Safety was one of the reasons Ryan Spangler chose to build a home in St. John.
“It’s the safest place in the state if not the country,” said Spangler, who owns Ryan Spangler State Farm in St. John and is president of the town’s Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a great place, because it’s wonderful for raising a family. It still has that small town feel but with a developing urban vibe.”
According to Nick Johnson of HomeSnacks, a media/news company that uses data, analytics, and a sense of humor to determine quality of life for places across the nation, an analysis of 87 communities in Indiana with a population of more than 5,000 found that St. John was the safest place to live in the state.
It’s about the places where crime is mostly what you see on Facebook and not in the news, he said.
“As town manager I couldn’t be prouder of St. John,” said Steve Kil, town manager for the Town of St. John. “A distinction such as this speaks volumes to the pride and commitment our residents have in our town and our public safety personnel are to be commended.”
Because St. John, population 15,456, is ranked one of Indiana’s top places to reside, it was the perfect setting for their customized, high-end and quality homes, said Tom Vespa, who with Tim Pisarski owns Legacy Group, which is offering homes in Cardinal Cove in St. John.
“As a custom home builder, we chose St. John as one of our featured communities for a number of reasons—the close proximity to Chicago, extremely reasonable property taxes, safety and great schools were contributing factors,” said Vespa, president of Legacy Group. “St. John is also a beautiful, inviting community with spacious lots to accommodate the types of homes we build. It is an upscale community that continues to attract new home buyers that have very distinguished and discerning tastes.”
St. John home values have gone up 5.3 percent in the last year, according to Zillow, with predictions that they’ll rise another 2 pecent in the next year. With a median home price of $369,500, median income of $95,777 (nearly double that for the state) and an unemployment rate of 2.9 percent, St. John was recently ranked as the wealthiest small town in Indiana, according to a study by 24/7 Wall St. Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the study included median household incomes, poverty rates and median home values from towns across the country with populations ranging from 1,000 to 25,000 residents.
“St. John for quite a while has been one of our premier communities with a highly ranked school district, low crime, easy proximity to the state line and attractive housing options,” said Peter Novak, Chief Executive of the Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors (GNIAR). “When you see higher income and education and better schools, you typically see less crime because that’s one of the things that attracts people to an area.”
Other factors making St. John desirable, according to the survey, is that it’s high level of education. Almost 40 percent of the town's population has a bachelor's degree, compared to 24.1 percent for the state, and approximately 97.1 percent of adults in St. John had a high school diploma, compared to 87.8 percent for the state.
“It's really outstanding to receive such a great recognition for our community,” said Mark Barenie, St. John Town Council. “We are blessed with an outstanding group of employees who take pride in their work and community. The residents of St. John should be proud and feel very good about their community.”
"I'm really proud of my staff and our community," adds St. John Chief of Police James Kveton. "I think everyone works together here at making St. John a wonderful place. There's a high degree of professionalism that makes me very proud of my staff."
For Spangler, St. John is a caring community that includes business men and women, town hall and police and fire departments.
“That’s part of the small-town feel,” he said. “It’s still Mayberry. I like to say that it’s still country, which keeps you grounded, but St. John has a bit of rock and roll to it as