The City of Noblesville partnered with Greentstreet Ltd. to conduct a residential market analysis that was completed and presented on November 1, 2016. The analysis was initiated to outline the City’s current inventory of approved and built residential developments at the request of the Noblesville Common Council to assist with decisions for future development requests. Greenstreet utilized information, statistics, and demographics from multiple sources to create an inventory of Noblesville’s current housing stock and identify methods to provide underserved and missing housing types for current and future Noblesville residents.

The completed analysis revealed that the current housing inventory in Noblesville is comprised of two predominant housing types – large lot single-family detached units (77 percent) and apartment units in large multi-family developments (17 percent) – and noted a scarcity of attached housing types that make up the “Missing Middle”, namely two-unit structures, courtyard apartments, bungalow courts, townhouses, multiplex, and live/work units. Greenstreet’s analysis noted a largely homogenous residential housing inventory in Noblesville with regards to the styles and costs of housing units in recently approved residential developments, and warned of the dangers that arise from such development patterns, also citing differences between the City’s available housing stock and the current market demands of the young professional/millennial generation and the future demands of empty nesters.

A review of developments recently approved in Noblesville determined that the City will have an abundance of “low-density suburban” housing units in its future housing stock, a development pattern that has created an inventory of housing units that contrast the City’s current and future market demands.

The analysis included suggestions for both short- and long-term solutions that would improve Noblesville’s housing inventory by requiring future developments to provide a more diverse range of housing types without reducing the architectural standards that have historically yielded housing units with high aesthetic appeal. The implementation of these suggestions, Greenstreet contended, would be best achieved through revised development standards that would be openly communicated to prospective developers and upheld during the Common Council’s consideration of future residential development requests.      

Residential Market Analysis
Residential Market Analysis