More

Carmel is the best - 2/28/2015
Carmel is hands down the best place to live in Read More

Stay away - 11/4/2014
My wife and I have been in Indiana for five years because of ours jobs and all I can say is YUCK!

I'm originally from the midwest and my wife is from the south so we don't have unrealistic expectations. You shouldn't have any expectations about Indiana. It's legal here to shoot police officers if they don't clearly identify themselves. You can't buy alcohol on Sundays. The KKK ran the state government until the 1930's then the FBI finally ran them out of the state capitol. Take a trip to northern Indiana (around the Dunes) and there's a white supremacist radio station on air, seriously.

Needless to say, this place is the most backwards looking, conservative, homophobic, xenophobic place one can imagine. The word Hoosier originally was southern slang describing the uncouth people in the flatlands north of the Ohio river. That's spot on.

Indianapolis is one of the unsafest cities in the U.S. It's perpetually poor, polluted, violent crime is Read More

Best place to live in Indiana - 7/11/2012
Carmel is the best place to live in Indiana, hands down. Housing value is high, taxes are low, cultural life the best (good library, great performing arts center, major league sports). Only problem: no mountains, no Read More

neighborhood - 11/2/2011
Was wondering if anyone could give me advice on the best family friendly neighborhoods to move to in Carmel. My husband and I are in our mid-thirties with a 3 year old and one on the way. Our price range is b/t 300,000-500,000 with more importance being on the neighborhood and less on how nice the house is.
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Great place to raise a family! - 4/8/2011
I lived in Carmel for 12 years. It is an affluent city, although it also contains areas that are older and more affordable (central area of the city; whereas the eastern and western borders of the city limits are mainly newer, very large homes and some mansions).

The school system is excellent, and crime is low. There is a strong sense of community, which contributes to a well-kept community and strong volunteerism, although it is also somewhat "Stepford-ish". Politically, Carmel is VERY conservative.

Climate: well, this is the Midwest, so hot and humid summers and cold winters.

Overall, I am glad I lived there while raising my family, and would recommend it.  Read More

Carmel, Indiana is a Wonderful City - 12/11/2010
Carmel is a wonderful place. It has one of the most forward thinking city governments in the US and can compete with cities anywhere for good schools, libraries, parks a world class concert hall and theater complex, a community recreation center, wonderful gold courses and low taxes. The mayor has built more roundabouts than any other city in the US and substantially lowered the injury accident from accidents by 70%.
the people are from extremely diverse backgrounds for anywhere in the Midwest. Over twenty percent Asian-American and lots of religious diversity--everyone seems Read More

Not a plesant climate in the least - 2/12/2010
Very over-cast and gray most of winter and even in spring summer and fall.
There is very little spring at all. It rains and is quite cold until the end of May most years. Fall can be nice if it lasts more than 4 weeks. It is the driest season of the Read More

I lived there - 11/22/2009
I lived there from 1955. until 1975 when I joined the Air Force. I had 5 older sisters, and a younger brother. I worked for a carpenter named Bob Aldrich. In our big garage I built chevy cars. The last was 2 1963 Chevy 2 with a straught axel, and fender well headers. I've been up there again, and saw a lot of new Read More