Best & Worse Cities in the Metro Detroit area (Warren: condo, broker)

[Blue Grass Fever]

Originally Posted by zthatzmanz28

Jealousy will get you everything. One walmart and everything goes to hell. Aren't most of the drugs contained to the SW and NW corners?
Don't forget the Taylor Hunting Club...

And we left INKSTER and ROMULUS off the list? Suppose the LANDING STRIP elevated Romulus to elite status?

Ah yes! How could I forget Romulus?! A quasi mix of rural and suburban living with the constant screaming of airplanes overhead. In due time, you won't even hear the airplanes nor will the sky turds from the aero lavs bother you; just think of it as free fertilizer for your lawn/garden.

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Originally Posted by Blue Grass Fever

Ah yes! How could I forget Romulus?! A quasi mix of rural and suburban living with the constant screaming of airplanes overhead. In due time, you won't even hear the airplanes nor will the sky turds from the aero lavs bother you; just think of it as free fertilizer for your lawn/garden.

I think Redford is a bottom 5 contender as well. You're doing something wrong if you have the lowest median home prices in the COUNTRY - and they're still dropping.

[Blue Grass Fever]

Originally Posted by Arthur Digby Sellers

I think Redford is a bottom 5 contender as well. You're doing something wrong if you have the lowest median home prices in the COUNTRY - and they're still dropping.

Believe if or not, I have never graced the city-limits of Redford....

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Originally Posted by Blue Grass Fever

Believe if or not, I have never graced the city-limits of Redford....

Consider yourself lucky. It used to be a decent blue-collar 'burb, but started going to hell in the late 90s.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by Blue Grass Fever

Ah yes! How could I forget Romulus?! A quasi mix of rural and suburban living with the constant screaming of airplanes overhead. In due time, you won't even hear the airplanes nor will the sky turds from the aero lavs bother you; just think of it as free fertilizer for your lawn/garden.

You are forgetting the prime Romulan feature - stripper bars.


Actually there are some areas near the airport that are pretty nice, however I am not sure where Romulus ends. Go south on Middlebelt from Eureka and it s reasonably nice in most directions.

[RLAL]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Hey what about us?

(The people of the nicer downriver communities jumping around and waving their arms wildly for attention).


Dearborn is not full of "arabs" Get your prejudice straight. Some parts of Dearborn are populated by middle eatern people, only a portion of whom are arabs. I would not say the city is "Full" of middle eastern people, but there are a lot of them there. The Henry Ford is just the start of what Dearborn has to offer. There are two colleges, an orchastra, one of the few remaining community theater groups (and a very good one at that), a nice golf course, some decent parks, loads of awesome middle eastern resturuants and at least one fabulous bakery (no, not "arab" resturuants, middle eastern), the Henry ford Estate, fairlane mall, oh and the home of that little company that makes cars with a blue oval on the front.

Where is Rochester Hills historic? I have seen nothing but endless McMansion clusters and strip malls. It is a pretty area nothwithstanding the McMansion blight, but historic? Where? What historic properties have not been ploughed under for subdivisions and strip malls. I am missing something. PLease let me know where the historic area is. I do not douby you, I just have never seen it or heard mention of a historic distric in RH. I want to go see it.

Rochester is historic and a very quaint old fasioned downtown.

Got me on another one. Farmington Hills has a downtown? Where is it? I do not think I have ever seen it. Maybe I went there and failed to realize that it was a downtown, or that it was farmington hills.

Farminton has a downtown. Is that what you meant? You did nto mention Farmington, only Hills. They are two seperate Cities.

Funny distinction. West Bloomfield has "a large Jewish population" but Dearborn is "full of arabs" Why doesn't Dearborn have a "large middle eastern population" or West bloomfield "full of Jews"?

You forgot to mention the really cool magic store in downtown sterling heights. In fact forgot to mention that Sterling Heights has a downtown.


Umm- what about the nicest towns in Detroit Metro? Where did they go? (Grosse Ile, Northville, Plymouth). What happened to Walled Lake, Milford, Brighton, South Lyon, Canton, Salem, Dixborough, Novi, Livonia . . . ). Most of those places would top a list of nicer towns in Detroit Metro above many of the towns listed.

Troy? Where did Troy go?

As for Detroit, you are missing a great deal. Downtown and Midtown are now really cool places for hip young creative types to live. Corktown is up and coming. Eastern Market area is also getting popular. Additional nice residential areas in Detroit include: Universtiy, Woodbridge, North Rosedale Park, the marina whatever it is called. Probably some others.

It is neat what you are trying to do, but maybe better not to exclude all areas not known to you as bad places. Also some of the slanted representations or compelte misreprentations are going to annoy a lot of people and not be helpful to a potential newcomer. Please do not say there are only two or three nice areas of Detroit when you really have no idea. Maybe do some research or at least visit some of the areas before you tell potentially thousands of people incorrect or incomplete information. At a minimum let them know that your knowlege of many of the areas is very limited and this is as much as you know and there may be other areas or other information about an area that you really do not know anything about.

