Moving from Chicago to Michigan (Detroit, Grand Rapids: apartments, lease, condo)

[JeepSnob]

Hi there. New to the forum but I've been crawling a lot of threads here to get a feel for Michigan. I've been inspired by a ton of stories...expatriate opinions of why they won't return, kids moving to AA for school, people relocating from Cali, the best and worst places to live, and learning vocab like yoopers and trolls. Long story short - I no longer want to live in Chicago and I want to make a home in Michigan after visiting a few times.

I was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs and I just moved out of my parents house near Woodstock this past year to get a feel of living on my own. I moved further north because I like the open space, free thinking, and living simple. I detest the city (I went to undergrad at UIC in the Loop) for it's attitude and it's not a lifestyle I want to live.

So I started looking at jobs. Who could I work for there? I'm in IT and I'm a programmer so naturally I looked at the Big 3's hq's for corporate roles - I've always worked at big places, easier to transition into. I was shot down by Chrysler in AH (no MBA, and I'm happy to see they require one). I'm also looking into convincing my boss to let me go virtual with my role now. I have to muster courage for that convo since I'm about to put in my first year here and I work long grueling hours somewhat virtually as it is. My company offers virtual roles too so I could take that with me when I move. My company has offices in Southfield and AH so I could do a horizontal role change...

Then I starting canvasing the neighborhoods. I'd like to stay in the LP, in the metro Detroit region because I'd be close to a job that I already have. The big thing I have read so far...is people not finding jobs and leaving for that reason - so I think I have that covered. I'm not interested in the night life, or touristy things because...I have all of that here and I was never interested in it. Ann Arbor seems too campus'y and busy and so does Grand Rapids (which is great because it looks like it's attracting 20 somethings for healthcare work and education, just not me)

I am uber psyched to plan this move and I know I have to start planning now. I want to be there by Oct/November when my lease is over here. I wanted to give you a background of where I am in this search and why I want to move. With that, is there a specific town you'd recommend that'd be a good fit for me? AND! could you offer any advice for a move like this? If you're not totally bored of my LONG post, I'd appreciate all your feedback. Thanks so much!

- < 15-20k residents, looking to rent
- don't have kids and I'd like to move to Holland or Petoskey if I started a family
- wouldn't mind an hour drive to work (which will be in Southfield/Auburn Hills)
- not looking for the resort style condo's/apartments with built in pools and fitness centers I'm seeing everywhere for rent? I'm trying to get away from that!
- I'd like to live as reasonably far from Detroit as I could
- my dream would be somewhere a little north of Oakland Charter Twnshp
- I'm 25, just starting out

[MS313]

If you want to move here to get away from Chicago I guess it's pretty understandable why you wouldn't want to be as far from another city (Detroit) as possible. But Southfield is in the middle of Metro Detroit, an hour any direction will still land you in Metro Detroit and you would have to go through alot of sprawl (and all that comes with it) to get to work everyday. On the flip side, an hour could definitely get you out of the heart of Metro Detroit (Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties) and into more rural counties in the area like Livingston, Leeper, or Monroe. Washtenaw has rural areas too outside of the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area.

[MichiganGreg]

I relocated to Mich over a year ago, but I really love it here. There are a ton of things to do; there are a lot of jobs for technical expertise here in Mich. as well. You might want to know that Holland is a tourist destination, though, so it may not be up your alley. I have put up a small website of the west mich / up area so you can see for yourself what the scenery is like, at Michigan Photo Blog. Both Holland and Zeeland are relatively laid back, but become busy in the summer time. Still, they have everything anyone needs for a decent quality of life. I am so glad I came here, won't be leaving anytime soon.

Good luck, and I hope you find what you are looking for!

[Tex?Il?]

I'm a little confused only because you talk about not wanting to live in the Chicago area, not liking the city . . . but the part of Michigan you want to move to is . . . Metro Detroit.

