Housing

There’s no debate that Tippecanoe County is in a severe housing crisis.

How did we get here, and how do we get out?

The Problem.

More than 15% of Greater Lafayette is facing severe housing insecurity. Not enough young people can afford to buy a house, and out-of-state developers are cashing in while our neighbors struggle to afford rent increases.

How did we get here?

The housing crisis is complicated. And while there’s single cause of the crisis, there are several key barriers that are holding us back from making housing accessible and affordable.

  • INCREASED RENT & STAGNANT WAGES

    Friendly, attentive, and always ready to help, our customer service manager ensures every interaction is a positive one. They keep communication clear, timely, and human.

  • SUBURBURBAN SPRAWL

    For decades, new housing developments in Greater Lafayette have spread further into the countryside and away from the city’s urban core. Not only does this destroy farmland and woodlands, but it also costs millions of dollars each year in new infrastructure and maintenance projects. Larger lot sizes (Zone R1 housing) also result in low property tax income per square mile when compared to neiighborhoods with more dense housing.

  • RAPID POPULATION GROWTH

    Annual enrollment at Purdue University has increased by over 18,000 students in the past ten years. And while there are many positives to having so many university students in West Lafayette, there are simply not enough units to house all of these new additions to our community. Now, city leaders and developers are scrambling to build new housing projects to meet the demand and keep out-of-state students from pricing out local residents.

  • SHORT-SIGHTED DEVELOPMENT

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    They set the tone for everything we do.

Tariff-induced price increases on equipment, fertilizer, and other farming equipment are putting a strain on local family-owned farms.

A recent study from NDSU showed that many farmers are facing pass-through rates of 150% to 348% on fertilizers due to new tariffs and market uncertainty under President Trumps’s economic policies.

New data from the American Farm Bureau suggests that the operating cost of soybeans, Indiana’s largest agricultural export, is expected to increase by $20 per acre.

The average farm size in Tippecanoe County is 343 acres, so local soybean farmers can expect to pay over $6,860 more in operation costs in 2026 than they did in 2025.

Not only are soybeans becoming more expensive to produce, but the export market is becoming increasingly unstable under GOP leadership. President Trump’s volatile trade policies with China rocked the soybean market in 2025, and forecasts for 2026 soybean exports show that it will be increasingly difficult to sell US crops to our long-time trade partners.

US Representative Jim Baird has been a long-time supporter of Trump’s tariffs on China, and has even acknowledged that he knows it will hurt farmers in Indiana.

Market projections for 2026 show Indiana’s Net Farm Income to drop significantly in 2026 compared to 2025.