2024 Housing Study Update

The 2024 Indiana Uplands Housing Study provides updated data to help identify workforce housing needs and strategies for advancing housing opportunities in each of the region’s 11 counties. View the 2024 Housing Study Update to see specific county data.

2019 Housing Study

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The original 2019 Indiana Uplands housing study helped identify workforce housing needs and strategies for advancing housing opportunities in each of the region’s 11 counties. This housing strategy is specifically tailored to the needs and future aspirations of the Indiana Uplands region.

As part of this study, we gathered input on the region’s housing market through a variety of techniques, including data gathering, stakeholder focus groups, and market surveys. Information gathered was synthesized to formulate a final housing report outlining strategic housing resources, issues, and opportunities on a regional and county level.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Housing Study? A housing study is a document focused on the existing housing stock and the demand for housing. It’s intended to give communities and housing developers a guidebook and a toolkit to ensure a healthy and functioning housing market that offers housing options to all residents. It addresses historic trends, the current condition of housing, and changes in the real estate market; it indexes affordable housing in a community; and it analyzes the demand for future housing across a range of types and price points. After analyzing this data, the plan makes specific policy and program recommendations that communities can implement to address issues and challenges facing the housing market.

Why is a Study Needed? Counties across the Indiana Uplands are experiencing change. All communities are trying to find ways to attract talent and ensure stable economic growth. Housing has become an essential component to economic stability. A lack of available and quality units, in a range of price points, can result in stagnant or declining community growth and workforce availability, tax revenues and deteriorating or substandard housing. A comprehensive housing strategy is a way to make sure many housing market challenges are addressed, and it provides recommendations to communities and housing developers for solutions.

How is the Study Implemented? Housing studies can be implemented through several interlocking means. Of course, many cities, towns, and counties have a role in guiding land use and ensuring safe construction and habitable residential buildings. Frequently, a local housing authority or non-profit organization will contribute their knowledge and skills in developing housing for those of the most modest means. Finally, in almost all cases, the recommendations in a housing study are designed to create a private market response to housing need. By taking a holistic look at the region’s housing market, the document invites a broad-based response to improve the overall housing quality and market health.

Who can use the Housing Study? The Housing Study is designed to be a strategic and frequently used road map to identify and meet current and future housing priorities. This tool can be used by several groups and individuals including:

  • Development organizations and other groups who make policy, conceive and execute programs, and seek funding to meet housing needs
  • Service providers who serve specific populations and need information to support theirwork and evaluate their effectiveness
  • Local and county governments who establish priorities, evaluate development proposals, and establish the plans that become the basis for action
  • Housing professionals, including developers, builders, real estate agents, and financial institutions who make decisions that influence the supply and construction of housing
  • Employers who seek to attract talent to the region and grow their business
  • Existing and prospective businesses, who use housing supply to influence their investment and location decisions
  • Consumers, prospective residents, citizens, and a wide variety of other users