Might be moving to Detroit- Nice small towns within commuting distance? (Ann Arbor: car insurance, condos)

[rwocmo]

I might be moving to Detroit next year. What does it have in the way of nice, smaller, not-too-expensive towns within commuting distance? It seems to me that the west-northwest suburbs (Farmington Hills, Plymouth, etc.) are mentioned on other sites. Any ideas? No Grosse Pointes, please. Pretentious I don't care for.

[DaniellaG]

Where is your work or school going to be located? How much do you want to spend on a place? What is your age and is it just you or a family? I think it depends on those factors where you may like. Both Plymouth and Farmington Hills are nice areas along with Royal Oak,Troy,and I don't hear mentioned but a small town feel is Keego Harbor. They have older homes but it is a near lakes if you like boating and is connected almost to West Bloomfield but not as pretentious at all.

[Coldjensens]

What qualifies as a small town and inexpensive depends on where you are moving from. What is a reasonable commute depends on where you are going and where you are from. When I lived near L.A. anything under 1.5 hours was a decent commute. Other people find anything over 20 minutes intolerable.

Michigan is all about nice small towns. Ann Arbor is surounded by them.

Look at Plymouth, Dexter, Chelsea, Saline, Tecumseh, Northville, South Lyon, Salem Villiage, New Hudson, Milford and Fenton. All are nice small towns with good schools and very little snobbery.

Farmington has a neat downtown and Framington hills is close enough that you could claim Farmington as your town while living in a nicer place. However netierh are really small town, they are the middle of suburbia. Franklin is pretty neat, but a bit pricy. You might like northern Livonia.

Further East, Dundee is an ok small town. Grosse Ile is a small community it does not really rate the title "town" Monroe is a neat small city. Kind of Blue Collar, but really a great place. Wyandotte is a really neat little city with some great bargains (but poor schools). Again great for people without kids.

Some of the ritzy areas have nice quaint downtowns Birmingham, Rochester, etc.

Royal Oak is a really neat and fun place for 20-30 y.o. people. Not the best place for someone with kids. It is nto a small town atmosphere, more urbanish.

I have never seen Keego Harbor, I will have to go take a look at it.

[rwocmo]

Good questions- I don't know why I didn't ask those first. Work would be in downtown Detroit. We're in our late 40's, kids are gone, but we're pretty active as far as outdoor stuff. A 30-45 minute commute would be nice. Anything under $250K?

[charleee]

Where will you be working? Yes the west side is nice but just depends. What is your age and do you have children?

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by rwocmo

Good questions- I don't know why I didn't ask those first. Work would be in downtown Detroit. We're in our late 40's, kids are gone, but we're pretty active as far as outdoor stuff. A 30-45 minute commute would be nice. Anything under $250K?

Within that distance, you will want to look at Royal Oak (younger crowd, but a neat place). More of a City. Farmington Hills (nice suburbia). Northern Livonia (older suburbia). Wyandotte (cool artsy small downtown on the river). Grosse Ile (Island Community). Maybe parts of Dearborn. I think you said no to Grosse Pointe, but you may wany to look anyway. A lot of people there are not snobs. You could look at Brimingham, but I think that you will be hard pressed to find much under $250,000 and it is known for being snobby and pretentious, although there are still some nice people there. If you like shopping, look at Troy. They have the nicest mall that I have seen anywhere in the country.

I might be forgetting some other places. I can add them later if I think of them. Do not let someone tell you that Northville, Plymouth, Novi, South Lyon, West Bloomfield etc are within 45 minutes. Maybe on a crystal clear day with dry roads, no traffic and a Corvette.

You can find nice houses for two people for under $250,000 almost anywhere, except maybe high end communities in Oakland County like Birmingham. You may have limited choices in Grosse Pointe.

You may want to choose a community with bad schools. Otherwise you pay for good schools in your taxes all for nothing. Wyandotte might be an execellent choice for you. Do you like rowing by chance?

If you want to live in a rural area, look out by Willow Metropark. If you live near the park, you have lots of outdoor opportunities.

Also you might consider living in Downtown Detroit. The downtown area is pretty neat and there are a lot of really great condos and some truely amazing small homes available. You get taxed to death, but you do not need your car much so you will have some savings as a trade off (higher car insurance with a Detroit address though).

Personally I htink that Grosse Ile is your best option, but then I usually think that for anyone who can afford to live there. Loads of outdoor opportunities. However you do pay for the top notch schools in your property taxes.

[Coldjensens]

If you extend your commute to an hour, you add back in some really nice small towns. (Notrhville, Plymouth, South Lyon, Milford, (Novi the shopping mecca if you like shopping), West Bloomfield, Maybe even Rochester.

[DaniellaG]

If you like outdoors I would look in Birmingham,Northville,and parts of Royal Oak. All have cute downtown areas to walk and be active at. West Bloomfield is nice but I have lived and grew up in this area and it is very snoby in my opinion. I will never get used to it nor do I like it but my family is here so what can you do.I was also going to mention Ann Arbor and though I think it is more like 40 min I think it is a cute area.

[Coldjensens]

Ann Arbor is over 1 hour from downtown. Plymouth is an hour.

The debate about Brimingham seems to be endless. One gorup seems to think it is the snobbiest place on earth. The other seems to think it is nothing but wonderful. You might want to spend some time there and make your own decision.

We eliminated Grosse Pointe when we were making the same decision in part becuase people told us it is snobby. It is not. It woudl have been a very nice option for us. There is an element of snobby there, but the general atmosphere is friendly.

[slamont61]

I'm partial to the Lake St Clair Area, which would be New Baltimore or perhaps if you want to get farther out, Algonac.

In the North area of Detroit, I kind of prefer Utica and Shelby Township. It's still within striking distance of town and is a nice sort of area. Lots of new development in Shelby and also some older stuff in Utica.

I like to stay that far out of town at the least.