[NY2LV2?]

My family and I are thinging of moving to this area (west bloomfield, Novi), would like to be on water front property. I'm looking for pictures of this area and other nice areas. Such as streets, plazas, stores, parks, water. I have seen some pictures on the net but I would like to get an idea of what MI looks like. We now live in Las Vegas and are from Rochester NY. Just wondering if MI looks like Rochester? Also wanted to know about the food shopping, malls, entertainment. Is there places by the water for entertainment? Live music, food, by the water? What does everone do for fun? In Las Vegas you need to like shows and gambling or dance clubs. The shows are very expensive and the clubs are also. Drink prices are crazy not to mention the fact that you must pay 20 to 50 dollars just to get in and listen to the crazy music. I miss those little places that had live music every weekend, drinks and food you could afford and music that was great! (70's 80's and today's normal music) Not that they don't have that here, but it's to many people and you might as well stay home and save the 300 dollars! Also the food here at the grocery stores is so bad!!! The meat and veggies are not fresh and taste bad. Nothing like back home. There are no real restaurants here either, I call them ma and pa restaurants. There all franchise places, Applesbees, Olive Garden, Out Back Steak House ect. There is good food here but you have to spend an arm and a leg. I've also read that MI seems to be going down hill. But so is everywere else! My husband and myself have owned are own business for the past ten years, here and in Rochester. We are just ready to punch in and out and go home for the day with no worries! Everyone that has mentioned jobs said its impossible to get a job in MI. I hope thats not really true because Las Vegas is not for us and we really like MI from what we've read. We were also looking at the suburbs of Cleveland OH. But there seems to be less jobs there that MI. I hope someone can give some positive feed back to us. We haven't been to MI yet. We are just wondering what the nice areas look like (PICS), how easy is it to get a job, and how the entertainment is. As far as jobs were not looking to make 100's of thousands a year either. Just a nice income, maybe food service, car salesman? For myself , I will get any old job just to get out of Las Vegas!!!! We have been here for five years and we feel like are life is on hold. There is no culture here and the people keep to themselves. Back home everyone talked to each other had BBQ's with the neighbors and it was easy to make friends. In five years we have not made any friends. Everyone is different, not are taste here. Are house is going up for sale next March for sure! We are to the point that we will sell the house and get in the car and flip a coin to see where to move! Please help us with information!!!

[khfar]

I posted to your other post above, but wanted to tell you to look HARD into the MI economy. Seriously. Even though the economy sucks, it is expensive to live here. Especially in WB and Novi, if that is where you are interested in living.

More than that, really check into the job market, insurance, what it will cost to do normal upkeep on the home you are interested in. There are PLENTY of homes for sale, but also don't believe the hype that you can buy a $700K home for $100K. We tried. Hard. And it just was NOT happening.

You will get SO many conflicting opinions about moving here. It's unreal, actually, how so many people in MI have absolutely NO pride in their state. And it does have a lot to offer, if you take the time to find things to do and enjoy.

But again, my best advice is research, research, research. We were lucky in that we moved here due to a transfer. Many others are not so lucky. There is some truth to the job market being crummy, so be sure you can both find jobs that you will be happy with.

Good luck!

[joelseeley]

well, this is interesting to me. I was born and raised here in Michigan. i just came back from north Carolina and i was looking for work there. i did find a 12 an hour job. anyway i missed my family and i moved back here to Michigan. i live in hemlock which is about 25 miles west of Saginaw. the job market is definitely tough here i am looking for a job right now, and have not found much. if you were going to move here i can tell you that housing farther north close to where i am at is inexpensive and there are allot of houses for sale. really the cost of living here is cheap, and the people are cool, after all it is my home town. i like the weather too, much too hot down south. i have had many jobs here, and i grew up here and i am raising my son here. good luck,

[suydam]

I grew up in West Bloomfield. It's standard suburban living....no downtown, lots of strip malls, plentiful housing at a variety of price-points (though I should point out...it's an affluent township with highly rated schools...you'll pay more there than lesser areas).

Novi has more shopping, but traffic around that shopping (Twelve Oaks Mall and the surrounding strips) is insane.

Waterfront in either area is expensive...for a reason...the lakes are gorgeous, clean and mostly private.

If waterfront living is your thing, and you can find a way to afford frontage on a real lake (look before you leap...there are plenty of swamp/pond mansions going up...) you won't dislike the area.

To compare Rochester (where I had family for many years) to that area is pretty close. Rochester gets more snow, has colder winters but probably also gets more sun (paradoxically). Rochester has more hills, northwest metro-detroit has more lakefrontage (West Bloomfield has alot of lakes). Rochester has Buffalo, West Bloomfield and Novie have Detroit. All kidding aside, Detroit isn't the greatest city ever, but I prefer it to Buffalo any day. It's bigger than Buffalo, has more sports teams to follow, better (and more) quality restaurants, etc.

It's a nice enough area. Have a job before you come though, they're few and far between right now. If you get a stable job, the bad economy isn't going to affect you other than making homes more affordable to buy.