Future of the Pointes (Detroit, Birmingham: middle-class, lawyers, new house)

[MiamiHoo]

I was reading an article in the nytimes the other day about the toll the recession is taking on metro Detroit's more affluent areas. While I could care less if something like the Tennis House lives or dies, there is a great deal of fantastic architecture from Detroit's gilded age especially along the Lake and around the Country Club of Detroit. In fact my great aunt lived in a beautiful old house on Lake Shore in Grosse Pointe Shores just down the road from the GPYC.
What do yall think this means for the future of this area. Is it possible for it to survive if the auto industry doesn't? Or is it pretty much destined to become another graveyard of excess?

[MTUCache]

Originally Posted by MiamiHoo

What do yall think this means for the future of this area. Is it possible for it to survive if the auto industry doesn't? Or is it pretty much destined to become another graveyard of excess?

Well, seeing as how most of those beautiful lakefront houses are actually owned by GM execs who work in the Tech Center or the RenCen, yeah, I'd say their future value is most definitely tied in with the auto-makers.

But, because there's such a large area of beatiful homes there, I think it will always be a desirable place to live, regardless of whether the homes are worth $1M or $5M, they'll always have people interested in living there and taking care of them. It's the newer McMansion areas that I'm worrying about, as the middle class starts disappearing and we realize that we just don't need hundreds of thousands of $500k homes anymore because there isn't enough upper-middle-class people left to afford them.

Then again, the same thing could have been said for many of the historic beautiful neighborhoods in Detroit. People buying houses these days generally don't want older houses, no matter how nice they are. They'd prefer a brand-new house that was built on a farmplot.

It'll swing back around eventually as peoples' tastes change. The only question is how many of those places will be kept up well enough until then. You certainly can't do much better for the location, as the river/lake-front properties will always be more desirable.

[Cliffie]

Originally Posted by MTUCache

Well, seeing as how most of those beautiful lakefront houses are actually owned by GM execs who work in the Tech Center or the RenCen, yeah, I'd say their future value is most definitely tied in with the auto-makers.

I'm not so sure about that. The Pointes, especially the Shores and Windmill Point, are infested with doctors, lawyers and university profs. That set isn't going anywhere soon. I wonder if Gladys Knight still owns that house she built right next to Bill Kennedy's on the lake..

[MIEng]

Originally Posted by Cliffie

I'm not so sure about that. The Pointes, especially the Shores and Windmill Point, are infested with doctors, lawyers and university profs. That set isn't going anywhere soon. I wonder if Gladys Knight still owns that house she built right next to Bill Kennedy's on the lake..

Yes but those doctors and lawyers need clients and if people and companies don't have money anymore to pay them they will have to move out of state.
The 'Pointes' and the 'Hills' are now less affluent than they were 10 years ago, but because of their location I think they will always be desirable.

[Cliffie]

Bankruptcy lawyers' business has gone through the roof in the past 10 years, and if they are smart enough to bill Medicaid the doctors can keep their Detroit Yacht Club memberships, believe me.

[Osito57]

Originally Posted by MIEng

The 'Pointes' and the 'Hills' are now less affluent than they were 10 years ago, but because of their location I think they will always be desirable.

You mean Bloomfield Hills?

There is a TON more wealth in Bloomfield/Bham than in the Pointes.

Nine of the ten wealthiest census tracts in metro Detroit are in the Bloomfield area.

And they are in completely different locations, and don't really have much to do with one another.

The Pointes are very old, and many (most?) people work in Detroit. Bloomfield is much newer and most people work in Oakland County.

The Pointes are mostly just houses. The Bloomfield area has millions of square feet of office, retail, restaurants, etc. Somseret is right there, as is downtown Birmingham, Cranbrook, Woodward corridor, Telegraph corrdior, etc.

[Dexterguy]

Out of state papers love to write about the decline and demise of the Detroit Area. I'm kind of tired of that. Every time you go out of state and tell people you are from Michigan, specifically the Detroit area, they think you live in the slums or something, it's ridiculous! The entire country reads the NY Times and they don't need to read articles like these.

[Cliffie]

Originally Posted by Dexterguy

Out of state papers love to write about the decline and demise of the Detroit Area. I'm kind of tired of that. Every time you go out of state and tell people you are from Michigan, specifically the Detroit area, they think you live in the slums or something, it's ridiculous! The entire country reads the NY Times and they don't need to read articles like these.

You said a mouthful, my friend!