If you are intersted, it is really fun to visit different areas and learn about each place extensively. Spend a couple of weekends in any given city. Find random pleople who live there and ask them what it is like and what neat things are there. Talk with shop owners and resturuant owners, They often have the real lowdown on a community and will gladly tell you all about it combined with amusing local gossip. Once you learn about the cool stuff, go see it. Take everyones comments with a grain of salt. There are alwys lots of negative nellies, people who are unhappy with their lives and want to blame their city, county, state or nation for their unhappiness. You may also encounter postivie patties - people who see everything and everywhere are wonderful. "See that nice man cleaning my car for me? He had to break the window to get in, I guess he really wanted to help me with my messy car. " You have to balance everything, but eventually you learn how to discern jaded opinions vs. real information.

Your list is an intersting perspective and gave me some information that I did not know (for example I know absolutely nothing about Warren even though it is one of the largest cities in Michigan. I thought it was a bad place. Now I will go check it out.) I love the description of the Pointes as being East Coast like. That is a good observation. I think I will steal that.

My husband and I will be moving down this way in about a year. Maybe sooner to rent prior to buying.
On our criteria list are the following: Decent commute to Detroit, nice, updated home (not necessary newer), GOOD-GREAT schools, close sprawling downtown with great shops and restaurants at our finger tips, family parks and activites for our family and a nice "night life" for the parents to entertain once a month If you were my real estate agent, where would you put us?

[Coldjensens]

Tough mix to find.

What is a "sprawling" downtown? Many of the nicer burbs have no downtown, unless you include strip malls and shopping malls as a downtown. That is what sprawl brings.

What is a decent commute? To me it is within an hour, but closer is better.

For night life, you will probably have to leave your nice town and go to Royal Oak, Detroit or Ann Arbor.


I woudl look at the following towns:

Plymouth. - Nice little city. Very near Ann arbor. Just under an hour to Detroit. Some really nice older but frequently updated homes.

Grosse Pointe (and its sister cities). Older suburban living. Once the home of the old wealth families. Great schools (if Grosse Point south). Each city has its own park exclusive to city residents. Many of the homes are updated. Many dont need it. Minutes from Detroit.

Northville/ Super cute old fashioned little town. Popular and expensive. homes within walking distance of Downtown come up only occasionally. Really great schools. Some really neat parks in town and big parks just outside of town.


Brimingham. Top Notch schools. all kinds of housing. Decent mid sized downtown. Somewhat new wealth/pretentious.


Rochester. Super cool little town with great bars and restaurants (but not a lot of them). Quaint/older atmophsere. Nearby Rochester Hills is almost all newer subdivision homes. Some great schools. Commute to Detroit can eb nasty.


I always plug Grosse Ile because I think it is the best place to raise a family in SE Michigan. While it is extremely nice and a schools are superb, there is not much of a downtown. It is more like living in a park. Nearby Wyandotte has a small downtown with some life to it.

[Balmoral]

Originally Posted by SO-CAL MOM

I just want to say thank you for your post, it really helped me. My husband may be getting a job at the new Veteran Hospital in Detroit. We are coming from southern California I having been looking up cities/ communities that are family freindly, we have 2 boys (5,8). I was looking for a community with good elementry schools, sport programs, activities for us to do, friendly people to make new friends for us/ boys, easy communte to down town, housing , every day shoppong ( grocciers, target etc..) My husband and myself are in our early 30's not very big on night life more family freindly thingds to do. I am an ultrasound tech is there alot of imaging centers and/or hospitals in any of these communties for jobs? Which one on these communties are better for communiting to down town Detroit I prefer not to be no more then 40mins out including traffic/snow? I am so over driving to work that takes me any where of 45- 1hr 15mins just because of traffic. Does any of these communties have planned housing (track homes) or are the house spread out and custom? Please help me !!!!!!!

Almost similar situation. I may have an opportunity to work in Detroit and my fiance accepted a position in Flint. From the map, geographically it appears we can live in Brighton or Birmingham/Royal Oak area. Are there any pros and cons? Moving from NYC but realistic about the geographic differences. We were initially thinking about gates communities/apartments with set car ports/garages.

[ram2]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Plymouth. - Nice little city. Very near Ann arbor. Just under an hour to Detroit.

More like 30 minutes - M14 to I-96.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by ram2

More like 30 minutes - M14 to I-96.

Yes if you live on the 14 and work at the I 96 exit, drive pretty fast and have no traffic or weather.

For my brother, who lives in Downtown Plymouth and worked in the Barden building (Near Comerica Field), door to door was about 45-50 minutes. He is very economical though and refuses to drive like a BOH because it wastes gas.