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I know Detroit is huge, so reading through the threads here has left me a bit confused without knowing the area so would appreciate a bit of "General" advice.
I'm considering applying for work in the Detroit area is my background is Automotive Engineering and of course most of the Auto companies are based there. Ideally I'd like to live somewhere further South as I dislike cold winters but if I were to say get a job with Ford or GM (Which would be Troy, Dearborn, Plymouth etc) can I get details about the following:
Traffic: I'd like to live more rural so is it reasonable to commute from somewhere in the country so to speak to work at any of these places?
Climate: Winters I know are dry and cold, are summers humid? And what temperatures are typically reached?
House prices: As I say, we'd eventually like a homestead with a few acres, is that a reasonable expectation or are house prices high in that area?
Safety/crime: Finally, I know everywhere has it's problems but I've also heard more than a fair share of horror stories from Detroit and surrounding areas. I'd rather not move there at all if it means not feeling safe or having to Fort Knox my home.
Traffic: I'd like to live more rural so is it reasonable to commute from somewhere in the country so to speak to work at any of these places?
Traffic is getting progressively worse. Depending on what passes for "in the country" to you, you can be as close as 20 minutes from Dearborn or as far as 1.5 hours. It really varies.
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Climate: Winters I know are dry and cold, are summers humid? And what temperatures are typically reached?
Hundreds are rare, but summers are definitely humid. Not unbearably so, like in NOLA or Houston, but definitely not L.A.-like, either.
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House prices: As I say, we'd eventually like a homestead with a few acres, is that a reasonable expectation or are house prices high in that area?
A reasonable expectation for...whom? On what budget? Houses with lands do exist, but how are we supposed to know what you can afford?
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Safety/crime: Finally, I know everywhere has it's problems but I've also heard more than a fair share of horror stories from Detroit and surrounding areas. I'd rather not move there at all if it means not feeling safe or having to Fort Knox my home.
There are plenty of areas around Detroit that are very safe; e.g.: South Lyon (a suburban/rural town).
Within the city limits of Detroit, crime is very bad. The metro area as a whole is very safe and comparable to any major metro. Outside of a few notable exceptions such as Redford and Inkster (that you won't be considering anyway) crime is not an issue.
As far as "big" cities go, traffic here is a breeze. The most terrifying thing is that sometimes 696 will be packed full of cars at 3 lengths apart, but still flying down the road at 65-75 mph. Climate is definitely inter-continental. We have all 4 seasons, but the summers are mild and the winters aren't nearly as bad as people make them out to be. In fact I'd consider them to be relatively mild, though still definitely winter. (Disclaimer: I'm from Utah, so my definition of a "mild" winter may be distorted). As other posters have said, crime is pretty isolated here and, Detroit aside, the metro is safer than a typical large metro. I'd say 90% of the cities in Metro Detroit are perfectly safe to go for a walk in late at night, 90% of the City of Detroit is not safe to do that in. Like I said, pick any city other than Detroit - it's probably perfectly safe. If you happen to pick Inkster, Pontiac, Hamtramck, or Highland Park - you'll probably want to pick again.
Traffic: I'd like to live more rural so is it reasonable to commute from somewhere in the country so to speak to work at any of these places?
Yes. To pretty much any of these places. You do not need to go far to get to the country. There are rural areas within an hour of any of those locations.
Traffic depends entirely on where you live and where you are going. The hip areas (North Oakland County, Macomb County) get something like real traffic snarls during parts of the day. Kind of like LA traffic jams only little and cute. I stay out of those areas. There are other places with very little traffic. Yes, it is practical to live in a rural area and commute. Especially outlying areas like Plymouth. Hell, you can commute to Plymouth from Hell, and Hell is mostly farmland.
Climate: Winters I know are dry and cold, are summers humid? And what temperatures are typically reached?
