Known as both the “City of Lakes” and the “Orthopedic Capital of the World,” the charming town of Warsaw, Indiana has a lot to offer. The town prides itself on its abundance of outdoor activities and strong job market, providing a peaceful yet active place to call home. D.R. Horton offers a variety of new homes in Warsaw, Indiana, all of which feature spacious, open floorplans and smart home technology, and you’ll have the peace of mind that comes with purchasing new construction.

Why choose Warsaw, Indiana

Warsaw, Indiana, the county seat of Kosciusko County, is home to numerous parks and lakes, allowing residents to easily get outside, whether on foot, by bike, or on a boat. With much of the outdoor recreation revolving around Center Lake, Pike Lake, and Winona Lake, it’s no wonder the town is called the “City of Lakes.” And the town’s peaceful, outdoor-loving, suburban atmosphere doesn’t mean making sacrifices elsewhere, either. Sometimes called a “micropolitan” area, Warsaw also has plenty of shops and restaurants, as well as a slew of major businesses operating out of the town. As the “Orthopedic Capital of the World,” the small town of Warsaw has a strong market in healthcare and manufacturing, allowing many residents to work in the same city where they live.

Warsaw also allows for easy access to nearby cities for work or other activities, like the lakeside town of Winona Lake, Indiana, just two miles away. Larger cities are also within reach, thanks to Warsaw’s location along U.S. 30, State Road 15, and the Lincoln Highway. Fort Wayne, Indiana is about 40 miles away, and South Bend, Indiana is about 50 miles away. Both of these cities also have international airports, making trips out of town simple.

Community life in Warsaw, Indiana

Warsaw offers plenty of events and activities all year long, from concerts to movie nights. The town’s events are typically family-friendly, so you’ll always have something fun to do, whether you’re on your own or need to cater to the kiddos. For example, events in town frequently include family movie nights at one of the parks in the area at dusk as the events’ activities conclude, while some events revolve entirely around the outdoor movie. All ages can attend the festivals in town, too, like the annual Family Carnival at Warsaw’s Central Park in the summer, which has food vendors, photos, bounce houses, artists, games, and more. Warsaw also hosts a Fall Family Fun festival at Lucerne Park by the lake, featuring hayrides, corn mazes, a petting zoo, pig racing, and a variety of fun fall activities. Various holiday celebrations can be found throughout the year, as well. Parades, festivals, fireworks, auto shows, concerts, and movie nights take over the entire county for the 4th of July. For the holiday season, you can walk through Warsaw’s Central Park to see the annual light display. The park lights up with Christmas lights and trees each night in December, creating a peaceful and enchanting wonderland at the park.

If you prefer more upbeat or adult-focused family-friendly entertainment, residents can attend Warsaw’s Summer Concert Series. The concerts occur every Friday evening from May through August–with the exception of special event dates–at the outdoor stages at Warsaw’s Central Park or Lucerne Park. The series draws crowds of hundreds, and the music varies throughout the summer, showcasing everything from community concert bands to country music to classic rock. There are a few special, annual concert events as part of the series: the Rockin’ for Riley Concert and the Country Concert for St. Jude. While the concerts themselves are free, the events help support local hospitals and organizations.

If antique cars are more your style, you can head to Rochester, a little over 25 miles from Warsaw, to check out or participate in the annual Red Hot Car Show and Chili Cook-Off in the fall. This is a major annual event for car, truck, and motorcycle enthusiasts in the area, with the total number of cars reaching over 700. For those who don’t want to drive out to Rochester, there is an annual car show to attend in Warsaw, too–the City of Lakes Car Show–just with a smaller crowd.

Being outdoors, whether at a festival, a car show, or being active, is a big part of life in and around Warsaw, Indiana. Every year in May, which is National Bicycle Month, Warsaw hosts the weekend-long Fat and Skinny Tire Festival, celebrating the fun of cycling, as well as its health benefits. At the festival, you’ll find road and mountain bike races, guided bike tours, instructional demonstrations, live music, food vendors, and other family-friendly activities. The festival is jam-packed with events all weekend long, so whether you’d prefer to watch or take part in Bike-to-Work Day, the opening ceremony party with a mass bike-ride through the streets, a BMX stunt show, BMX races, numerous mountain bike and road bike races, or just hang out with your kids as they have fun decorating their bike, you’re sure to find something to enjoy at the Fat and Skinny Tire Festival.

