Fountain Square

Fountain Square is Indianapolis's designated cultural district, about eight minutes from Monument Circle — funky, artsy, and genuinely retro in a way that's authentic rather than curated. Vintage shops, live music venues, walkable streets, and direct access to the Indianapolis Cultural Trail define the day-to-day feel here. It draws young professionals and artists for the scene, but it's also got longtime multi-generational families who've been here for decades — it's less a "young professional neighborhood" than a genuinely mixed one that happens to have a great nightlife scene.

Housing here is a mix of shotgun and worker's cottages alongside a growing number of new-build infill and adaptive-reuse lofts near the historic Fountain Square Theatre building, so price points span a wider range than almost anywhere else on this list. It's also one of the more active pockets for renovation and short-term rental activity in the city — which means more competition and tighter margins for investors than the hidden-gem pricing it still sometimes gets credit for.