Helping the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization (IMPO) better understand the region’s housing situation

Central Indiana Housing Study

Central Indiana, once known for its housing affordability, is now facing rising housing costs that are impacting not just low-income but also middle- and high-income households. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization (IMPO) set out to understand the market and socioeconomic forces driving regional housing trends and disparities across their eight counties and 42 jurisdictions. They also wanted to identify housing gaps across the affordability spectrum and develop a toolkit to help communities expand housing access and equity at local and regional levels. IMPO engaged our team to perform a regional housing study to help support these efforts.

As a key component of the study, we conducted a gap analysis. After processing the unique combination of public and proprietary data with advanced machine learning techniques, we created a detailed, up-to-date picture of both housing supply and demand across the Indianapolis metropolitan region.

We also conducted a series of recurring meetings with participants from all of IMPO’s member communities. In these meetings, we focused on addressing housing issues and opportunities locally, but we also created a space for members to compare notes and collaborate with each other.

By completing this study, IMPO can provide their member communities with a critical baseline that establishes a shared understanding of the history and current state of housing in Central Indiana. This baseline will also serve as a starting point for each member community to implement various housing strategies to achieve local policy and planning goals.