Where to live near Troy, Michigan :) (Detroit, Sterling Heights: middle-class, transplants, for rent)
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I'm waiting for a work visa, then fingers crossed I will be relocating from the UK to the US to work near Troy.
We're trying to plan ahead as to where we want to live, and despite it not receiving the same "love" online as the likes of Troy, Rochester Hills, Royal Oak etc, from a distance we think we might like Dearborn.
What we're ideally looking for is.
1. a city that's not too small, so over 75k people.
2. Within 45 mins commute of Troy. I guess Dearborn is more or less In that bracket?
3. Is diverse. This is one thing, assuming what I've read online is accurate, is that there's a lot of diversity in Dearborn, that's a big positive for us. My wife is Polish and I hear there's some Polish heritage here?
4. Has reasonable costs of living.
5. Is family orientated, so plenty of things for families to do, decent schools (not looking for the best schools in Michigan) etc.
6. Has a somewhat walkable downtown, and at least some form of public transportation. I know the US is not renowned for this but seems like Dearborn has the Smartbus and Smartflex so feels better connected than most places in Michigan perhaps?
Is Dearborn ticking some of these boxes for anybody who lives there or knows it well, or if not,.can you suggest somewhere that might meet some or all of our requirements please.
1. a city that's not too small, so over 75k people. Dearborn yes. You are eliminating many or most of the nicer towns with this limit.
2. Within 45 mins commute of Troy. I guess Dearborn is more or less In that bracket? Yes. Dozens of cities fit this. Depends on traffic and weather for some cities.
3. Is diverse. This is one thing, assuming what I've read online is accurate, is that there's a lot of diversity in Dearborn, that's a big positive for us. My wife is Polish and I hear there's some Polish heritage here? Not a lot of diversity. Dearborn is overwhelmingly middle eastern/Arabic. S.E. Michigan is pretty segregated. Even within a city like Dearborn, there are certain areas where certain cultures congregate. Dearborn is divided into area that are mostl middle eastern, mostly black, mostly white. The edges of dearborn that touch Detroit are run down and rough. Western and southern dearborn are a bit nicer/wealthier depending on what communities they are connected to. Polish people used to congregate downriver, and in Hamtramack. Hamtramack is more diverse now, and has become mostly middle eastern rather than mostly polish. Catholic churches have been replaced by Mosks and they broadcast the Muslim call to prayer over city loudspeakers (or they used to anyway - that may have stopped, it was a big controversey). Downriver is still pretty polish and slavic, but a lot of people do not know what their family background was. However you can tell by the last names and the food. There is a large polish population all over the detroit metro. Fat Tuesday is known as Paczki day. People still go to Hamtramack to get Paczki's even though Hamatrammack is no longer mostly polish (it was once called "Poletown")
4. Has reasonable costs of living. This is all relative. Cost of living does not vary much in SE Michigan. There is some variance in property tax rates. A lot of nicer communities vote to tax themselves for things that make their community nicer. It is called milliage. This is property tax. So if you do not won a home orother property, then it does not impact you, except tot he extent it is reflected in rent. In general cost of living comes with better schools, safety, and community amenities (like parks or beaches)
5. Is family orientated, so plenty of things for families to do, decent schools (not looking for the best schools in Michigan) etc. Lots to do in Dearborn, but not good schools. Depending on where you are in the city you may end up electing private schools. Things for families to do depend on the family. City lines are irrelevant for this concern anyway. You will bed doing things in other cities as much as in your own city.
6. Has a somewhat walkable downtown, and at least some form of public transportation. I know the US is not renowned for this but seems like Dearborn has the Smartbus and Smartflex so feels better connected than most places in Michigan perhaps? No not a real walkable downtown area in Dearborn. How do you define walkable? Some places have a nice downtown to walk around in with stores and coffee shops. Some places are all chain stores and shops, some have more unique/indepdenant places. Some have forests and fields with walking trails.
Is Dearborn ticking some of these boxes for anybody who lives there or knows it well, or if not,.can you suggest somewhere that might meet some or all of our requirements please
Dearborn is a decent city. It has a lot of cool stuff that other cities do not have. IT is not a place a lot of people would recommend unless you are middle eastern/arabic. That is not because it is awful, but becasue it is simply not one of the many "nice" cities and towns in the area and because it is predominately middle eastern/arabic.
Dearborn has the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield villiage. Also Ford world headquarters. There are two colleges. They have a theater troupe, an orchestra, some great resturuants and bakeries,a terrible shopping mall,
There are a lot of other cities to consider that will hit more of your boxes. Downriver/heavily Polish - Grosse Ile, Trenton, Wyandotte, Woodhaven, Riverview, and Flat rock are all fairly nice with decent to great schools. But all are pushing your 45 minute commute.
