July 2025 Indianapolis Rental Market & Economic Update
Welcome back to the Red Door Property Management monthly update. This July 2025 report highlights critical economic insights, development updates, and rental market shifts across the Indianapolis metro area. From rising accidental landlords to new suburban projects, investors need to stay ahead of trends shaping rental demand and opportunities.
Accidental Landlords Creating New Rental Supply
One of the most significant national and local developments is the rise of reluctant landlords—homeowners who can’t sell and are turning to rentals instead. With the traditional summer sales season winding down, many sellers are shifting to leasing, especially those with low 3-4% mortgage rates who can still cash flow in today’s market. This trend increases available rental inventory and creates new competition for investors.
If you’re struggling to sell, remember: renting is a strong alternative. Whether it’s a $200,000 single-family home or an executive-level property, Indianapolis has rental demand at every price point. In fact, luxury homes valued at $700,000+ are successfully renting for $5,000–$10,000/month due to limited supply.
For expert guidance on converting your property into a profitable rental, explore our Indianapolis property management services.
Carmel Redevelopment: A Long-Term Play
The City of Carmel is investing heavily in redevelopment of the Home Place area, aiming to create a vibrant, walkable community similar to Midtown Carmel. While Carmel is often priced out of most rental investors’ budgets, Home Place presents a unique opportunity for appreciation over the next 5–10 years.
Investors should note: Carmel has instituted rental caps. If you plan to purchase in this area, act quickly and ensure you file the necessary paperwork to stay compliant. Choosing an experienced property manager is essential to avoid costly mistakes.
Indiana Inventory Trends
According to the Indiana Association of Realtors, statewide housing inventory has nearly doubled since 2020. While days on market are rising, home values continue appreciating. This shift creates more negotiating power for buyers and signals that now may be the best time to acquire investment properties. As interest rates eventually fall, demand will surge again, driving values higher.
Starter homes under $250,000 are experiencing slower sales due to affordability challenges. Many first-time buyers are delaying purchases and choosing to rent instead—positive news for landlords and investors in the Indianapolis rental market.
Suburban Growth & Development Updates
- Noblesville: The new $93 million Arena at Innovation Mile—home to the Noblesville Boom basketball team—anchors a 600-acre mixed-use project projected to generate $2 billion over 30 years. This expansion will attract jobs, businesses, and housing demand. Learn more about Noblesville property management.
- Brownsburg: Plans for major enhancements at Lincolnwood Park, including a new amphitheater and recreational facilities, signal community investment designed to boost quality of life and attract families. This aligns with Brownsburg’s rapid residential and commercial growth.
Key Takeaways for Investors
- Accidental landlords are increasing rental supply, but strong demand continues across all property classes.
- Carmel’s Home Place redevelopment offers long-term upside, but investors must stay aware of rental cap ordinances.
- Statewide inventory growth gives buyers leverage, making now a strategic time to acquire rentals.
- Suburban projects in Noblesville and Brownsburg are fueling long-term rental demand.
If you’re ready to explore opportunities in the Indianapolis rental market, visit our Indianapolis homes for rent page or connect with our property management experts.
Transcript Here
00:00 Podcast Introduction & Overview
Hey real estate investors. That's right. This is the Red Door Property Management podcast. We're about to get kicked off here. My name is Chris Knight. I'm the business development manager here with Red Door Property Management. As everyone knows, I'm joined here with Mike Taylor, the owner, broker of Red Door Property Management. Mike, how's it going?
Really good. Chris, how you doing?
I'm doing good. I'm doing pretty good. Uh, I don't have any books or anything new to mention. It's taken me a long time to get through the last one. So, if you don't know what I'm reading, maybe you should check out the other podcast from last month and I'm sure you're you'll be highly interested in all that great content. But, uh, aside from that, we've got some great segments here, some super valuable information as we jump into what's happening in the July numbers. So, midsummer numbers that are going to impact your uh real estate decisions, your investment uh uh decisions going forward. So, be sure to stay tuned to our uh market reports segment.
Uh next, we're going to get into our economic updates, but what's most important is I've got a little little bit of a tease segment we're going to throw in where we get into a lot of property manager and investor insights on the tail end of this podcast. So, we're going to talk some of the numbers, you know, some percentages of where people are investings investing, what's happening uh percentage-wise nationally. We're going to get into what are some of the headaches of uh of major investors that have expanded their portfolios and and even those one-offs, those um reluctant landlords as we call them. So, uh stay tuned for that on the tail end of this podcast, and I'm I'm confident you're going to be fascinated with some of the information that we're going to get out.