Summers get humid, but usually only for about a month. Temps usually peak in the 80s sometimes 90s. It really varies year to year. Recently we have had both vary pleasant all the way through summers where it never really gets hot, and torment summers where you think Michigan broke off and floated down to North Carolina. Normally it is pleasant at first, miserable for a few weeks, then exquisite. The true difficulties are the lack of sun in the winter and the clouds of mosquitoes in the summer. Late summer/early Fall is exquisite. Late fall is stormy, cold wet and can be pretty miserable. Or it is exquisite, or it is winter, or all of those. Winter is kind of cool at first and for a few months, then it gets old. Winter temps range from about -20 (rarely) to about +60 sometimes in the same week. Typical is in the high 20s to mid 30s, but it jumps all over the place. This morning was 16, but a few days ago I was sweating in a short sleeve shirt. Spring (aka "Mud") starts cool or cold and slowly warms up. It is pleasant and the new life popping out everywhere is really cool and wonderful. Spring tends to be all about mud and flowers. Wear boots.
"House prices: As I say, we'd eventually like a homestead with a few acres, is that a reasonable expectation or are house prices high in that area?"
To me a homestead means a free property that you get just for living on it for a number of years. What do you call high? Compared to Southern California, or New York area, houses on acreage are almost free. We live on an acre of land on the waterfront (Detroit River). It cost $175,000 for the land at the peak (2006). Now maybe $100,000 to $125,000. Plus or minus a little. With our house on it (3900 or 3300 s.f. depending on what you count), it may be worth around $550,000 right now. Cheaper elsewhere. We are in a high end community. My dad has a 2200 s.f. house on three acres in a popular area (Lyon Township). It is rural where he is but McMansion subdivisions are springing up like weeds all over the township. His neighbor who dies recently has 110 acres, I expect that will be a subdivision within 5 years. I would guess his house is worth maybe $400,000 to $500,000.
Acreage means a lot of work. If you have hobbies or like to go away for vacations, you may not want a lot of land. If you like spending your weekends mowing, cutting up fallen trees/branches, rotortilling, hacking at brush, etc, then it is for you. What do you want acreage for? One acre is enough to have chickens, one horse, a couple of huge dogs, a pool, trampoline, archery range, fort in the woods, atlatl field and parking for 12 vehicles. Do you need more? IN the summer, my dad starts cutting the grass at one end of the property and does maybe an hour or two each day. By the time he finishes, it is time to start back at the beginning again.
You can get an older subdivision house on 1/3 or 1/4 acre in some places for $50 - $80K. Once in a while you can find an old farm house on multiple acres for under 300K. However in popular areas, all the farmland is being bought up for subdivisions.
Safety/crime: Finally, I know everywhere has it's problems but I've also heard more than a fair share of horror stories from Detroit and surrounding areas. I'd rather not move there at all if it means not feeling safe or having to Fort Knox my home.
High crime is mostly confined to particular areas and to people involved in selling or buying drugs, sex, or guns. Almost all of the nice suburbs are extremely safe.
Crime depends on where you are. Some suburbs most people do not lock their doors and just leave their keys in their cars so they do not lose the keys. Some suburbs have bars on the windows and metal security doors. It is partially related to how much you pay, partially related to your proximity to Detroit, and partially related to how crowded your community is. Other factors can contribute too. We live on an island. The only way on or off is by one of two bridges both of which have cameras. Our community employs a lot of bored policemen who want to be heros and save the day, but nothing ever happens. They are quite vigilant for an opportunity to show their stuff. Plus being a confined community, no one really comes here unless they live here, work here or are visiting someone. No one just drives through on their way someplace. Also, many of the 10,000 residents have a pretty good idea who lives around them and who does not belong. If they see something odd, driving funny, looking in windows, doing non-islander things - they call the police (or pick up their gun and go check it out themselves). We have no crime to speak of, unless a kid steals a bike or kills a pet guinea pig.
Thanks for posting. I've had some promising leads elsewhere in the last week so will be pursuing those first. I know a homestead is work, I grew up on one! But yes a few acres is all I'd want, nothing huge.
