INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – The Red Line has been operational for less than two weeks and is already being used as a marketing tool.

Up and down College Avenue north of 38th Street there are plenty of homes for sale. Homes in the area, according to Kelly Lavengood of Platt Collective, are hot right now.

“The area on College and two blocks in either direction of College from 38th to 66th in Broad Ripple and Meridian-Kessler increased 10-1/2% from 2017 to 2018” said Lavengood.

Homes price for the same period in the area just west of Midtown in the Meridian-Kessler area rose 6%. Redevelopment efforts in the area have contributed to the increase in home prices, but Lavengood says you can’t overlook the impact of the Red Line.

“A lot of people want to be where they can walk to something, but when you can walk to a bus station that is half a block down and hop on and be five or ten minutes from a plethora of restaurants, shops and bars, suddenly you don’t have to be able to walk to something when you can walk to the bus station,” said Lavengood.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Red Line station at the corner of Broad Ripple Avenue and College Avenue was packed with people, many using the bus for the first time.

Dale Petts lives in the Garfield Park area. He is not sold entirely on the Red Line boosting property values.

“Well, everybody is kind of of interested to see how it is going to work out. Coming up here today is kind of of a test ride,” Petts said.

The test may also be in a house Lavengood just listed last week. The dark yellow bungalow is 30 yards from a Red Line station. The seller put it on the market last year and didn’t quite get the traffic he was looking for, according to Lavengood.

“People that are coming to look at these houses are excited about the Red Line,” Lavengood said.