Uh as we as we get to that portion of the podcast. But uh until then, we're going to talk more about some of the boring stuff here. Let's get into the economic updates. I know Mike has those prepared for us. So, let's jump in.
01:58 National Trends – Rise of Accidental Landlords
Yeah, I got a couple uh a couple national and a couple local. Uh so, maybe we'll start with the the national and I just got a couple articles I was going to talk about. Let me let me share the screen here real quick. All right. Uh give me a second here.So, and actually two of them um are really related, but uh this one is from CNBC. So, you know, totally national, but this is institutional landlords see new competition from unexpected source. So, this is talking about like you kind of just teased Chris is the um entry of or I would say re-entry of the what we call accidental landlord or reluctant landlord, however you want to say it. It's people who maybe try to sell their house but can't sell their house and then so they opt to uh rent it instead. Uh I mean we think it's a good strategy especially if you have you know one of those three or four or 5% interest rates. Uh but this is definitely uh affecting the market here uh both locally and nationally. And I think that this is going to be a trend that we're going to see for the next little bit is uh you know more competition, more rentals, more reluctant landlords um entering the market and then therefore just a little bit more uh a little bit more inventory.
So just something to keep a keep an eye on. Uh again a reason to tune in to this podcast to make sure you're up to date with well how many homes are on the market, what's the days on the market, like be very reactive to the market. But um so anyway, I for me this is like a a two-point thing because it's like okay well one be aware of it that that that these people are coming into the market and then two you know we Chris you probably know better than anybody but we get a lot of these calls from people who can't sell the can't sell their home. I mean, it's August and so the real estate sales market is winding down. We've passed the peak of it. And so, you know, if you couldn't sell your house, this is a realistic option for some people to look at is to potentially turn their home into a rental instead of instead of selling it out.
Listen, I I I think you're sugar coating it a little bit little bit more than I normally would. Uh the thing is, look, if if anyone who's viewed these these podcasts know that me and Mike have a little bit of a thing going on about what's happening in the sales markets and what's going to happen with real estate prices, uh kind of in the in the micro um economic view here. And without a doubt, we're seeing more, at least in my opinion, that I have been closer to accurate on this where overwhelmingly so the news reports are are coming out that people are struggling to sell their homes. And just like you alluded to a moment ago, yes, I'm having those conversations every single day.
So, a couple things that I want to mention here and make sure make the transcript. If you're having trouble selling your home, what do you do? Well, you don't have to assign your mortgage, which I have seen a couple people even locally, they're just assigning over their their rates, their their 4% interest rate, their 3% interest rate in order to get out of their house. You don't have to resort to that. There are other alternatives. Reach out to us. Reach out to a property management company or if you're if you're not even local to Indiana, reach out to a property manager and and look at other solutions. You can possibly rent your property, especially if you have one of those lower interest rates. You're almost certain to be able to cash flow in today's market.
So, yes, there are a lot more of these that are going to be hitting the market and you do need to be aware of them. You'll need to make rent adjustments accordingly based on the supply that's going to be hitting the market. But most importantly, if you're one of these people that are trying to sell your property and can't do so, there are there are other options available to you.
06:00 Executive & High-End Rentals
Chris, I do want to mention uh one thing and actually the another article I'm going to mention ties into this, but um I think a lot of people when they're like, you know, asking themselves that question, you know, should I sell or should I rent my home? Um I think that sometimes people think, you know, I shouldn't turn a higher-end home into a rental. Uh, you know, it it doesn't always have to be this this house right here, you know, $150,000 house. Uh, you can successfully, and we do all day, every day, successfully rent homes for 2, three, four, 5,000.Actually, I don't know if if they've signed on yet, but Chris, you were just working with like a million dollar house that I think we're going to rent for 10,000 a month. So, I mean, it's it's there. Those people also need places to rent. Whether it's people coming in from out of town, relocating here, you can rent a home for 2, three, four, $5,000 a month. We do it all day, every day.
