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Since I live in Ann Arbor and don't pretend to be an "expert" on every possibility I will mention what I know...Ann Arbor.
1. within 45-50 minutes of downtown even with rush hour traffic.
2. Good schools that include some elite and some average or less depending on neighborhood
3. Most of our crime is close to the University campus/downtown area.
4. Kid friendly town with lots of parks, Hands On museum
5. bike and pedestrian friendly..almost obsessively so.
6. 3 dog parks for off leash romps. The one on the SE side, Swift run is 10 acres. I am there twice a day.
7. The town is very self contained with most every major chain represented including a Costco and Sams Club. (they are actually in Pittsfield Township on the edge of the city limits)
8 A vibrant Farmers Market year around
9.Nationally popular summer art fair.
10. A popular Summer Festival with lots of family stuff ...most of it free of charge. Calendar | Ann Arbor Summer Festival
11. multiracial and or LGBTQ are well accepted.
Since I live in Ann Arbor and don't pretend to be an "expert" on every possibility I will mention what I know...Ann Arbor.
1. within 45-50 minutes of downtown even with rush hour traffic.
2. Good schools that include some elite and some average or less depending on neighborhood
3. Most of our crime is close to the University campus/downtown area.
4. Kid friendly town with lots of parks, Hands On museum
5. bike and pedestrian friendly..almost obsessively so.
6. 3 dog parks for off leash romps. The one on the SE side, Swift run is 10 acres. I am there twice a day.
7. The town is very self contained with most every major chain represented including a Costco and Sams Club. (they are actually in Pittsfield Township on the edge of the city limits)
8 A vibrant Farmers Market year around
9.Nationally popular summer art fair.
10. A popular Summer Festival with lots of family stuff ...most of it free of charge. Calendar | Ann Arbor Summer Festival
11. multiracial and or LGBTQ are well accepted.
Great info. One of my wife's friends suggested we consider Ann Arbor too. Will definitely give it a close look. All sounds good, it's within my commuting range.
Given your preference for classic 'burbs, I would check out Livonia, Plymouth, Northville and Novi. All would be within an hour of downtown Detroit, though Northville and Novi would be pushing a full hour.
You'll get more bang for your buck in Livonia, but the housing market is extremely hot there right now. New listings are sold within a day or two -- sometimes within a few hours.
Yikes! Listings sold within hours. That sounds like where we live right now, just outside of Boston.
The city of Farmington might be appealing to your family. My four kids truly have appreciated the diversity of the student population, and they all have had very positive school experiences. The youngest graduated last year. Some schools have closed in recent years due to an aging population; the school district had expanded greatly as the baby boomers came through. There is a really nice little downtown area which is expanding and adding amenities, beautiful parks and many programs for children and adults. Summer camps for the kids, too.
I thought about the Plymouth/Canton area as well. Closer to Ann Arbor, but you are still close to Detroit as well and the schools are good, with a decent degree of cultural diversity. Plymouth-Canton Community Schools - USA.comâ„¢ (you can zoom in to view information at different levels)
As for home type, we're a divided household. I'd be happy with a newer subdivision, at least when we're ready to purchase in six months or so. And I know my wife would accept a newer subdivision if that's ultimately where we'd get the most bang for our buck. But in her perfect world we'd get an older home with what she calls "character," or as I call it, a set of phantom characteristics defined by little more than age and crown molding. I just want a garage, basement, decent-sized fenced yard for the kids and dog, and I'm happy.
I'm most interested in safety - in wife and kids and dog being able to stroll the community when I'm away for work. Grosse Ile sounds intriguing for the nature and water access. My whole family loves being outdoors, hiking, nature walks, etc.
On the other hand, with kids our age, access to some of the less aesthetic but really, really convenient things like chain stores or strip malls is a little appealing.
Curious to know what you mean by expensive. For our rental period, we're willing to pay up to $3K per month for a decent home in a decent community. And when we're ready to purchase, our budget will be between $300K and $400K, depending on how much work the house needs. We might be able to push it to $425K.
You budget should get you a decent rental almost anywhere. There are not a lot of rentals.
In grsosse Ile, 300-400 K will get you a nice house inland in Grosse Ile. Maybe even in Jewel Colony. (One of the nations first subdivisions). It is not too likely to get you a place on the Riverfront, There might be a small place or two in the $400K range. You also might be able to get a place inland, but on the canal. The canal allows people to have a dock and a small power boat or canoes/kayaks. You cannot sail from the canal because of the bridges. A lot of peopleon the canal have jetskis, The water in the canal moves only a little, so it gets icky looking in some spots, not horrible, but I would not want to swim in it (although people do).