Love the idea of a bike festival and want to participate multiple times a year? There’s a similar one just a couple miles down the road in Winona Lake, Indiana. The Winona Lake Trail Fest brings the traditional riding season to a close each September with 5K or 10K trail runs, a 12-hour or 6-hour mountain bike race, clinics and scavenger hunts for kids, live music, food vendors, and more. This event is for fun and to encourage people to be active and enjoy the outdoors, but the proceeds also go toward community fundraising. The funds help pay for things like expanding or maintaining trails, building bike parks, and other sites and services for the community.

Winona Lake also offers a quaint weekend getaway or a fun day out very close to home, just two miles from Warsaw. The town is surrounded by Winona Lake, with a channel carved through the center of town where you can dock boats or kayak right along the street. Winona Lake offers plenty of events throughout the year, but a main attraction is simply walking around and enjoying its charm while stopping into the unique shops and restaurants.

Outdoor fun in Warsaw, Indiana

Outdoor activities in Warsaw go far beyond cycling or strolling through town. Outdoor activity is an important part of the area’s values and lifestyle, thanks to the town’s many lakes, rivers, and well-maintained trails and parks. Many of the outdoor spaces revolve around Center Lake and Pike Lake. In addition to fishing and boating opportunities, there are lifeguard-supervised beach spaces, camping grounds, playgrounds, biking and walking trails, and more.

Center Lake has a beach with an accessible boardwalk, beach volleyball nets, a boat ramp, and a self-service kayak and paddleboard rental kiosk. Lifeguards are on duty during the warmer months, allowing for protected swimming in the lake. Center Lake is also surrounded by several parks managed by Warsaw’s Parks Department. If you want another beach option on Center Lake, you can head to Municipal Park, which has a swimming beach and places to cook out. For a wider variety of outdoor activities on Center Lake, Bixler Park, in addition to its lake access and boat launch, offers basketball, pickleball, and tennis courts, as well as gardens, a gazebo, grills, a playground, picnic tables, and outdoor games like cornhole.

There are also plenty of parks and outdoor spaces surrounding Pike Lake. Like Center Lake, Pike Lake has a beach area with a boat ramp and a self-serve kayak and paddleboard kiosk. It is also home to a campground for RVs, campers, and trailers. The lake is stocked with bass and walleye, so you can park your camper and head right out for a day of fishing, or enjoy the many other activities the area around the lake offers. Beyer Park, on Pike Lake and near the campground, is one of the more popular parks in Warsaw for simply enjoying the outdoors. The park features rentable picnic tables and shelters, fishing opportunities, grills, a playground, and plenty of open space to relax by the water. Lucerne Park on Pike Lake has additional options for outdoor activities, with lake access, picnic tables, a playground, exercise equipment, a stone walking or biking trail, and a free, 9-hole disc golf course that travels along the lakeside and through the trees. Lucerne Park also includes large cabin-style shelters and an amphitheater overlooking the lake, which are the site of many community gatherings and are available for rent.

Warsaw also has multiple parks that are separate from the town’s major lakes. The Warsaw Park System’s pride and joy is Central Park, a beautiful park with manicured grass in the center of town. The park’s open green space, sidewalks, and central location provide the perfect place for residents to walk around, lounge, read, toss a ball around, and enjoy being outside. The park also features the Central Park Plaza, which is a long stone walkway with a gazebo, places to sit, and water features, and the Gardens of Central Park, which is a one-third-acre perennial flower garden. This garden is not only beautiful but also a part of Warsaw’s history. It is continually maintained by an endowment plan set up by residents Robert and Roma Maish in the late 90s, who had a strong passion for the outdoors, and the flowers have been tended to over time by various other resident garden lovers.

Numerous other parks cover Warsaw, with some special features like Winona Lake access from Kiwanis Park, the winter sledding hill at Kelly Park, or the leisurely bike trails at Rotary Park. Trails, bike lanes, and sidewalks for walking, jogging, and cycling are equally as prevalent outdoors as the parks and lakes in Warsaw. The town maintains continuous trails from park to park or park to town, like the Center Lake Recreational Trail that runs from Center Lake Plaza to Bixler Park. Warsaw operates a program called Ride and Walk, where they strive to expand, maintain, and inform residents of all the bike routes, greenways, walking trails, and other pathways through Warsaw and the neighboring town of Winona Lake. One popular ride or walk is down the peaceful and lush Beyer Farm Greenway Trail, a mixed trail of asphalt path and 1800 feet of boardwalk which travels along Pike Lake and beyond. The Warsaw and Winona Lake communities have a combined total of approximately six miles of Greenways, three miles of bike lanes, three miles of sidepaths, three miles of signed routes, and 10 miles of mountain bike trails, all of which are continuing to grow. Kosciusko County as a whole boasts a total of nearly 200 miles of bikeways. The Ride and Walk program also provides maps, guides, and recommended trails for walking and biking in the area, helping residents stay safe and find the perfect route for their desired activity, whether heading into the trees or to a shop downtown.

