What suburb of Detroit would you recommend? (Ann Arbor, Livonia: rent, low crime)

[BUSHDOG14]

I am going to be accepting a job offer in the Detroit area and need to know the best place and area to live please. I am moving from Indianapolis and any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I am married with 2 kids so a family friendly suburb would be nice! Thanks!

[ForStarters]

BUSHDOG, there are really a ton of options and many good places for families. It really depends on where you will be working as Metro Detroit is an enormous geographic area with hundreds of communities/suburbs.

[BUSHDOG14]

Well I hear all kinds of rumors how dangerous the area is that is why I am trying to find out what suburbs are safe! Any recommendations please would help! I do not know any suburbs !

[ForStarters]

Originally Posted by BUSHDOG14

Well I hear all kinds of rumors how dangerous the area is that is why I am trying to find out what suburbs are safe! Any recommendations please would help! I do not know any suburbs !

Well, I suppose just to give you a little background, media stories about Detroit are waaay over-hyped and are usually wild generalizations. Most of the crime is in the city, and in areas most people don't venture regularly. Even then, many neighborhoods in the city are safe to live and visit, at least in my opinion.

Anyways, regarding the suburbs, there are hundreds of cities and townships that comprise Metro Detroit, stretching from Lake Erie to the northern tip of Lake St. Claire, out to Ann Arbor to the west, and all the way up to Clarkston. The vast majority of suburbs are safe, family friendly, and have decent schools, but many differ widely in characteristics. Some are ultra-wealthy, like West Bloomfield and Birmingham. Others are old money, like the Grosse Pointe communities. Some are quaint, like Plymouth and Northville. Others feel more urban, like Dearborn, Ferndale, and Royal Oak. Some even seem rural, like South Lyon, Shelby Township, and Wixom. There's areas with newly constructed "McMansions" and areas with historic Tudors. There are areas that have lots of parks and recreation, others with walkable downtowns, and others that are simple "bedroom communities." There are 5 major expressways running in all directions, usually leading towards downtown Detroit.

So, you see, I'm not trying to pry, but it's pretty tough to suggest anything without knowing at least what area you will be working and what type of housing/community you're looking for.

[Coldjensens]

It depends entirely on where you will work, and what part of the metro you want to be in. We looked at almost every decent city in the area and chose Grosse Ile becasue of its proximity to DTW and other reasons. However there are several cities where we would have been equally pleased to choose. The short list was:

Grosse Ile

Northville

Rochester

Grosse Pointe(s)

Plymouth

Chelsea

Tecumseh

Dexter

Ann Arbor

Dixbourough (little village just outside Ann Arbor)

All are wonderful places with great schools, very low crime strong sense of identity and community, lots of charm and an identifyable and pleasant downtown.

Runners up:

Milford (neat town, mediocre schools and bad accessibility)

Wyandotte (not so good schools, great downtown, better for singles and dinks than families)

Walled Lake. (just not much there. Traffic problems. good schools and a lake.)

Royal Oak (not the best schools, more oriented to 30 somethings, too many bars, intimate clothing stores and the like. Did not seem a good place for families).

Various historic neighborhoods in Detroit (Schools were a considerable problem. No place for kids to hang out and high taxes. Beautiful homes for cheap prices. Lots of neat events)

South Lyon (decent small town that lost most of its quaintness to modernization and uncontrolled growth. Great schools.)

Salem (little village just out side of South Lyon. Not far from Ann Arbor)

Saline (not as charming as other nearby places. kind of far from anything (so are Tecumseh and Chelsea, but they have more to offer to make up for remoteness)

Birmingham. Somewhat pretentious and snobby atmosphere. Too much fake architecture. Too much of what we wanted to get away from (So. Cal. materialism, hedonism, excessive competitiveness - "Hey look at my new Porsche" "Hey look at my newest trophy wife" "Hey look at my $2000 shoes"). Great schools, great housing. Pretty neat downtown. Expensive.

Farmigton Hills (slightly nicer Livonia with hills)

Second Runners up:

Troy, Novi, Canton, Southgate, Woodhaven, Riverview, West Bloomfield, Rochester Hills. Nice enough suburbia with good schools, but bland and soulless. No downtown. Not much sense of identity and community. Traffic.

Livonia. Not quite as nice as other places. Not quite as good of schools. No real downtown or sense of identity. Just kind of a middling place.

Monroe. too far from anything. Mediocre school options. Great housing options.

Brighton, Fenton, Pinkney. Too far out. Not as much to offer in any regard as other options. Not bad places, but not able to make the cut compared to other places.

I may thing of others that made one of the three lists that I am forgetting at present. Maybe this will give you some help in finding a starting point. However your job location is critical. You do not want to live downriver and work in North Oakland County. You do not want to live in South Lyon and work in Wyandotte. I highly suggest that you try to keep your commute to half an hour, forty minutes at the most. Factor in weather and construction. In North Oakland County, factor in traffic.

Every place mentioned is very safe and are places that I would not give a second thought to safety/security other than the normal precautions, except some of the Detroit Neighborhoods, and some parts of Wyandotte, Ann Arbor, and Livonia. Many of the listed places are places where no one bothers to lock their doors or lock their cars. There are some neat places that we discoverd later up in Macomb county mostly. However they would nto have made a list becuase they are too far away from DTW and family (South Lyon, Plymouth, Ypsi), so we never really invesigated them. We also did not look at some of the small lake communities north and NE of walled lake. So for those areas I cannot be much help. Al of the short list communities are absolutely wonderful, it was hard to choose between them. I want to live in all of those places. Each has something unique and special to offer beyond being a safe nice place with very low crime and great schools and a good sense of identity/community.

[ForStarters]

Holy cow CJ, you killed it!

[Coldjensens]

We spent a lot of time choosing a city. About 200 hours at least.

I forgot Trenton. Trenton is a decent middle class town. It has a neat downtown but not much in it. It has a great park and decent schools. It is on the River, but does not have a lot of access (except the park.) Trenton is a great option downriver if you cannot afford Grosse Ile. It was on our runner up list

[RingWalk]

San Francisco

[BUSHDOG14]

That is a big help I don't know about the price limit yet, but probably moderately priced. I would like a newer area with a little bit of land. Would not mind living in the country and commuting to work doesn't bother me a bit that's what mp3 players are for. But thanks I'll look into these areas further

[porchpickup]

I Can tell you about my area and you know your needs best. I live in Royal Oak and I love it so far.

1st, it's close to both I-75 and 696 (within 5-10 min) and 94 and Southfield freeway (15 min?).
The area is relatively safe. I don't know much about the school district, but I haven't heard any horrible things about it.

The Royal Oak downtown area is very vibrant, sometimes too much! :-P So if you are still young and like to go out in the evening, it's location is convenient. As it's close to Troy, Birmingham, and Ferndale as they all have a "night scene," including big Movie theaters.

Rent is all across the spectrum, you can rent as low as $500/month for a 2 bedroom Apt and high as much as $1400 for the same. I almost bought a nice 2.5 Bdrm House close to the Royal Oak downtown area for $90,000. That was in 2008. Most nice 2 bedrooms were around a good $150,000, but it gets very expensive very fast as soon as you enter the nicer streets.

Hope that helps.