Troy is a nice community. IT is mostly soulless suburbia, but it does have great schools and the fanciest shopping mall in Michigan (Somerset collection). No downtown to speak of though so it may not be considered walkable.
The northern suburbs like Troy are ritzier wealthier and typically have better schools. Royal Oak and Southfield have more things to do in their towns and Royal Oak also has the zoo, Ferndale schools arent reputed to be all that great, Royal Oak is pretty good. Troy has great schools. bloomfield Hills and Birmingham both have excellent schools but there are very wealthy areas. Bloomfield hills used to be the richest zip code in the USA. Rochester City is nice and meets many of your wants. Rochester Hills is just high end soulless suburbia, but it touches Rochester. Good schools though.
A lot depends on whether you are looking to rent to buy a home. What other amenities you are looking for, your budget, whether you want to be on/near water,
S.E. Michigan is segregated by culture, race and by wealth. The wealthier communities are the nicer communities and genrally have better schools.
The bus system is pretty worthless. You will need a car. This is the motor city. You might get around in public transportation well in Detroit or Ann Arbor. Not a true mass tranist system, but do-able.
A lot depends on how you want to live. Do you want to live with/like poor people, or do you want to live with/like middle class people, or rich people? Is safey/crime a concern at all? Do you need good freeway acess to go places other than Troy?
Last edited by Coldjensens; 09-12-2023 at 03:57 AM..
Dear Coldjensens, That reply was so well thought out, and detailed, so thank you very much for the time and effort that went into it.
I tell you the worries we have coming from the UK.
We live in a ”posh” area in England but we don't like it as it's soulless, and the schools whilst being excellently rated are full of entitled rich kids. We don't necessarily want to live in a place with the ”best” schools or that's very affluent, we want to live in a place with some diversity, or where there are friendly people.
I definitely don't want to live surrounded by wealthy people, in the UK we are definitely upper middle class, and we live in an area where the people are upper middle class, we were far happier when we lived with working class people (effectively poorer people)!
To answer the other questions and to help you to help us.
1. Initial plan would be to rent for year 1, the if the job and the US is going well, then potentially look to buy.
2. Safety and crime is a concern. We'd love to live in Detroit itself, but we hazard a guess it's just not suitable for a young family due to the crime and safety issues? Would any areas in Detroit proper be suitable or just a resounding don't do it? Corktown looks amazing but guess it's the lack of decent schools nearby that would kill any thought of living there?!
3. Good freeway access would be preferable.
4. Being on or near water is not an issue either way.
5. Budget for renting I've not thought about, I guess we could quite comfortably go to 3k to 4k USD a month, perhaps more, BUT I don't want to spend that just to be in a ”posh” place. Happy to spend less, big flash houses and being surround by wealthy people does nothing for me at all.
6. Other amenities we want to be near are schools, parks, restaurants, gyms, medical centre/hospital, cinema, kids entertainment, ideally some non grocery shopping too etc.
The real big one for us is transport. I really DO understand that Michigan and the Detroit area is all focussed on cars. Let me be clear I will drive, and do drive, and a car will be the first thing I get in the US, BUT whilst my wife will try to learn to drive currently she doesn't.
I will be out at work Monday to Friday so we were hoping to pick a place that has some level of bus service.
The two places you mentioned are Detroit (too dangerous for a family?) And Ann Arbor (probably too much of a commute to Troy and back?). Surely some of the other cities must have SOME bus services?
I've done my homework and found the Smartbus and Smartflex services but this only seems to cover certain areas, but if you were living in those certain areas, and can use these buses, why didn't you mention them as having public transport please?
I'm not expecting a metro, trains, a perfect bus network all in the small cities, but just trying to find somewhere that has something so my wife can at least get around without needing me at home.
I'm sure we can find the right place, but at the minute everybody at work recommends Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham, or because they've got rich people and great schools, and it's not what we're necessarily looking for.
I wouldn't worry so much about population and size.. My first job when I moved to the area was as a delivery driver. Most of the Detroit suburbs all run together.. Half the time I wouldn't know if I was in Royal oak, Clawson, Ferndale, Birmingham etc
And I probably wouldn't pick Dearborn. Its not really a happening place. It kind of gives of a business park vibe... And why not live closer to Troy if you have the choice
Due to politics, there are actually two bus systems - one for Detroit and one for the suburbs. The suburban system is known as Smart https://www.smartbus.org/. It does have some express routes between the suburbs and downtown Detroit, but hardly any other stops. You can transfer between Smart and the Detroit Department of Transit (DDOT) https://ddot.info/, but the two schedules might not synch up too efficiently.
If you look at the SMART Map, notice that the schedules run mostly east/west and mostly locally. You will find a bus commute from Dearborn to Troy almost impossible, unless you transit via Downtown Detroit, which would add much time to your commute. If you're set on using a bus to commute to work in Troy, you'll need to find a place north of Eight Mile Road.
