Thinking of moving to Detroit area (Wyandotte: wedding, schools, live)

[cardwellave]

Housing prices are very low. There are some downright incredible 4-5 bedroom 1500-2000 square foot homes on Emmons Boulevard, one of the nicest streets in Wyandotte for sale around $120,000-$150,000. There are some very nice newer condo/brownstones on Biddle Ave and Van Alstyne Blvd near Oak St that have great views of Bishop Park and the Detroit River. One of them was for sale on the river side for $160,000. A smaller 2 or three bedroom house could be far under $100,000, especially with the deals you can get now. Wyandotte to me has all the good things about Royal Oak and Birmingham, but far less pretentious. It's not AS populous along the main street, but is still very walkable. If you live near Biddle Ave you should be able to walk to a lot of shops, and regular businesses. The yards are usually smaller because of the older homes and traditional layout of the city.

There are some nice quaint businesses on Biddle Ave (W. Jefferson Ave), including a Sander's Ice Cream Parlor, a great little Italian place called Gregorio's across from the hospital. The real older park of the downtown is from about Oak St to Eureka Ave (Eureka Rd). [Wyandotte renames W. Jefferson as Biddle, Eureka Rd as Eureka Ave, and Northline Rd as Ford Ave]. There are some more main stream businesses on Eureka Ave, and a lot of great restaurants and stores in Southgate, along the western border of Wyandotte. The whole city is about 3 miles north to south and 1 and a half wide. I have always thought it felt very close knit along Jefferson and throughout the community, yet totally connected to the metro area along Fort Street and the like. Like you can escape to this great little town, but be right there amongst everything. There are a number of quaint grocery stores and bars on Oak Street and Ford Ave, and have a very old neighborhood kind of feel. The homes are sort of Detroitish, but kept up very nicely. Lots of charm.

Wyandotte is bordered by Ecorse to the north (which looks ugly kind of fast once you cross into it, but the border area is not bad at all), Southgate and Lincoln Park to the west, Riverview to the south, and the Detroit river to the east.

I couldn't really find any pictures but here are some Google Street Views to explore:

Biddle ave and maple st wyandotte - Google Maps

van alstyne blvd and chestnut st - Google Maps

520 emmons blvd wyandotte mi - Google Maps

van alstyne and sycamore - Google Maps

[HockeyFan]

Wyandotte sounds very nice -- at least compared to SoCal, those prices are unbelieveable! To be honest... so low, they make me nervous... LOL! What is the crime rate like in the area? Although it does not impact us directly (other than resale), how are the schools?

Also... what about places near or on Lake St. Clair? Looking at houses in Harrison, Mount Clemens, Belvidere Bay, Chesterfield Township... there is actually lakefront property in the range of $200 per square foot -- and those were built since 2000. And if you go just off the water, there's some real deals.

I'm sure it isn't a walkable community in the urban sense.. but the lake must provide some nice walkable areas? Also, is there any drawback to this location? For allergies, living on a large lake is a dream come true!

How far (in driving time) would, say, Wyandotte and Chesterfield Township be from
a) Downtown Detroit
b) Ann Arbor
c) Auburn Hills/Pontiac?

Thanks again everyone!

[cardwellave]

I'd say Wyandotte's home prices are on par with a lot of Wayne and Oakland Counties, and Michigan in general.

City-Data cites Wyandotte's crime index as a 187, compared to a national average of 242.8. For comps, Troy is a 156, Royal Oak is a 185, and Detroit is a 1138.

Commute to downtown if 75 was open would probably be around 15-20 minutes. Ann Arbor would be around 50 minutes (relatively close to 94 though), and time to Auburn Hills would be about 50 minutes also, when 75 is open.

Chesterfield is a little bland to me. Mt. Clemens has a nice dowtown area though. For that area though, I prefer 30 minutes further north to Port Huron.

[Nearborn]

They eat rats in Wyandotte. Muskrats. No kidding.

[cardwellave]

Originally Posted by Nearborn

They eat rats in Wyandotte. Muskrats. No kidding.

Yep it's a Downriver thing.

Wyandotte Journal; Where the Muskrat Is a Delicacy for Lent - New York Times

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by Nearborn

They eat rats in Wyandotte. Muskrats. No kidding.

There is only one resturaunt that has Muskrat (As far as I know), it is Muskrat stew. No one actually eats it except maybe a few really old first generation people from . . . (Poland I think).

Wyantdotte is a nice lively town with quite a few good bars and resturuants. We are particularly fond of Portofinos. Decent food (especially fish) and fantastic views/atmosphere. Usually good service too. (No muskrat at Protofinos - sorry).

[HockeyFan]

Thank you for the answers everyone!

Hmm, muskrats -- one delicacy I have not sampled.

With Google Earth now, you can look at so many areas to get a feel of the layout, the character, the walkability. Looking at Wyandotte and Mount Clemens, my thought is... how did I miss those types of places when I've visited the Detroit area? I've always enjoyed Michigan -- great people, great hockey fans, a relaxed feel to the place, but I thought I'd miss vibrant downtown-type areas if I lived there. To the casual visitor, these smaller downtowns are not self-evident to find -- but I think those areas would satisfy my desire for walkable areas with character.

The house prices are unreal (low) -- I saw on Zillow that it dates back to 1998 to find the current median price in the Detroit area. Clearly, house prices have not fared well in the past decade, but how do you see things happening in coming years? I'm not necessairly concerned about a loss, as I can not see it dropping much more.. I am more concerned about skyrocketing prices in the next year or two, as the time frame for the move is probably a year away anyway.

Thanks again! Hope everyone gets a chance to watch the Red Wings this weekend... great team they have this year!

[cardwellave]

I wouldn't worry about them "Skyrocketing" since I'm doubtful that they'll ever go up THAT much. Prices here have never been too high. A lot of people are looking for some kind of increase back to normalcy in 5-10 years though. We hope.

[Nearborn]

There is only one resturaunt that has Muskrat (As far as I know), it is Muskrat stew. No one actually eats it except maybe a few really old first generation people from . . . (Poland I think).

I eat it.....Fourth Generation Polish here.......I think there's more than one place that has it.....seasonally. Don't ask me what Muskrat season is....

Wyandotte has lots of good Polish history, gangster history and prohibition history.

[cardwellave]

Wyandotte is still one of the biggest Polish concentrations left in the Metro area.