Detroit Newbie! Are any of these homes in good areas?

[and the]

What's Oil City, PA like?

[cardwellave]

I was just thinking the same thing.

[and the]

I always liked the area of PA about 50 miles north of there, like around Dubois, Clearfield, Punxatawny. Had family from there, plus, Francis "Gabby" Gabreski was from Oil City. Haven't been there yet myself though. Is it a former lumber town, turned coal town, turned oil town? I saw some very nice houses there on realtor.com built around the 1880's like in Dubois. Probably not many jobs though?

[DrStrangelove]

These days, Oil City is a pretty nice town, although I don't think there are many employment opportunities. There's a beautiful bicycle trail nearby along Oil Creek, which was the site of the nation's first oil boom in the latter half of the 19th century. It's hard to believe that area was once a terribly polluted industrial semi-wasteland as it has reverted completely to nature. A few miles away is the town of Franklin, which has a nice but small downtown (it's a small town also, of course) and some old victorian homes - it's more attractive than Oil City. I'd prefer Franklin, but you have to like smaller town living as the closest major city is Pittsburgh, about 2 hrs. away.

[pennylamb]

Ok, the closest I can afford to Grosse Point is in the 14900 block of E State Fair St., which is less than 2 miles from Grosse Point Woods. Is this area a better choice than the others? Some of the houses have security screens on them, but the area seems pretty quiet, other than traffic.

[Doc. T.]

Detroit has great recovery possibilities. Certainly, for a major metro, it has the best home prices in the nation. Prudently, evaluate the neighborhoods, consisder travel time, amenities, taxes, and quality of living (not life) and you should be able to find a quality home. Every success to you.