Gary, Ind., conjures up images of a blue-collar area stillstruggling to recover from steel industry job cutbacks and fightingthe nation's highest murder rate. Now it has a new persona - one ofthe nation's hottest housing markets.
U.S. News & World Report ranks the northwest Indiana housingmarket - including Gary and Hammond - No. 5 among 100 of the nation'smajor metropolitan areas.
The ranking is based on average annual home price increases from1991 to 1994. In northwest Indiana, prices have risen 8 percent.
And according to the April 11 issue, Gary has Chicago to thankfor part of its booming housing market success.
"The demand is there, and the reason housing is in demand inGary is that, compared to the Chicago area, the cost of living ismuch lower," said David Miller, a U.S. News reporter. "The medianprice of housing is 40 percent less, and taxes are two-thirdslower."
Not that Gary doesn't face an uphill battle. The city has thehighest murder rate in the nation, and a jobless level of 7.2 percent- much higher than Illinois' 6 percent. At one time the steelindustry employed about 28,000 full-time workers in Gary; today, thatfigure hovers around 7,500.
Gary was rated 95th among 343 metropolitan areas based on thingssuch as crime, employment, climate and cost of living in the 1993Places Rated Almanac.
"The task ahead of us is much greater than anything we have donealready," said Gary Mayor Thomas V. Barnes. "We still have a job ofrebuilding. But we're fortunate to be recognized and for the degreeof excitement here that's existing right now and has been for thepast several years."
Allen Haymon, managing broker with ERA Haymon & Associates inGary, certainly is excited. His business was up 10 percent last yearand is expected to grow 20 percent this year.
"Gary has some of the best real estate deals on the planet,"Haymon said.
The low prices have pulled in many Chicagoans who work in thebig city but have chosen to live in the Gary area. The median priceof a home there was $82,078 last year, compared with roughly $128,000in Chicago.
According to the U.S. News report, about 40,000 northwestIndiana residents work out-of-state.
Chris Julsrud has worked in Chicago for more than 20 years.About four years ago, he decided to make the move to Gary, where hebought property along Gary's lakefront in an area called MillerBeach.
"I couldn't even look at lakefront property in Chicago or thenorthern suburbs," he said.
"I felt the Miller Beach section of Gary was very attractivebecause of the lake and because the community was very interesting.It's very diverse, both ethnically and economically, and that wasappealing. It has an interesting arts community developing around itand I think there's a lot of opportunity for revitalization."
The city has made that a priority, says Donald L. Thompson,chief executive officer of the Mayor's Office of EconomicDevelopment. He noted over the past decade about $300 million inpublic and private sector investments have been poured into thelakefront area, in building and renovating homes, condos, and retailand commercial operations and improving roadways.
At one time, one of every two jobs in Gary was tied directly orindirectly to the steel industry. But the city has been trying todiversify its jobs base, Barnes said. It's awaiting licensing fortwo riverboat casinos, which could bring an estimated $25 million to$30 million into the city annually and create as many as 5,500 jobs directly and indirectly.
Also under development: an 8,000-acre airport development zone.The city has about $3 million invested in the development of thatindustrial park site, which includes a cargo incubator facility andlight manufacturing operations.
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