South Lyon Schools (Detroit, Livonia, Farmington Hills: condo, crime, buying a house)

[vskp123]

I am considering buying a house in Lyon Township which comes under South Lyon schools and wondering how the schools are. I am Asian and would appreciate if some one could tell how tolerant is the community for foreigners (Asian Indians). Thanks in advance.

[dmetro]

Originally Posted by vskp123

I am considering buying a house in Lyon Township which comes under South Lyon schools and wondering how the schools are. I am Asian and would appreciate if some one could tell how tolerant is the community for foreigners (Asian Indians). Thanks in advance.

The area is upper-middle class, and yes, the schools are good. As far as being Asian, don't worry about it. Almost no one will harbor predjudices against you. Hope I could help.

[vskp123]

Thanks dmetro for the reply. I request others who have any information on South Lyon School could share the +ves and -ves. There is new South Lyon East High School opened for the school year 2007 -2008. How is this school? And wondering why this district has two high schools when compared to the adjacent Novi of the same size school population still has only one high school. Please shed some light on this school district information for me.

[maja]

I no longer live in the area, but from what I recall, South Lyon has a bit of a "small town" rural or blue collar feel to it; somewhat charming but a bit limited. You might be better off in Novi or better yet, Farmington Hills. Really depends on what you want. I do think Farmington Hills schools have a good reputation and the area is quite diverse.

[smbriley23]

Originally Posted by vskp123

Thanks dmetro for the reply. I request others who have any information on South Lyon School could share the +ves and -ves. There is new South Lyon East High School opened for the school year 2007 -2008. How is this school? And wondering why this district has two high schools when compared to the adjacent Novi of the same size school population still has only one high school. Please shed some light on this school district information for me.

vskp123 - i have been researching this area extensively, along with farmington, west bloomfield, grosse pointe areas, plymouth, saline, and a few others near A2. It is close to A2, Detroit metro areas and points up north and west. I can't speak to the racial issues directly, but proximity to A2, higher income and houseing costs, good schools, high education levels, low unemployment and growing population and employment base speak well to an area's future health. I am going to check it out closely in person next month when in Detroit area on vacation. its at the top of my list so far.

good luck!

[Coldjensens]

South Lyon East is a beautiful school building. The school district draws from a large surrounding area (South Lyon, New Hudson, Lyon Twp, part of Green Oak Twp, Salem, part of Northville twp, etc). South Lyon is a nice place especially for rural living. It was a quaint small town, but now it is a bit strip malled to be quaint. Still, people know each other and often have lengthy chats in the grocery store.

I would avoid Novi. It is nothing but shopping malls and strip malls with no real downtown at all. Do take a look at Northvlle, and at Milford, especially if you can find something adjacent to Kensington Metro Park. New Hudson is a tiny village that is very close to the freeway, is close to Kensington metropark, has a great bike bath that runs to south Lyon and is in the South Lyon school district.

I knew some Asian people when I lived in South Lyon and they had no trouble that I know of. It was pretty blue collar and conservative then, but it has become very popular and upscale recently. Now it is more upper middle class. There are some beautiful places to live there and lots of lakes and large ponds.

Plymouth is really neat downtown.

Good Luck

[Dexterguy]

Novi is a beautiful City with older update homes and new develorments in the west part of the city. Yes it has twelve oaks many many strip malls, but it's neighborhoods are beautiful. One of the newest and most beautiful developments in Novi is The Island Lake of Novi community. It has a wonderful lake, It has large estates, from more single family homes to condo's over looking the water. DO NOT take Novi off of your list!

[Coldjensens]

Everyone likes something different. I cannot stand subdivisions full of poorly built, cookie cutter houses with fake architectural elements and which are mostly the same. Building quality has been on a steady decline since the 1960s. Many new houses are designed to last no more than 30 years. Modern lumber is terrible and gets worse every year. Modern building techniques focus exclusively on cheap, fast, momentary curb appeal, and loads of fancy features rather than on quality, architectural style and balance, and utility. That is not the fault of builders and designers, that is the fault of buyers. They design and build what people will buy.

I insist on real lakes, streams and ponds. Man made ponds (usually named lakes) are too much like having a plastic Christmas tree. What really kills me is when they name subdivisions after the natural features that they removed to build the subdivision. They will fill in a creek, run it underground in concrete pipes, and then name the subdivision "Frog Creek" in honor of the frogs displaced when the creek was filled in. Or they cut down a hundred or so Maple trees, create an empty field full of houses and call it "Maple Forest Estates" That seems utterly bizzarre. One development in California was called coyote canyon or something like that after they filed in the canyon to build homes and then killed and/or drove off the coyotes becuase they were killing people's cats and toy poodles.

Most of all I despise strip malls and shopping malls. I like old fashioned downtowns, older homes (meaning 1800-1930s) or at least individual homes (custom built) and neighborhoods with loads of charm and houses oriented to the front yard rather than designed for privacy and back yard orientation. Other people like big fields of homes with matching lawns and driveways and small or few trees. In California, some people like to live in places where everyone had to have the same color curtains, garbage cans, exterior paint, etc; and they had laws regulating how long a garage door could be left open, how old a car could be if it was parked outside, how long a car can be parked in your driveway without moving, and many more regulations and limitations. Many people found that appealing. I would live in Del Ray before I would live somewhere like that. It just depends on personal preferences. I would never consider Novi, Livonia, Taylor, most of Farmington or any other community made up of endless subdivisions and strip/shopping malls. A city or town must have a downtown to appeal to me and the fewer subdivisions, the better.

The neatest thing about Novi is its name. It was stage coach stop number six (thus No. VI). They have pretty good schools and if modern style subdivisions are your thing it may be ideal. If shopping malls, strip malls and traffic are your thing, then it is almost perfect!


Sorry I drifted off this thread. Maybe I should start a new one.

[jpillera]

Yes, this is biased as I live in South Lyon. But if you're considering buying a house here, go for it. This is a very nice area! Schools are great - and IMHO - you'll have little to no "tolerance" problems either.

People move here and stay for life. I see it all the time. I don't know what the official crime stats are, but from my personal experience they've got to be favorable.

[Muzi2]

I have lived in S. Lyon all my life .... 53 years. South Lyon schools STINK!