You may want to look into jobs in Flint or Toledo if you're more interested in a farmstead and not looking to climb the career ladder to the executive level. There's plenty of auto-centric production and project manger positions in these two metros, and it's much easier to get out in to the county, so much so that there are farms in the city limits still. Detroit is only an hour trip if you want to take advantage of cultural amenities, and I think Ohio has lower taxes than Michigan.
I know Detroit is huge, so reading through the threads here has left me a bit confused without knowing the area so would appreciate a bit of "General" advice.
I'm considering applying for work in the Detroit area is my background is Automotive Engineering and of course most of the Auto companies are based there. Ideally I'd like to live somewhere further South as I dislike cold winters but if I were to say get a job with Ford or GM (Which would be Troy, Dearborn, Plymouth etc) can I get details about the following:
Traffic: I'd like to live more rural so is it reasonable to commute from somewhere in the country so to speak to work at any of these places?
Climate: Winters I know are dry and cold, are summers humid? And what temperatures are typically reached?
House prices: As I say, we'd eventually like a homestead with a few acres, is that a reasonable expectation or are house prices high in that area?
Safety/crime: Finally, I know everywhere has it's problems but I've also heard more than a fair share of horror stories from Detroit and surrounding areas. I'd rather not move there at all if it means not feeling safe or having to Fort Knox my home.
Thanks in advance.
There are some rural parts of Northern Macomb County and Downriver Wayne County that aren't a terrible commute to Detroit. I personally wouldn't want to make it as anything more than 15 minutes is cause for complaint, but if you don't mind a bit of a drive (or if you get a job in Warren (GM), Auburn Hills (FCA), or Dearborn(Ford)) rural living is definitely doable as you're maybe a 25-30 minute drive from Romeo, Clarkston, or Grosse Ile, from each respectively. Also, traffic isn't bad. The interstate system here is rather overdeveloped, so congestion really only happens in a few isolated areas. It's nothing like you get is most large metro areas.
Climate here is super mild. People here like to pretend they have the worst weather ever, but this is pretty much par for the course for everyone who doesn't live in Los Angeles. Winters get maybe 2-3 big (6"+) storms all year. A typical January low is going to be +15 with a high around +30, but it'll dip down to 0 once or twice a year. Summers are beautiful. It has been about 75 all week, and our "heat wave" that we had the week prior saw temperatures almost into the 90s. August will get hot and humid for a few days, but it's nothing like you'd experience in most of the Midwest. Truthfully, weather is pretty damn mild for anyone who has lived somewhere that has extreme weather.
House prices, like anywhere, depend on where you want to live. I will say that as far as large metro areas go, Detroit is incredibly cheap. If you want to be in a stable part of the City of Detroit you can get a house for $40,000 still. If a young, vibrant and hip suburb like Ferndale is more your style, you're probably looking at $150,000. A larger family-house in a modestly upscale suburb like Troy will run you $300,000, and if you've got deep pockets and want a manor in Bloomfield Hills you're probably looking at $750,000 or more. For your typical person looking for their first house in a large metro area though, there are few places that beat Detroit as far as price goes.
Safety and crime is again completely dependent on where you are. Overall Metro Detroit has no more crime per capita than other metros with a better reputation like Seattle or Boston. The difference is where most of those places have the crime spread out, here we tend to have it all concentrated within the city. Detroit is a rough city. I love it, but objectively speaking it's rough. The suburbs though.. they're all pretty quaint. An inexpensive, working-class city like Hazel Park or Roseville has fairly low violent crime compared to their counterparts in more expensive metros. Then if you get into middle class or upscale suburbs there is virtually zero violent crime at all and the property crime is pretty minimal. Overall the suburbs are quite safe, now this isn't to say you can't live in or visit the City of Detroit, just respect the environment and be aware of your surroundings.
Hope that helps!
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