[Coldjensens]

You cannot beat AA if you want to live in a city. If you do not want to live in the city, many of the outlying towns are awesome. However if you want small town or rural living you may want to look elsewhere at some of the places that were discussed here and in other threads.

If I was not looking to try a different lifestyle than city living, I would be in Ann Arbor. there are few cities anywhere that can compare to or best Ann Arbor (unless the hordes of students bother you). However, I wanted a small town, trees and streams instead of streets and parking lots. I like that everyone in town knows who I am and who my kids are. we just wanted to try something different. Rural(ish) living is both better and worse than city living. City living is certainly more convenient and more exciting.

The Realtors say this is the best time to buy. I disagree. There is no indication that the market has bottomed out. Every indication is that home prices will continue to fall. They have only started dropping in the "hot" markets like Southern CA, AZ, GA FL, NC, etc. As those prices drop, ours will probably continue to fall (for this and many other reasons). My business is tied to construction and real estate, so I have to watch business trends and predictions to some extent. I have seen residential real estate recovery predictions ranging from late next summer to 2011. One guy even said to expect a ten year slump, but I have not heard of him before so maybe he is a kook. These are national and/or California predictions. No one will make any predictions about Michigan. It is too uncertain how Michigan will recover, so no one will guess when it may recover.


I wish that I had rented before committing to buying a particular house. If I were in your shoes now, I would rent for at least a year, look around, and watch prices (sales prices, not asking prices).

By the way, there are dozens of towns that are not Novi, or other trendy towns and townships that are plastered with McMansions, but have real old fashioned quaint downtowns with a great variety of homes. Look at downtown Plymouth for an excellent example. No McMansions there at all except those ugly million dollar condos right in town (empty I think). If you want to avoid the McMansion syndrome describe above, stay out of subdivisions. Look in the old fashioned towns and their neighborhoods, or look in areas that are all custom homes built at different times and for different income levels.