Most of what is written about Lebanon now is about what is arriving on its edge. This note is about the town itself, because a family moving here in 2027 will live in the town, not the announcement.
A courthouse town
Lebanon was platted in 1830 and named the seat of Boone County in 1832. The original plan was nineteen blocks around a square, and the square is still the center of the city. The courthouse on it, built between 1909 and 1911 in granite and Bedford limestone, carries eight columns at its north and south entrances that were said at the time to be the largest one-piece limestone columns in the world, each more than 35 feet tall and weighing close to 30 tons. They still are believed to be. It is the kind of building a county puts up when it expects to be there a long time.
Who lives in Lebanon?
| Population, 2025 estimate | 17,913 | |
|---|---|---|
| Growth since 2020 Census | +6.9% | |
| Median household income | $65,154 | |
| Median value, owner-occupied homes | $195,600 | |
| Owner-occupied | 69.5% | |
| Residents 65 and over | 16.9% |
U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts; American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates.
Lebanon has grown 6.9 percent since the 2020 Census, faster than the state, and it has done so while remaining a town where seven in ten homes are owner-occupied and one resident in six is over 65. Median household income is $65,154, close to the Indiana figure. This is a place people stay.
The most attainable market on the corridor
The median owner-occupied home in Lebanon is valued at $195,600, below the Indiana median of $218,200. In Center Township, the July 2026 median sale price was $285,000, with 18 days from list to under contract and sellers receiving 95.5 percent of asking. The year-over-year figure was down 14.3 percent, and it is worth reading carefully: only 59 homes were listed on an average day in July, and a market that small moves sharply on a handful of sales. The trend across the year is the better guide than any one month.
What it means
For a buyer, Lebanon is the community on the Indianapolis to Greater Lafayette corridor where a first house, a larger house or a house with land is most within reach, in a county seat with a real downtown, 25 minutes from the north side of Indianapolis. For a seller, it is a market with a small inventory and a large, dated source of new demand, which is a favorable combination when the timing is handled well. The note on the Lebanon campus covers the housing math behind that demand.
Sources: City of Lebanon, History; Boone County Courthouse, Indiana Historical Society and National Register listing; U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Lebanon city, Indiana, and American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates; Indiana Association of REALTORS Housing Hub, Center Township, July 2026. All read at source, 2026.