Also note that Troy's southern border is Fifteen Mile Road, aka Maple Road in Oakland County. If your job is east of Livernois Road or north of Sixteen Mile Road, aka Big Beaver Road, then there is no bus service (unless you're headed to the Central Michigan University Troy Center). Even in those three square miles in Troy where there is bus service, be prepared to walk about a half a mile along sidewalks near main roads, probably during the dark during winter months, and definitely through rain, snow, and possibly unplowed and icy sidewalks.
Yes, you're going to need a car. Probably two, after your wife learns to drive.
Uber and Lyft are both available, but can somewhat spendy. I've used these services myself occasionally in Oakland County, and they're actually better than the few taxi rides I've had in places like Boston and San Francisco. I wouldn't use Uber/Lyft for commuting to work, but your wife could avail herself of these services while she learns to drive.
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Where to rent? I recommend renting a house in the Woodward Corridor, from Ferndale up to Birmingham, even though it won't be as diverse as you might like it.
Cities like Ferndale, Royal Oak, Berkley, Clawson, Birmingham have definite downtowns with small local shops. This adds to the sense of community. Bonus points for having actual quality grocery stores within walking distance.
The expensive housing is in Birmingham, Pleasant Ridge, the eastern part of Huntington Woods, and some neighborhoods in Royal Oak. Only Birmingham approaches posh, if I understand what you mean by "posh". Hazel Park, some parts of Ferndale, some parts of Royal Oak are definitely working class.
Birmingham has an excellent school system. Berkley and Huntington Woods have above average schools. Royal Oak and Clawson are average. Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, and Hazel Park have below average schools.
Culturally mixed? Definitely not Birmingham. Not Pleasant Ridge, not Huntington Woods, not Clawson, not Royal Oak. Not Hazel Park, originally known for its Appalachian transplants, now slightly known as a hipster kind of place. Berkley, having a better school system than neighboring Black-majority Southfield, does pull in some students from Southfield, but the diversity isn't really all that much. Ferndale is one of the LGBQT cultural centers of the area, because of this it's probably the most diverse. None of these cities even approach Dearborn or Hamtramck in diversity.
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If none of the above piques your interest, farther afield are Rochester (not Rochester Hills) or Farmington (not Farmington Hills). Both have above average school systems, defined downtowns, good community events. Rochester is very white-bread, Farmington leans very slightly more diverse than Rochester, mostly due to surrounding Farmington Hills being an area with south and east Asian immigrants, mostly medical and IT workers here on work visas.
I really think your family would be happy in a neighborhood in Troy. There are plenty of people of Polish descent in Troy, and there are parks and other recreational facilities there as well. Lots of young families and good schools, too. There is a Polish Market there, and the American Polish Cultural Center is there as well. There are all kinds of people living in Troy! And you will be a lot happier with a shorter commute...which will make the whole family happier. https://www.americanpolishcenter.com
I really think your family would be happy in a neighborhood in Troy. There are plenty of people of Polish descent in Troy, and there are parks and other recreational facilities there as well. Lots of young families and good schools, too. There is a Polish Market there, and the American Polish Cultural Center is there as well. There are all kinds of people living in Troy! And you will be a lot happier with a shorter commute...which will make the whole family happier. https://www.americanpolishcenter.com
Best wishes!
I agree with this. We love the Polish Market! It seems there must be a substantial Polish population in that area with the market and Polish Cultural Center there too. I would stick with Troy.
Interesting that no-one is pointing that person to Macomb county which has a more blue collar background, has reasonable schools, is reasonably safe (obviously varies in the specifics) and also has a strong ethnic incl. Polish-American presence. If someone is looking for a more down to earth place rather than your standard upper middle-class professional suburb, while still having some of the 'perks' of life in a middle class area, that's where I'd look.
Interesting that no-one is pointing that person to Macomb county which has a more blue collar background, has reasonable schools, is reasonably safe (obviously varies in the specifics) and also has a strong ethnic incl. Polish-American presence. If someone is looking for a more down to earth place rather than your standard upper middle-class professional suburb, while still having some of the 'perks' of life in a middle class area, that's where I'd look.
I was thinking Sterling Heights might fit the bill. It's relatively inexpensive, a very easy commute to Troy (particularly on the city's west side), and it's one of the largest cities in the state of Michigan, with over 120k people. The schools are good (not great, but OP is okay with that). And most importantly, there's a big Polish-American population there. Downside is that it's not even remotely walkable, so OP's wife would have to learn how to drive. Anywhere along the 14 Mile, 15 Mile, Dequindre, or Van Dyke corridor is near a bus line, though as other posters have pointed out, they would be limited to traveling to places along that line. Somewhere around 14 and a half and Van Dyke or 14 and a half and Dequindre might be viable, but it would require changing buses in order to go anywhere.
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