[joANDjoe]

My husband just got a job in Milford, MI and we are very interested in any thoughts about Milford and the surrounding area. Where should we live? (commuting up to ½ hour is fine with us.) Should we buy a home? What are the drawbacks to living in the area? What are the perks? We will greatly appreciate any information!

[CoffeeAddict]

Milford is a very nice, quaint little town. There's been some development there in the past few years so you have a Starbucks, two grocery stores, and various other shops right in town.

The actual downtown area is very pretty and they have regular activites going on there. Milford is very safe and an all around nice place to live.

I think the only draw back would be home prices and the fact that you have to drive about 10 minutes to get on a freeway. You don't have on-ramps close to town at all and getting to one during high traffic times can make an otherwise short drive seem pretty long.

Home prices in the Milford area are not cheap, but it is a buyers market in Michigan now so you might be able to snag a deal.

I used to live in Milford not too long ago, and am not far from there now so if you need any additional info feel free to PM me anytime.

[TracyLynnS]

I currently live in Milford and am trying to move to the Ann Arbor area. Wanna buy my house? LOL

My husband was a member of the local chamber of commerce and we were involved in some of the towship activities. We've lived here less than 5 years and absolutley LOVE Milford and don't want to leave, but have to relocate for my husband's new job.

We have great local parades and other events, and a wonderful downtown area with central park located right on the river. Central park hosts a Civil War Re-enactment every summer, live music performances every thursday during the summer, and an "art in the park" type thing that's 3 days of food, art, entertainment, etc all down Main Street.

The historical Society has historical home tours every September. There's also a spring garden show, but I have a poison thumb so I've forgotten which group sponsors that event. This year was the first year (I think) of the Grub Crawl where folks sampled the restaurants in town.

I've lived in Michigan most of my life and have lived in Troy, Madison Hts, Grass Lake, Westland, Garden City, White Lake, Commerce Twp, and Waterford. Milford is my favorite by far!

Grocery shopping is pretty convenient, Walmart is a short drive and is expanding into a super walmart. Lowes, Applebees, Chilis, a couple banks, a tire store, car dealer, Starbucks, Subway, Arbys, Game Stop, and some other things are right near the walmart. Home Depot and Twelve Oaks Mall are about 1/2 hour drive. Right in Milford, we have Kroger (I think the Farmer Jack is going out of business) and an idependent grocer. There's CVS and Rite Aid, plus other pharmacies.

We have plenty of doctors and dentists, good schools, neighborhoods in most price ranges (everything from apartments to horse farms!), several churches, 2 nice senior citizen homes, starbucks and other coffee houses, lots of good independent restaurants, subway, dairy queen, rio wraps, taco bell, mcdonalds, big boy, wendys, tim hortons, a couple of car washes, a couple of jewlery stores, ACO hardware, several gas stations, a florist, funeral home, village museum, gift shops, a boutique clothing store, and lots of other stuff.

If your husband will be working in Milford, you may just choose to live right here and save all that gas money by not commuting. If you want to move to a midsized town or the boondocks, either would be only a 1/2 hour commute.

If you are sure that your husband's job will be a keeper, I suggest buying a house. I think Michigan is the best state for buyers right now. There are way too many houses to choose from and lots of them are ridiculously underpriced (mine included). Many of us have lost our jobs and have to sell, no matter how low the offer. Now's the time for you to get a good deal!

[TracyLynnS]

LOL! I just re-read the post I wrote last night. I made milford sound like some kind of hokey dead end town where there's nothing to do but eat cheesy fries and waddle down the aisles at walmart! lol

I was just trying to say that we're a small town with plenty of standard suburban conveniences. It's still not a long drive to detroit or ann arbor, etc, for culture and entertainment. We Milford residents are not the lazy drooling yokels that I made us sound like! lol The only country buffoon activity my kids friends have engaged in is riding their horses through the drive through at Wendys to get their horses a Frosty dessert! lol

BTW, I forgot to let you know that we have an excellent medium sized hospital 7 miles from town that keeps expanding and improving. Also, our police and fire depts are great.

We have a huge new library and the YMCA right in downtown. Milford also has Kensington Metropark which is absolutely fabulous! It has spectacular scenery and lots of activities. There's a water park and too many beaches and picnic sites to count. Nature observation trails, cross country ski trails, biking/rollerblading/walking paths. It will take years of visiting Kensington for you to be able to 'take it all in'. Plus milford is working on constructing trails throughout the area to connect us directly with the park.

Within a short commute, we have indoor and outdoor concert halls. Pontiac, Ann Arbor, and Detroit have sports arenas (I prefer The Palace of Auburn Hills -in pontiac). We have lots of colleges and universities that are close enough for a commute. You could attend U of M or MSU without having to pay for campus housing!

Also right in town, a local business man hosts a great car show every sunday in summer where people from all over bring in their customized hot rods, restored classic cars, etc. The only down side to the car show is that it's on the main road in/out of Milford to the expressway, so we really do have "sunday drivers" clogging up that main road. At least the view is nice while you're sitting in traffic! lol

[jgmarie]

I agree with everything TracyLynn says!! I LOVE living in Milford, but, sadly we have to leave the state. It's killing me to leave our cool historical home. If I where you, I wouldn't bother looking anywhere else for a home especially since your job is in Milford.

Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this but there is the Village of Milford (located around downtown--higher taxes) and the Township of Milford (outside of the downtown area)--but, both are considered Milford---it's just that the tax base is a bit higher in the village, something you might want to consider when house hunting.


Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions!

[Eddie0101]

I travel to milford quite often.
I gotta say, if you can afford it. Milford is a good place to live in.
Other areas you can look that is within 1/2 hour driving distance is Novi, Farmington Hills, south Lyon aread.
I currently work and live in Farmington hills and I really like this part of town.

Eddie

[Numbersman]

Lived here fifteen years. In the area for 25 years.

Schools are not that great, they seem ok on the outside they will and all schools will tell you and show you what you want to hear, they are also not completely safe and have had their share of incidents.
But education wise sub par, unfortunately a only handful of good teachers, admin will drain your money. I have had kids who were yes the AP honor type students and said they were still not as prepared as well as kids from other districts and states in college. And the last superindendant got paid over 300,000! Schools have their fair share of drugs ( as most suburban schools), just ask the kids not the admins. If schools are important check out either private or Novi.

Over the last 20 years, this little town has changed but not for the better.
More crowded in such a small space. Trying to upscale, people just aren't as friendly anymore. Not as many usable shops anymore they are mostly rich lady's hobbies that come and go when they get bored of it. Also, how many hair shops and pizza places are needed.

Town is usually safe but has had its share of infamous murders in the past.
People let their gurad downtoo much here and the bad elements know it.
The saying used to be its remote areas and parks, there's not a lot of crime but it's a great place to bury people. Like the recent FBI digging for Jimmy Hoffa, which turned up empty. Unfortunately, others, mostly young women/teenagers didn't.

Yes there is plenty of cops but they are mostly there to write up tickets, they love to hide in their little traps and I and many other friends, neighbors, family members have been followed by them, I had to work lateon a project one night and was driving through at 2:00am and got pulled over
and gave me a ticket for 30 in a 25mph, I know they were looking to pull someone over for other offenses like DWI, etc. And we pay their salary.
We called them during holloween and said their was a vicious dog in the neighborhood on the loose with kids trick or treating and they said to call animal control in Auburn Hills an hours drive away.

Its a big boys club mentality through anything village/ township /school/ run thing and many relatives and friends that work there. And if you live in the village water is like liquid gold! And Taxes for oth the village and twp are very high.

Kensington is nice but after you live their you get sick of the weekenders and they put on a great 4th of July Fireworks display and you might as well be 50 miles away because you can't get in and out any faster. Camp dearborn is ok, but you are limited in facilitiessuch as being able to use the nice pool, unless you rent a campsite or tent. It is mostly reserved for the mostly Arab community of the City of Dearborn.

The YMCA: I'm all for Y's but Pricy for what you get, its new but facilities are dinky compared to other Y's super small pool. Super Small courts. Crowded Excercise Machines. Its only really good for small children's activities club house and dance aerobics palates type stuff. Can use school's facilities for xtra bucks also.

Library: Yes it's new and huge high ceilings, so what. Where's the books? Everything I've wanted was at other libraries on their search. The kids ( for middle and high school ) books are the worse, everything is about drugs,
dark goth sagas, raped or abused stories, stories about abusive and disfunctional relationships, blood letting, animine, etc. I'm not kidding check for yourself. Afew ok, but not that many.

The housing has a good mix of trailer parks, historical older homes in the village, and mostly larger newer subs in the townships which has been kind of overrunning the rest. And Yes the traffic sucks but it does anywhere in Southeastern Michigan.

Eateries are ok for the size of town, bigger cheaper eats other than fast food would be nice for families though.
I would move if houses were selling without losing a ton.

[Numbersman]

I currently live in Milford and am trying to move to the Ann Arbor area. Wanna buy my house? LOL

My husband was a member of the local chamber of commerce and we were involved in some of the towship activities. We've lived here less than 5 years and absolutley LOVE Milford and don't want to leave, but have to relocate for my husband's new job.
submitted by TracyLynnS

No offense if you loved Milford that much, Ann Arbor is close by enough to commute.
Over half my neighbors not lucky enough to work at GM Proving Grounds, commute daily to Warren, Lansing , Dearborn. Most others go to Southfield, Troy, Pontiac, Auburn Hills, Novi, Livonia, Plymouth, Ann Arbor, Flint and Detroit. I had one neighbor's kid who communted 2-years to Ann Arbor U-M. Good luck selling your house. I hope it sells for close to your price, because I am holding off on selling mine, since none of my neighbors have sold except for losing about 20% of what they paid 2 years ago. That can buy a lot of gas even at $3.00 per gallon.

[jetengineman's wife]

I grew up in Fenton, which is not far from Milford. I moved away for college and jobs but was back in the area (Highland Twp) for 4 years until 2006. We have since moved up north, and being a suburban girl, I feel like I'm suffocating from boredom up here! Wish I could be back there!

My perspective... this coming from a mom with 2 young kids... The Hartland and Huron Valley School districts (as well as Fenton, although I've heard it's not as good as it was 20 years ago... oooo that dates me, doesn't it?!) offer soooo much more than rural school districts! The preschools in the area are far superior to what I can find up in this wasteland (Tawas area) and the community ed programs were awesome (They are non-existant here). Yes, drugs are common in a lot of areas, but that is true even in rural northern Michigan towns. I don't think you can escape that in any location.

I miss all of the conveniences in the area... every kind of store or entertainment seems to be within a short drive of the Milford area. I would recommend checking out Highland Twp, Hartland or even Fenton if you like a little bit of a rural feel mixed in with your suburban location. Good luck!

[Coldjensens]

Kensington Metropark.

Nothing more need be said.