Yeah. Another another really good point. I mean, and that's that's at the uh extreme end of the spectrum there, of course. Yeah. There are even people that uh that have what what they would consider executive type properties, but the one you're referring to, yes, that was that is what we here at Red Door would consider an executive type property. It's $1.8 million home. It's going to rent for 10 grand a month. Yes. Uh there is a market for those. So if your home Yeah. If if you're if you're not even close to the 1.8 million type I mean there are people that where their homes are valued at 700,000 and they wonder oh there's no market for for my type of property.
Yes. Yes. There absolutely is. Yeah. So yeah that's that's a great capture, Mike. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean there's and I don't want to go too long on this because it's that that's not what most people are are are doing but there is a there is a market for that for sure. And the the reason is because not a lot of people do that. So, it's it's always a good news, bad news situation where there's uh there's not like there's not a lot of comps to look at and there's not a lot of inventory and there's not a ton of renters, but the guess what? There's not a lot of inventory. And so, you know, you pop a house up for five grand a month, there's only a handful of those available in the city at any given time. So, there's definitely a market for it.
Anyway, let's let's move on. I don't want to dwell on that that too too much, but uh that is definitely a a thing.
07:48 BiggerPockets Report on Accidental Landlords
And then the other one actually is actually kind of a a repeat of this. Is just echoing it. Um, let me see if uh oh, I'm not sharing this tab here. Hold on. Uh, share this tab instead. So, this is BiggerPockets. I know a lot of our viewers also um uh read and scroll BiggerPockets, but this is how the rise of the accidental landlords has transformed the housing market. So, this is and this is just from 3 days ago, but they're changing the supply and this is this is being talked about. This is a real thing.So, I don't think we need to dwell on this, but you know, this is this is happening. It's going to happen. Is going to continue to happen as the market softens here as we get into fall and uh winter definitely just seasonality and then it looks like the overall trend is more inventory, more days on the market. So I think this is just something that everybody needs to be aware about. So, I don't think we need to dwell on this too too much, but just a little ex exclamation point on the first article that hey, this is happening. This is coming. This is a this is a thing. Be aware of it and participate in it if if you want to. If you can't sell your home, this is a real thing.
Very good point. Yeah, of course. Uh, a lot of our clients even come from BiggerPockets. Uh, so it's it's a great uh re we've been a great resource for all investors that do participate in the BiggerPockets program. And yeah, even it doesn't surprise me that they're catching on to this as well and and they're reporting on it as well. Accidental landlords, how they're changing the rental supply and supply is obviously going to change demand and prices. Yes, this is all going to be a factor. This is this is great. Good stuff.
09:16 Carmel Redevelopment & Home Place Opportunity
Yeah. So, it's not all bad news. I've actually got some some good news here. Let me let me let me uh let me skip to this one here. I talked about this I think last month, but man, I am just so convinced of this. So, this is uh this is Carmel again. Okay, so this is Home Place. So Carmel Plan Commission reviews US31 subplan area. I don't love to talk about like plans and like you know because there's so many things that are submitted and then never go through. But I am telling you Carmel they when they do things they do it right. They spend a lot of money on it. They put a lot of thought and effort into it. And so I am just firmly convinced that this is going this whole area it's called Home Place. Used to be called Home Place is going to be transformed over the next 5 to 10 years.If you're not if you're not familiar with Home Place, we don't normally talk about Carmel because Carmel typically is, you know, for investors usually it prices out investors. It honestly just doesn't make sense to purchase a home in Carmel for the most part. Um because prices are usually just a little bit too high. Um the exception to that is Home Place. Um so Home Place is kind of like in the southern portion of Carmel. They annexed it I don't even know how many years ago. Um but so it's Carmel, has Carmel schools. That's really the most important thing. It's got Carmel schools, Carmel services, all that kind of stuff. But it's been honestly the one part of Carmel that's been kind of I don’t know if I would say neglected, but definitely not gentrified.
And they are on like on the precipice of gentrifying this. And so it's going to change and and I this is you know a long-term play of course but if you've got a 5 to 10 year time horizon I think this is a great opportunity to purchase in Carmel to see some really really good appreciation because it looks like they're going to dump a ton of money into here that's going to kind of just continue that like Midtown Carmel is what it seems like they want to make it like this walkable they you know a walkable human scaled environment that balances residential edges with vibrant mixed communities or vibrant mixed use. So, it's kind of just more of what's going on in downtown Carmel, in Midtown Carmel. I think it's just going to go all the way down there and it's really exciting. It'd be a great time to purchase something down there for a long-term play.