If you want a more high-speed and adventurous biking experience, you can visit the BMX track at Hire Park in Warsaw. The BMX track is open to all skill levels and ages. Beginners, professionals, children, those aged 55 and over, and everyone in between are welcome at the track. Training classes, camps, rider clinics, and more are available through the park, or you can just show up, race, and have a good time. Skaters also have their place in Warsaw at the Mantis Skate Park. The skate park welcomes skateboards, scooters, and inline skates on its ramp system, and a limited number of helmets, skateboards, and scooters can be borrowed for free. The skate park also occasionally hosts events, like skate parties, encouraging the community to get active and have fun.

Even more adventure can be found on skis in the area. Warsaw is home to a competitive water ski show team, the Lake City Skiers, which puts on impressive, free, themed water ski shows at Hidden Lake, a smaller lake in Warsaw. If you’d prefer to strap the skis on yourself, membership for both participants and support members is open to the public. Of course, if you’re more of a snow skiing enthusiast, you can drive about an hour north of Warsaw into Michigan to visit several ski and snowboard areas and resorts.

The Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department continues to expand and improve the town’s parks and trails, dedicating itself to updating playground equipment, adding dog parks, maintaining and extending town trails and walking or biking paths, and more. This means the outdoor lifestyle of Warsaw, Indiana will continue to grow and improve, and residents will never have a shortage of ways to enjoy the fresh air.

Businesses and economics in Warsaw, Indiana

Warsaw, Indiana has an economy built heavily on their strong orthopedic industry, with several orthopedic companies’ headquarters in the town. In fact, Warsaw is home to the first orthopedic device manufacturer, which is now known as DePuy Synthes or DePuy Orthopaedics—a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Over time, DePuy attracted competitors and several orthopedic suppliers to Warsaw, like what is now known as Zimmer Biomet, strengthening the roots of and job opportunities in orthopedics in the town and earning Warsaw the title of the “Orthopedic Capital of the World.”

Kosciusko County, where Warsaw is located, is also a leading hub of commercial agriculture. Some of the top employers in the county, outside of the orthopedic industry, include Maple Leaf Farms, a poultry farm headquartered in Kosciusko County in Leesburg, IN and Polywood, a furniture manufacturer headquartered in Kosciusko County in Syracuse, IN. Many other companies are headquartered in Warsaw, as well, such as Da-Lite, a projection screen company; Dalton Foundry, a foundry that works with casting iron; Explorer Van, a custom van conversion business; and more.

While there are plenty of employment opportunities in Warsaw or the surrounding county, Warsaw is located about 40 miles from Fort Wayne and 50 miles from South Bend, opening the door to even more work sectors. Fort Wayne offers a wide variety of employment opportunities in manufacturing, healthcare, and education, as well as engineering, software development, communications, and finance. Fort Wayne is also home to several universities, like Purdue University Fort Wayne, Indiana Tech, and the University of Saint Francis.

What makes Warsaw, Indiana a great place to live

Warsaw, Indiana has a lot to offer, from its easy commutes to work to its lakeside beauty and commitment to outdoor recreation. Families in Warsaw appreciate the family-friendly nature of the town’s events and activities, from movie nights at the park to family festivals. Working professionals appreciate the area’s “micropolitan” nature, allowing many residents to work in their own town or county without sacrificing the peace and quiet of a suburban area. Retirees enjoy Warsaw’s friendly, close-knit community and the many opportunities to take a boat out on the lake or walk the many trails in the area.

New construction homes in Warsaw, Indiana

With solid employment opportunities, convenient shopping and dining, and an abundance of outdoor activities, Warsaw, Indiana is a great place to call home at any stage in life. D.R. Horton offers a variety of new homes in Warsaw, allowing you to enjoy the peace of this unique suburban area and the peace of mind of settling into a new construction home. Browse our Warsaw, Indiana new home listings online, or contact us today about our Indiana communities.