Elkhart/Goshen joins Fort Wayne and Lafayette area as top emerging housing markets

ELKHART ― The Elkhart/Goshen market dropped a bit in the most recent rankings of the nation’s top emerging housing markets as reported by The Wall Street Journal and Realtor.com .

Reviewing date from the 300 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, the Elkhart/Goshen area was ranked 12th in the nation in the Winter 2024 study while Lafayette/West Lafayette was ranked seventh and Fort Wayne was 10th on the list.

Though it’s still noteworthy that three Indiana metropolitan areas are in the Top 20 emerging housing markets, each dropped by a few spots compared to the Fall 2023 rankings when the Elkhart/Goshen housing market was listed as the second best in the nation, Fort Wayne was fourth and Lafayette/West Lafayette was fifth.

Officials speculated that the drop in the Elkhart/Goshen market might have been caused by the slight increase in the unemployment rate in Elkhart County because of the slowdown in the RV industry over the past 18 months.

That slowdown was caused by reduced orders from dealers who sought to clear out excess inventory that built up on their lots in 2022 and, to some extent, by higher interest rates and concerns about a recession.

Though RV manufacturers aimed to keep as many workers as possible during the downturn, the unemployment rate for the county still ticked up in 2023, reaching a high of 5.2% in July before dropping to 3.2% in December, only slightly higher than the statewide average of 2.8% .

Even still, officials believe that the showing on the Top 20 list is always a potential benefit for site selectors who might be looking for a place for a company to expand because most of the areas on the list offer affordable housing and good jobs.

“Today’s home shoppers are faced with still-scarce home inventory, and elevated home prices, making homebuying a challenging feat,” according to WSJ/Realtor.com. "The … index highlights housing markets that offer shoppers a lower cost of living, including for homes, and thriving local economies that are attractive, but not too crowded.”

That latter sounds like a description of communities throughout northcentral Indiana.

“Elkhart/Goshen has always been a good place to do business because of its affordability, workforce and quality of life,” said LeVon Johnson, president and CEO of the Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce . “Those are very positive things for businesses looking to expand.”

Toni Bontrager, president of the Elkhart County Board of Realtors and broker-associate at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices , agreed with that assessment, pointing out that jobs, schools, area universities and other amenities make the area a desirable place to live.

But a shortage of housing inventory has had an impact throughout much of the market.

“People don’t want to sell if there’s nowhere to go,” she said. “It’s challenging trying to find homes for buyers.”

John De Souza, president of Cressy & Everett Real Estate , said he’s not surprised by the ranking, which the Elkhart/Goshen market has achieved for at least a couple of years.

“We’ve become more diverse in terms of job opportunities, we’re very affordable, and we have a good quality of life,” he said. “This is the kind of information we share with economic development officials all the time.”

But De Souza also pointed out that housing inventory has been a problem and that figuring out ways to spur residential construction must be an ongoing priority and at nearly every price point to create movement in the market.

Besides working on quality of place improvements, money from Indiana’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative has also been targeted on creating housing, though often typically higher-end rentals.

That’s helped, but, Johnson said, he hopes the effort continues to expand housing opportunities in the next round of the READI program. “The Great Recession really hit housing construction, and more older people want to age in place.”

“We have work to do on catching up on housing units,” he said. “Workforce housing is especially tight.”

Email Tribune staff writer Ed Semmler at esemmler@sbtinfo.com .

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Elkhart/Goshen joins Fort Wayne and Lafayette area as top emerging housing markets