11:26 Carmel Rental Caps & Property Management Oversight
Now, listen, you can't talk about Carmel without and Fishers, right, without talking about the rental cap that's that's been, right? So, we we should at least disclose that there has been a rental cap that has been passed by local ordinances. Uh so if you're going to purchase in Carmel, you better do it quick and you better file. Uh and these are the discussions I'm having with everybody who who calls me who has got a property in these areas.In fact, there was one listed with another property manager. Uh this is kind of kind of good. So I'm going to mention this. So that was listed with another property manager and he's reaching out. The property has remained vacant. They're not giving him uh proper updates or suggestions on what to do, reduce the rent, whatever it may be in order to produce an applicant. Now, one of the one of the first things I said, before we get into all that, are you aware of the ordinances that's that's been instituted in Carmel?
No. No. I What do you mean? Well, have you filed the necessary paperwork in order to get your permit?
No, I haven't done that. I wasn’t even aware.And this is somebody that was with another property management company. So, talk about when you're hiring a property management company and if if let's say they're offering 8%, but here at Red Door, we're offering 9%. Well, you want to save that percentage. The cost that it can have on you because if he didn't know about it and let's say it, you know, he never filed, he could end up in a much different situation than he ever intended because of that.
So, he wouldn't be able to as a rental.
Exactly. Exactly. You think you're saving yourself a percentage point. Boy, you're costing yourself so much so much more. But anyway, so I thought that was interesting. So, uh, rental caps, they are a real thing here in the Carmel in Fishers area. So, be aware of it.
Yep. Cool.12:58 Indiana Statewide Inventory & Market Conditions
All right. Uh, last one is I'm actually going to pull up I I got an email. So, I I can't see on a website anywhere. So, I'm going to pull up just this email and just share this with you if you don't mind, Chris. Let me Here we go.Okay. So, this is the email I get from the Indiana Association of Realtors. So, this is now statewide data. Okay. So, just for what it's worth, just know that this is not local Indy. This is statewide, but it's Indiana. Okay. So, a couple things I wanted to point out here is that inventory. We've been talking about this for a little bit here. It's been we've seen it creeping up. We've seen it affect days on the market. Um, but this is statewide inventory. And this is a great graph that I thought really illustrates. This is uh you can see down here, this is 2020. Are you seeing my screen, Chris?
I am. Yeah.
Okay. So, this light blue line, this is like 2020. This is when the market was nuts. Okay. And you can see, I mean, the lowest point was in December. We had what 8,000 homes on the market in uh December and we are at 2025 here. We've almost doubled that.
So inventory is has been slowly creeping up. I mean again this was nutso time, you know what I mean? Like you put a house up for sale and it would go in a day no matter what condition or whatever. So it was crazy crazy times. But um this is just a really interesting graph to show where we where we are with things. And I don't know it's interesting. So inventory is definitely definitely creeping up. It is a real thing. Um, we've been talking about it here for several months.
Yeah.
Um, but this is a graph that just kind of confirms it really.
Yeah. No, I mean it's it's a wave that I have felt here on the ground for some time. Uh, and yeah, that's that's a really telling graph. So, just so the viewer knows, these are not rental listings, these are sales listings.Yeah. Thanks, Chris. Thanks for clarifying.
Yeah. Yeah. that are on the market. So they have nearly doubled. Uh which in my knowledge of of economics uh with supply uh over over supply prices will will come down to some degree. Now that also leads me to a point that maybe now is a perfect time to buy because as those do start to correct a little bit, it's only a matter of time before the Fed does reduce the interest rate, right? And that's going to spark everything. Uh all these all these uh millennials that haven't been able to purchase because of the current prices. Well, all that's going to change as soon as those interest rates start to tick down, which then is going to send prices even higher than I think that they are today. So, honestly, today is probably the time to be looking at buying. You're probably not going to have more negotiating power than you do right at this moment. Uh then so now is the time to jump in, negotiate a price, make a purchase, and let's talk about getting that house on the market.Well, two things uh to add to that, Chris. So, I mean, just to your point, just to uh I guess emphasize, I mean, it's right here. But with inventory still limited by pre-2020, price appreciation is still positive. So, even though we have doubled the inventory, appreciation is still happening. So that's why I think you and I, you know, kind of joke around about it, but like the bottom's not falling out. The prices are still going up. Inventory is going up. Days on the market are going up. Yes. But prices are still going up. And so it's it's a great time to buy.