I know you already said you would want to live as far from Detroit as possible, but the places you mentioned would be just live Woodstock, IL. Is that what you want? Did you like Woodstock? and just not like Chicago proper? Is it the just the outlying exurbs of a major metro area that you prefer? The suburbs and outlying areas of Detroit have a lot in common with the suburbs and outlying areas of Chicago

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Do you want an exurban or rural area?

[belleislerunner]

Romeo or Lake Orion would be two towns worth considering. Northern fringes so you have lots of outdoor activities nearby. Good luck with the move!

[DTWflyer]

The problem is that Southfield is the center of the Metro Detroit region. It is literally the epi-center of the region's traffic. So, attempting to get outside of the multiple bands of suburban sprawl that surround Southfield is going to lend itself to an undesirable commute. This is not going to give you the lifestyle you desire, trust me.

There are communities outside of the Metro Detroit area that may offer what you desire, but you really are going to have to think about whether you want to drive 45-60 minutes to Southfield 5 days a week. Although you do say you don't mind an hour drive to work, do you really mean that? Do you really want to spend 2 hours per day in traffic?
Auburn Hills might lend itself to getting away a little quicker as you can head north and get to smaller places a little faster.

Some places to consider - Oxford, Ortonville, Highland, Milford, Howell, Pinckney, Holly, Fenton may be more what you desire.

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

South Lyon is half rural/half exurb (depending on where you are in the township). There are lots of new subdivisions being built out there, but there are still horse farms and lots of rural settings. It's on the western edge of Oakland county and is about a 30 minute drive to Southfield. You can probably bump that up to 45-60 minutes during rush hour.

[Coldjensens]

Lyon Township still has some rural areas, but I am not sure whether South Lyon still does. In Lyon township it is funny (odd funny, not ha ha funny). Our house (where I grew up and my dad (and daughter) lives, is still kind of rural. It is on a dirt road. Lots of neighbors have horses. However the woods behind our house and the farm and pastures are now mostly a golf course with McMansions all around. There is still a small strip of woods they did not get to that sort of divides the Mcmansions from the rural homes, but it is thin and will not last long. Most of it belongs to one of our neighbors and they have not done anything with it for about 30-35 years. It just sits. They do nto mow, farm or even walk on it (the lady who owns it does not walk much anymore). The land immediately behind our house used to be hay and pumpkin fields, but it has filled in with trees. In the winter you can see the McMansions and you can hear noise from them all year round, but if you go down Dad's street (9 mile road), it still seems about the same as long as you do not look through the few remaining trees at the homes. Across the street an 80 acre horse pasture was just sold to a developer. A few hundred feet away someone cut a road into the woods and cut lots out of the woods along the road, but you rally cannot see them. Cross the line into Novi or Northville (I think it is Novi, just past Chub Road) and it is all super ugly subdivisions with tons of look alike homes. 10 mile, the rural parts are all now built out. The sod farms, pastures and forests are now subdivisions, strip malls and a new high school. A lot of areas of Lyon Township are the same way. So when I agree with the half rural half subdivisions, I mean literally on a given street or area half the acreage is still rural and half is all subdivisions and golf courses. It is not like one area is still rural and one is built out, it is all mixed in, so you have big ugly subs bordering farms or just homes on 3-10 acres.

In a few years, the buffer woods will undoubtedly get cut down and developed and dads house and his neighbors will end up like the older homes up near the subdivisions on 9 mile and Napier, out of place looking relics. Comfortable middle class homes on moderate acreage completely surrounded by subdivisions. Eventually the hold outs will sell and it will probably just be all subdivisions like Novi. Then the residents will look around and wonder what happened. They moved there to get out to the country, and now it is all suburbia. I remember when Farnington Hills was mostly orchards and fields, Novi had maybe five stores and Northville was a small town surrounded by pastures and woods. the location of "suburbia" just keeps moving outward.

[DaniellaG]

There is a similar thread on the Michigan forum where someone I think your age is moving from Chicago though they work in Livonia you may want to look at.