Decatur County Landlord Guide: Honda Manufacturing, Japanese Investment, and the I-74 Corridor Between Indianapolis and Cincinnati
Decatur County sits in an unusually advantageous geographic position for a rural Indiana county of 26,500 people. It lies directly on Interstate 74 roughly halfway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati — two of the Midwest’s major metropolitan economies — meaning that residents can access big-city employment, entertainment, and services within an hour’s drive in either direction while living at rural Indiana cost levels. That position helped attract Honda Manufacturing of Indiana when it chose Greensburg for its assembly plant in the mid-2000s, and the Honda effect has transformed Decatur County from a standard agricultural county into one of southeastern Indiana’s most economically dynamic smaller communities.
Honda Manufacturing of Indiana
Honda Manufacturing of Indiana opened its Greensburg plant in 2008, producing the Honda Civic in a facility that represents one of the most significant foreign direct investments in Indiana history at that scale. The plant employs approximately 2,500 to 3,000 workers, making it by a considerable margin the largest single private employer in Decatur County and one of the largest in southeastern Indiana. The facility produces Honda Civic and CR-V models for the North American market, contributing to a regional supply chain that stretches across the Midwest.
The plant’s workforce is a mix of Indiana-born production and skilled trades workers and Japanese engineering and management personnel on multi-year assignments from Honda’s Japanese operations. This creates a tenant segment in Greensburg’s rental market that is genuinely unusual for a rural Indiana county: Japanese engineers and managers who need quality rental housing for assignment periods typically running two to four years. These tenants are creditworthy — their compensation packages are substantial and often include housing allowances — but their documentation may not follow standard US formats. Japanese credit histories, employer housing letters from Honda Japan, and bank account statements denominated in yen rather than US dollars are all legitimate documentation for income and creditworthiness verification. Landlords should apply consistent, FHA-compliant screening criteria that accommodate non-US documentation formats without creating de facto barriers for international assignees.
Six Japanese-Owned Supplier Companies
Honda’s presence attracted a cluster of Japanese-owned automotive supplier companies to Decatur County. Greensburg hosts six Japanese-owned manufacturing companies that supply components to the Honda plant — a concentration of Japanese foreign direct investment that is remarkable for a city of 12,000 and has given Greensburg a genuine international character uncommon in rural Indiana. The city has an Indonesian restaurant serving its diverse professional community, Japanese cultural events, and business relationships that span the Pacific.
Each of these supplier companies brings its own complement of Japanese management and engineering personnel on assignment in addition to its Indiana production workforce. The cumulative effect on Greensburg’s rental market is meaningful: a steady flow of international tenants seeking quality housing near the industrial corridor, typically with strong incomes and good tenancy records, provides landlords with a demand stream that is more stable and higher-income than typical rural Indiana markets.
Delta Faucet and the Broader Manufacturing Base
Delta Faucet Company and Valeo Engine Cooling are among Decatur County’s other significant employers, adding to the manufacturing employment base that makes Greensburg a predominantly blue-collar and skilled-trades economy. Delta Faucet, a subsidiary of Masco Corporation and one of the country’s leading faucet manufacturers, provides stable, non-automotive manufacturing employment that diversifies the local economy somewhat from Honda’s automotive cycle exposure.
The combination of automotive, consumer products, and engine components manufacturing means Decatur County’s employment base is more diversified than a purely automotive county. This diversification reduces, though does not eliminate, the risk that a downturn in a single industry sector will significantly disrupt the rental market. Honda’s production cycles do affect workforce levels at the plant and its suppliers, and landlords with significant exposure to Honda workers should be aware that automotive plant shutdowns or production reductions can affect tenant stability.
The Courthouse Tree: Greensburg’s Famous Landmark
No description of Greensburg is complete without the courthouse tree. The Decatur County Courthouse, a National Register of Historic Places structure built between 1850 and 1861 at 150 Courthouse Square, is best known nationally and locally for a mulberry tree that has been growing from the top of its clock tower since the early 1870s. The tree, which takes root in soil accumulated in the tower’s crevices, was noticed around 1870 and has been maintained and replaced as individual trees have died, with a successor tree always planted to continue the tradition. The courthouse has been featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not and draws tourists from across the Midwest who spot the tower on I-74 and stop to see it in person.
For the local rental market, the courthouse tree functions as a piece of genuine civic identity — it gives Greensburg a personality and a landmark that residents are proud of and that distinguishes the city from every other county seat in Indiana. That identity matters modestly for landlord marketing: Greensburg is not a generic rural town but a community with character, international connections, quality schools, and a self-aware appreciation for its own quirks.
Market Conditions and Growth Trajectory
Decatur County is recognized as one of Indiana’s top five fastest-growing rural communities, a designation driven primarily by the economic activity surrounding Honda and its suppliers. Population has grown modestly but consistently since the plant opened. Property values have appreciated at a moderate annual rate of around 4%, reflecting sustained demand without speculative excess. Typical two-bedroom rents run approximately $900 per month — above some comparable rural Indiana markets but meaningfully below Indianapolis suburban rents — reflecting a market where manufacturing wages support rent-paying capacity above what purely agricultural counties can support.
The county’s leadership has identified housing availability as a strategic priority. The demand for quality rental housing from Honda and supplier assignees, combined with production workforce housing needs, has strained Greensburg’s housing inventory. Landlords with well-maintained properties near the industrial corridor or in established Greensburg neighborhoods are operating in a market with genuine demand and limited competing supply — conditions that support occupancy rates and rent sustainability.
Decatur Circuit and Superior Court
All Decatur County evictions are filed in Decatur Circuit Court or Decatur Superior Court, both located in the Decatur County Courthouse at 150 Courthouse Square, Greensburg, IN 47240. The Circuit Court phone is (812) 222-3804 and the Superior Court is (812) 663-8523. Hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 4:00pm. The eviction process follows Indiana’s standard IC 32-31 framework. A 10-day notice to pay or quit must be properly served with no grace period. After 10 days, the landlord files the Eviction complaint, receives a hearing date, and proceeds through the court process. An uncontested eviction from notice through Writ of Assistance typically resolves in 30 to 60 days in Decatur County.
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