And let me just share this next thing with you and then we can move on to to the question of the week. But um one thing that I thought was really great news for our investors was um down here just a little bit: starter home slowdown. Okay. So this is um cooling demand for first-time or moderate income home buyers. Uh this is homes under 250. So those are sitting on the market even longer. Why? Because first-time home buyers are opting to rent instead of purchase. And I I I don't know what it is. I I think it's 38 is the average um age of the person who purchases a a home nowadays. I think it used to be like 28. Now it's 38.
So that's that's great news for investors. I mean, so we keep talking about, okay, increased inventory, but you know what? There's also coming with that increased demand because people are delaying buying a home because of prices, because of interest rates, because of all of the things, the economic conditions. So, uh, that's why I say at the beginning, it's not all doom and gloom. There there is increased demand and so it's there is good news out there, and it is still a good time to purchase an investment home.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Yeah. Yeah.
17:16 Regional Developments – Noblesville & Brownsburg
And I I know we were going to jump on uh over to something else, but there are a couple other uh economic things that are happening that I just want to read some blips on just so people are aware what's happening in other areas. Man, that is some really good stuff, Mike. Um that you brought. Let me see. I'm going to swap back over to our double screen here and I'm just going to read some of these highlights uh because there are other areas that we work in and some some of these areas kind of get neglected on some of these market updates and I just want to show them some love. Uh so here we go.So Noblesville, what's going on in Noblesville? And just like what Mike was alluding to during the uh the information he was providing on Carmel. So these town centers are becoming like this major thing in all these all these big cities, right? Fishers has done has been very successful at driving because because Carmel didn't have one. Carmel residents are coming to Fishers to enjoy their their town centers and and McCordsville's got the same thing happening here which man it seemed like it was dragging on and it's finally catching fire. Uh there's so much. Yeah, it's it's a lot of fun.
Uh so anyway, we're going to talk about Noblesville here first. So Noblesville, I don't know if you've heard about the Innovation Mile and Arena that they have there for the basketball team.
No seen any.
Yeah, now they have a basketball team there in Noblesville. So Noblesville has just opened up the arena at Innovation Mile. It's a $93 million facility that will serve as the home of the Noblesville Boom Basketball Team.So this the one right off of the 69.
Yes. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this is part of the larger 600 acre Innovation Mile project. So it's a 600 acre innovation mile project which is expected to generate $2 billion in revenue over the next 30 years. The development is a major economic driver for Noblesville boosting local employment and attracting more businesses to the area of course. So and I'll remind you that there's currently no ordinance uh going up in Noblesville. Codes, great school systems, an absolutely wonderful area to look at if you're a new investor looking to purchase property as an investment. Noblesville is is killer awesome.It is. You know what? I drove by that. It was like maybe a month ago and I I had never heard of it. I didn't know what it was. It looked like it looks very similar to that um the Fishers one where the hockey team plays and the and the uh Indy Ignite the volleyball team plays. I assume it's something similar.
Yeah. Yeah. It looks almost just like that. And by the way, that place is awesome. Love it.
Yeah. Yeah. Me and Coven go there occasionally for hockey games and man, it's really really cool.
I have not been there. I want to I want to go to a volleyball game and it looks really cool. I can't wait to go.
Yeah, it's freaking awesome. It's freaking cool.All right, I'm going to get I got a couple more here. Um let's uh let's see. I'm going to skip that one. We talk about uh Brownsburg. Uh this is one that we don't talk about a whole lot. Uh just a short one here. So Brownsburg is considering a major enhancement of Lincolnwood Park, including an amphitheater, new recreational facilities. This project is aimed at improving quality of life and attracting more families to the area reflecting Brownsburg's growth, which there is a tremendous amount of growth going on in Brownsburg. And it almost goes back again to a town center that I think Brownsburg is slowly starting to I think that's pretty much what they have in mind here. So, they want to bring people to this town center area and expand businesses uh once once they have some infrastructure in place.
So, um let's see. I think we've covered a lot of Indianapolis. Um, tons of investment going on in the Indianapolis metro area. Health care sector jobs continue to grow. Um, several uh several sectors uh and new companies announcing expansions. Yeah, I think that's uh that's going to do it. So, I just wanted to give Noblesville, Brownsburg, some of these outlying areas a little bit of attention.
Okay, I think that's going to wrap up our economic reports.
