Bloomington, Indiana

College towns are dominated by student populations and their schools have several common characteristics that are ideal for the right kind of person(often a family). The towns are typically beautiful(great architecture), have big sports energy during the school year, dynamic cafe/bar/restaurant scenes, outsized cultural offerings via school programs, and often have great public school systems that the education culture drives. Bloomington has all of this and so families tend to love it.

While there is stuff to do in Bloomington it is remote and small and if you're not into the campus life it can get very quiet. A lot of professors commute from outside the city or even Indianapolis(a little over an hour) so they get a bigger social/cultural scene at home. If you don’t want a nightlife built for college kids you’re going to find it snoozy. For families, it works great. For young professionals ready to move past the college pub scene it may not be your best choice.

Bloomington is generally considered a cool, liberal town. There are pretty diverse eats here that serve the college kids all sorts of pretty cheap interesting fare. As noted there are some cultural opportunities with downtown housing theaters, live music, and other performing arts. Those are also available to locals at I.U. The town though is pretty divided between those at school and families who take advantage of the relatively affordable real estate, great family amenities, and excellent public schools. This is Main Street America, in a more rural sense in all its glory and so expect that kind of lifestyle.

To see what locals get up to for fun in Bloomington check out the calendar of events.

We highly recommend visiting Bloomington and staying in the community in a VRBO rather than a hotel to get a feel for living among the locals. You can receive discounted fares on travel via our partnership with Expedia as well.

Move to Bloomington if you have a job at IU or you’re going to work remotely. You can commute to Indianapolis where the job market is significantly better but it’s a long one and far better to live in Indy if you work there. The school hasn’t driven much local startup industry so unlike other college towns that have tech incubators or venture opportunities that’s not really happening here.