Wanatah, Indiana.
Typical home $284,659 (+4.8% in a year). Michigan City-La Porte, IN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$834 (+126%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,161 +5%
- $271,498$284,659 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $71,453 +34%
- $213,207$284,659 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Wanatah$1,494
- Indiana$1,350
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Wanatah, IN rose 4.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wanatah, LaPorte County, Indiana
Wanatah is a town of 1,009 people in LaPorte County. 89% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 11% are rented. Unemployment in LaPorte County was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in LaPorte County work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Wanatah is a small town where nearly everyone owns the home they live in, and far more households own than rent compared with most places. Typical home values sit at a comfortable level for the region, and fewer residents live below the poverty line than you might expect. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month and highs that stay around freezing, while summers turn warm, with July the warmest.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in restaurants and hotels. Across LaPorte County, some of the largest workplaces are Franciscan Health Michigan City, the LaPorte Community School Corp and Howmet - La Porte Castings. Commutes are fairly long, and only a small share of people work from home.
Things to do. A short drive away are the Brauer Museum of Art and the Indiana Aviation Museum, both worth an afternoon. For more open space, Indiana Dunes National Park is a longer drive away, and it is one of the best known protected shorelines in the region. Taltree Arboretum and Gardens, a botanical garden, is also a longer drive but suits a slow day outdoors.
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- 476households
- 20%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What people in LaPorte County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. LaPorte County had 40,196 jobs in 2025, 1.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 62°. About 34 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Wanatah Wnw weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in LaPorte County
- Franciscan Health Michigan CityGeneral hospital942FTE
- LaPorte Community School CorpSchool district860FTE
- Howmet - La Porte CastingsFoundries, nonferrous metals828
- Michigan City Area SchoolsSchool district716FTE
- La Porte Hospital CompanyGeneral medical and surgical hospitals667
- Hitachi Global Air PowerCompressors, air and gas, general purpose-type, manufacturing649
- Laporte HospitalGeneral hospital574FTE
- Boyd GamingHotel casino570
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 103 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 14,711 people in all across the county; Wanatah has one of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Wanatah’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on LaPorte County and the Michigan City-La Porte, IN metro.
Wanatah home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wanatah$284,659
- Indiana$257,165
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Wanatah6
Zip codes with a Wanatah address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wanatah — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.