Can someone tell me about Macomb County (Detroit, Warren: real estate, apartment complexes)
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Can someone tell me more about Macomb County vs. Oakland and Wayne? I ask because I can't find much information on what it is like overall ex. economically, what it is like to live there, schools etc. All I know is that it most of it's population is based around Sterling Heights, Clinton Township, and Warren etc.
Overall from what I understand is that it used to be mainly a white blue collar county that is known as being one of the home bases of "Reagan Democrats". However, my impression of it is that the whole area has become much more white collar and diverse much like Oakland county over the past 3o years or so.
Am I correct in this assumption? If not could someone fill me in on Macomb,
Macomb is pretty mixed, but there is in fact a huge dose of old-school Detroit blue-collar car culture. In general the incomes are a lot lower than in Oakland, with no really ritzy-schnitzy areas like the Grosse Pointes where your wallet gets fatter whenever you take a deep breath. The schools vary from OK to rough, like anywhere -- it is not noted for its prep schools or the high number of kids going to Ivy League universities from there.
Oakland is more like a Dickens novel, with super-rich people in Auburn Hills right down the block from the pre-homeless community in Pontiac. With that said, Pontiac is starting to gentrify and the whole county is abuzz with energy and plans. There's a lot going on.
Wayne has a little of everything. It has Grosse Pointe, where the ultra-rich hobnob at the yacht club; it has the cratered and frankly deserted areas of Detroit; and it has a whole lot in between, with brainy collegiate areas, professional neighborhoods, art colonies, and urban farming going on, among a lot else.
There's more or less two parts to Macomb County; the Sterling Heights - Warren area and the Gratiot Corridor.
The Gratiot Corridor includes small suburbs like Eastpointe, Roseville, Fraser, Clinton Township and Mt. Clemons. Mt Clemons is basically Macomb County's equivalent to Pontiac of Oakland County. It used to be a major rail town outside of Detroit with Gratiot being the main connection. With a major rail freight route parallel to Gratiot, this made the corridor very favorable for industrial development. Eastpointe, Roseville, and Fraser all pretty much grew during the 1930s to 1950s with blue collar workers. Parts of Clinton Township was developed more recently but the east side of the city is still predominantly working class.
Warren and Sterling Heights grew very differently than the above mentioned suburbs. The older blue collar parts of Warren are along 8 Mile on the southern edge of the city. Basically spillover development from Detroit. But by the middle of the century, the Big 3 started building modernized car factories between Mound and Van Dyke going northward. GM most notably built their tech center in the middle of Warren just north of 696. So really, this brought a mix of white collar and blue collar jobs, though no matter how you slice it, if you worked for the Big 3, you were making money. Warren pretty much exploded in population during the 70s with Sterling Heights not too far behind.
Sterling Heights is a little more affluent because quite a few commuters from Oakland County live in Sterling Heights, most of them going to Troy. Traffic is a horrendous during rush hour and I speak from experience. Everyone's either going south or west and there's a lot of criss-crossing flows depending on where in Sterling Heights you are.
The outlier suburbs are St. Clair Shores and Harrison Township. Those are more or less bedroom communities typically known for their marinas along Lake St. Clair. Surprisingly not as popular suburbs as you would think (at least to me). It's a lot cheaper to get a lakefront home in St. Clair Shores then it probably would be in any suburb and Oakland County. Not really sure why that is.
Oh, and I guess I'll add in a third area: Hall Road Corridor. This would include Shelby Township, Macomb Township, and Chesterfield Township. These are are suburbs that have grown within the last decade. Lots of new McMansions and huge malls/stripmalls. If you go out far enough, you can still find farms still in use but it probably won't be long before they're developed with new subdivisions. For the rest of Macomb County northward, it's rural area and small towns. It's considerably more flat than neighboring Oakland County and there's not really any lakes to speak of.
Last edited by animatedmartian; 08-16-2014 at 06:36 PM..
Oakland: The super rich people are in Bloomfield Hills, not Auburn Hills. Auburn Hills is more middle class than affluent.
