Safe affordable area around Dearborn (Detroit, Flint: apartments, foreclosure, rent)

[hcarpe02]

I am starting my clinicals in September at Oakwood hospital in Dearborn. I don't know much about the area, but I know it is pretty close to Detroit and that makes me a little nervous. Right now I live in Flint but would like to move closer to Dearborn, I am a single 23 year old female with no children, and I am not sure if I will have a roomate yet or not. I am on a budget, living off of student loans right now so I need to keep the rent under $700 a month.. If anyone can tell me of some cities that i would be relatively safe in I would appreciate it a lot! Thanks.

[cardwellave]

Rent under $700 is going to be HARD. The communities I would look at are Allen Park, some parts of West Dearborn, and south Dearborn Heights. Honestly for $700, you may want to look in Melvindale. It's a little run down, but I wouldn't call it dangerous. Don't worry about the proximity to Detroit. Detroit is far enough away, and as long as you aren't within the city limits you're fine. Though I would avoid anything Lincoln Park around Outer Drive and Fort Street, Detroit has seeped across that border.

[ranman469]

best areas IMO are west of m39. very safe i still own a home there. but the budget might get stretched.

[hcarpe02]

Is Garden City an ok area to live? I have a friend going to the Garden City Hospital for clinicals and I thought about rooming with her.

[cardwellave]

I live about 4 blocks from Garden City in Dearborn Heights. I may be a bit skewed, but I am a huge fan of Garden City. It is really a city on the rise, the downtown area is getting better and better, and we are in close proximity to Westland Mall, Downtown Detroit, and pretty much everything in the metro area.

I have talked at length about it many times, but here is the thread with a lottt of talk from me about GC. It starts around post #18 on this page.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/michi...-living-2.html

My grandpa works at GC Hospital by the way. It is a good place, not the GREATEST medical care, it is osteopathic, but they are good employers. I live pretty close to the hospital, so we could be neighbors. :P

Garden City has very well maintained homes, in my experience even in times of foreclosure, nicer than those in Dearborn Heights, and a handful of great historic sites like the Honeymoon Home of Henry Ford, the first K-Mart ever, first Little Caesars ever, and the first sit-down McDonalds in Michigan. The flavor is more blue collar, but it is a pretty well maintained and very friendly community. Next month we are becoming a nation Main Street community, and will be using the ideals of that program to bring our downtown area up even further. There is so much progress there in the past 10 years and I am very excited to see how we can grow up to be the next Ferndale or Royal Oak, as the infrastructure of the city is all there, we just need the right mix of things to make it happen.

Any questions feel free to ask.

[detshen]

I'm not sure if I'm missing something but why couldn't she just rent a small apartment in Dearborn? There are plenty of apartments under $700 listed on Craigslist. There are places closer to Oakwood.

[cardwellave]

I took a quick look and didn't see a HUGE amount under 700. The few I saw were mainly flats, some of them not in bad areas, some of them in bad areas. Nothing really close to Oakwood that I saw.

For reference, probably 10-15 minutes from Garden City to Oakwood.

[hcarpe02]

Thanks for looking for me, I figured Garden City would be about 15 mins from Oakwood. I think I can handle that, it is a lot better than the drive I would have if I stayed in Flint.

[cardwellave]

Ha yep that it is.

I was born at Oakwood and live in Garden City, so it's not far at all.

[detshen]

Dearborn has a lot of apartment buildings, I think you could get a studio or 1 bedroom not far from Oakwood. I didn't mean they would necessarily be listed on Craigslist, but that just gives an idea. I can't remember what streets but I remember pointing out some nice older buildings that had character to my BF and they would probably be under $700 for a one bedroom. I find all of Dearborn safe enough, but I live in Detroit so my tolerance may be higher than most. Dearborn has great services, parks and that huge recreation and arts center is awesome, I would love to have access to that. Garden city is nice too, it seems like it's more houses though.