Macomb: Also, people don't want to live in St. Clair Shores because it's far away from the more centralized areas of Macomb/Oakland County. It's just easier to live closer to the places where there are things going on - Sterling Heights/Royal Oak/Troy, etc.....
Also, the schools aren't at the same level as the Pointes. Going to the Grosse Pointe schools is a huge selling point for homebuyers, going to the SCS schools isn't that strong of a selling point. Oakland Co. example - Would you rather go to Troy or Madison Heights.....people will pay more for housing in Troy because the schools are amazing. Not so much in Madison Heights.
Yes, Macomb has become more white collar, but it holds tight to its blue-collar roots. Sadly, the KKK still likes to pass out fliers there every once in awhile.
It really depends on the community that you live what kind of diversity you'll find.
Wayne is interesting because there are a lot of wealthy areas, but people aren't super flashy about it like in Oakland County. There are pockets of Canton where you find the McMansions, but I had to really drive out of my way to find those areas. (I'm still learning my way around). Some people have nicer cars, but some people don't. This part of the county operates on a slower pace of life than I'm used to. People around here tend to think you are nutters if you drive like you do in Oakland or Macomb. I feel like I'm on the West side of the state a lot of the time. It drives me nuts because everything is so spread out.
Macomb as in Macomb Township? Or Macomb County in general.
(Disclaimer, I will make some generalities that always will have exceptions to the averages)
Macomb County is and is viewed as a more working-class area than Oakland County to the west.
Much of this is driven by historical development patterns and also due to the strong industrial corridors along Mound Rd, Van Dyke (M-53), Grosbeck (M-97), and Gration (M-3) between 8 Mile (M-102) and M-59/Hall Road.
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The inner-ring suburbs of Warren, Roseville, Eastpointe are primarily 1950s era post-WWII bungalows and ranches on smaller lots. The southern part of these areas tend to get spill-over problems from the City of Detroit, have a declining tax base, and a declining and/or poor school system. Warren, north of I-696 tends to still be holding-up.
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The 2nd-ring cities of Sterling Heights and Clinton Township are generally 1970s-1980s suburbia. Generally a mix-match of colonials, split-levels, ranch style homes on larger sized lots. There are some unique areas of both cities that are near the Clinton River that even have a semi-rural feel. School districts are good, albiet not necessarily top-10 in the state, but still will provide an excellent education for your children (with proper parential involvement).
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The 3rd-ring cites are the more recent sprawling areas. Shelby Township, Macomb Township, and Utica.
Utica was an old original settlement dating back to the 1800s, that became its own community in the early 1900s. It has since been comsumed by the sprawl, but they have some of the oldest housing stock in the county near downtown Utica.
Shelby Township has some pockets of 1970s era houses known as "old Shelby" and there is a lot of areas of the more recent 1990s era sprawl. Shelby Township is essentially now built-out.
Macomb Township is the current hot-spot, as said fastest growing population due to all of the new housing developments. Sprawl was on full speed here in the early 2000s then took a break during the downturn, but now is back on full throttle again.
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Another area are the suburbs that have strong identitfication with Lake St. Clare. This includes St. Clare Shores, Harrison Township, and Chesterfield Township. St. Clare Shores is more of an inner-ring style suburb with smaller lots, but has a commerical strip near the lakefront. Property values here have been holding their own more versus similar housing stock in Roseville and Warren primarily due to proximity to the lake. Harrison Township has a more rural feel as much is sandwiched on a piece of land that is wedged between the Selfridge Air Base, Metro Beach and Lake St. Clare. Larger lots, limited commerical development.
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Overall, the pro's to living in Macomb County are that is is perceived to have less tax burden and is also viewed to be more affordable for comparable housing stock than in Oakland County. You can find the same type of houses in either county, but on average it will be noticably less in Macomb County. Plus, new houses and a excellent school system.
The cons - well as said traffic. M-59/Hall Road is a mess of commerical development and big-boxes, chain restaurants, and all else. The problem is that everything is concentrated along this corridor and the roads north for there were never widened for development. The county has no money to make improvements, so they are stuck with inferior 2 lane roads, and in the far northern reaches of the county they have many bridges/roads over creeks that have been closed due to deterioration.
The other thing is the sprawl - Macomb Township really has no sense of place. It is just a collection of old farmland/orchards that have been turned into disconnected housing developments. No cute/fake/gentified downtown areas, no major sources of employment in the area; its a bedroom community with most commuting to the industrial corridors elsewhere in the county (many GM Tech Center employees, and Chrysler CTC employees live in the area). It is also a hike to downtown Detroit for the entertainment and sporting event (if that is a priority to attend)
Auburn Hills is one of the wealthiest towns in the whole country. Right up there with Bloomie, as you say, and of course Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Shores.
Auburn Hills is one of the wealthiest towns in the whole country. Right up there with Bloomie, as you say, and of course Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Shores.
There's some affluent parts of AH but you're way off at least according to median income. According to the census, AH's median family income (50,400) is pretty much on par with St. Clair Shores (50,928) and Harrison Twp. (50,439) Shelby Township dwarfs it coming in with a median of 63,349.
Obviously, Macomb doesn't have much in the way of old money elite places like Oakland and Wayne have but there's plenty of middle to upper middle class neighborhoods. Places like Clinton Township have everything from shacks to mansions. Chesterfield has its old side and then McMansion as you move north. While the county is hard to explain, many of its communities are even harder to decipher. There's a slew of ethnicities that have flocked to Warren and Sterling Hts leading to a much more diverse place than it was just 10-15 years ago. There's still the old school Reagan Democrats blue collar region but as the county sprawls and changes those stereotypes are going away.
To me, Macomb is somewhat misunderstood by outsiders because most people don't go there. I doubt people from Bloomfield spend any time in the county There's little in the way of unique entertainment districts. It's largely the same chain stores everyone has and there's not a major job corridor with large modern skyscrapers. Most of the white collar jobs in the county have been around for decades. Flashy business centers don't exist much unlike along 75 and 275. Partridge Creek and it's Nordstrom with barking dogs is about as flashy as Macomb gets. Macomb isn't hip and it isn't rich, but that doesn't make it a bad place either. There's a few rough patches but most of the county has good schools and most of the communities are fairly safe with pretty good access to most of the metro area.
Auburn Hills is one of the wealthiest towns in the whole country. Right up there with Bloomie, as you say, and of course Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Shores.
Auburn Hills is below-average for Oakland County. The schools, in particular, are poor.
Really Auburn Hills is like the love child of Pontiac and Rochester Hills.
Auburn Hills is below-average for Oakland County. The schools, in particular, are poor.
Really Auburn Hills is like the love child of Pontiac and Rochester Hills.
Aurburn Hills has some high profile landmarks within the city but is more known for than that is relatively pedestrian residental areas and school district.
What is today the City of Auburn Hills, used to be Pontiac Township - the unincorporated areas that were never annexed by Pontiac.
Chrysler Headquarters & Technical Complex, Oakland University, the Dodge House/Estate, the Palace of Auburn Hills, and Great Lakes Crossing make Auburn Hills a well-known and high profile city in the region.
There is not a lot of high-end real estate in Auburn Hills. Maybe 1-2 big box neighborhoods in the northeast corner that feed into the Rochester school district. Otherwise there are a lot of apartment complexes, a few trailer parks, and some average 1950s era homes in the southern part of the city.
Avondale School District is nowhere near as good as adjacent districts in Rochester, Troy, or Bloomfield Hills.
To me, Macomb is somewhat misunderstood by outsiders because most people don't go there. I doubt people from Bloomfield spend any time in the county There's little in the way of unique entertainment districts. It's largely the same chain stores everyone has and there's not a major job corridor with large modern skyscrapers. Most of the white collar jobs in the county have been around for decades. Flashy business centers don't exist much unlike along 75 and 275. Partridge Creek and it's Nordstrom with barking dogs is about as flashy as Macomb gets. Macomb isn't hip and it isn't rich, but that doesn't make it a bad place either. There's a few rough patches but most of the county has good schools and most of the communities are fairly safe with pretty good access to most of the metro area.
Yeah, Macomb County is different than Oakland. In fact, I tend to think Macomb has more in common with Western Wayne County (the areas west of Detroit) than Oakland. You can really find pretty much all type of things in the county.
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