It is really safe everywhere. Grosse Ile and South Lyon were the recent safest and second safest places in Michigan, but it is all relative, one violent spousal dispute, or two idiot high school kids and the crown changes hands Safest, is just a bragging title, most communities are very very safe.
Lots of places have trails scattered about. Some are through wooded areas some through tonws.
I can tell the most about Grosse Ile because i live here. It is a group of 14 islands nestled close together some are divided only by a canal. There are about 10,000 people. Schools and safety are execellent. You access the township by one of two bridges. One is free the other toll ($3 I think - I refuse to use it the current rate is highway robbery). The township tries to keep things open and green. They have a fund to buy "open space" land which I think has about 680 acres scattered around in different sized parcels. Most are forested, some have trails. There is a land conservancy area as well (the site of former undergoung missle silos which have been removed). The township has a small airport that used to be a naval base. The navy gave it to the township in the 1970s I think. It is used for small hobby planes, helicopters and an occaisional blimp. We also have events there (runs, Island Fest, etc). The township also owns a farm/equestrian center, a golf course, an outdoor community pool, some soccer fields, a hocky rink (outdoors), sledding hill, a marina, and 20 some miles of nice bike trails. There are some unusual private amenetis also, three yacht clubs, three golf clubs (counting the township course), an alpaca farm, an alzalia farm/wedding spot, an indoor tennis club, a dance/gynmnastics studio and a bicycle museum. "Town" consists of a single street. It is not quaint and old fashioned, but it is nice to walk around. It iis slow paced, speed limits are 25 and 30 or 35. There are four traffic lights. All the kids attend the same school. There is only one school that covers any given grade. Everyone goes to the high school football games and to the parades in town. the community is mostly appealing to families and retired people. Young people and dinks do not find enough to do and everyone is busy doinfg kid events or retired people stuff. There is a small amount of shoopping and dining (Kroger, a hardware store, a handful of resturuants, a bakery, some boutque type places.) Woodhaven about 7 miles away is the place for chain shopping and dining and Wyandotte, is the place for small town independant shops, teverns and the neatest game place you ever saw. There are four chuches. Sometimes we do coorindated service or events (Look up "Boars Head Grosse Ile," it is really neat).
Housing is an ecelctic mix of old, new, in between. Big, small,medium and mansion. there are subdivoions inland. Most of the waterfront is zoned one house per acre, but older smaller lots are gradfathered in. East river road is a beautiful place to walk or bike. A vast expanse of water with canada on the other side on one side of the road, and big beautiful houses of all ages and styles on the other. West River is pleasant too, but it is only about 1/4 mile to the michgian shore and the michigan shore is less pretty (factories, condos, apartments, etc). Even inland is very bretty with lots of well settled trees, some georgeous landscaping and intermittant open space or remaining bits of undeveloped land.
When you come home from work, you breathe a sigh of relief upon crossing the bridge, you just feel comrtable. You have to dodge bikes, runners, walkers, roller skaters, geese, and sometimes swans, ducks, deer, foxes or raccoons on your way home. Growing things is next to impossible becuase there are so many deer all over the place.
Perhaps our favorite thing was our rules for the kids. Do not leave the island, be home by dark or call and tell us if you are spending the night somewhere. That is about it. We also requried that they wear life jackets if they went into a boat of any kind. We just did not need a lot of rules.
Downsides: There is almost no diversity, it is pretty white. There are a few mixed (black and white) couples, and a handful of families from India, Asia, the middle east. There are some extraoridinarily wealthy people (hundreds of millions $ if not billions). They are pretty quiet and mostly unpretentious. In general the people ae pretty down to earth, but like all wealthey places, there are some people who are pretentious and flashy, but they do not fit in real well. Still they are there. Problems are rare, but whent they occur, they tend to be wierd. Most recently some kids fomr the LaCCross team killed a guinea pig and smeared the blood ontheir faces before the game. It was a huge evil thing, made international news, big investigation, two kids were prosecuted, No common, but once in a while really wierd stuff.
If woodsmoke bothers you you will not like it. Someone has a wood fire going either in their yard or in a fireplace pretty much always, it smells like a campground all the time. You are not choking on smoke, but you defeintiely smell it.
Taxes are high for wayne county. Almost every milliage for schools ro for public safety passes. Theat means more proeprty tax. Tax is not really high compatred to Oakland COunty, but for wayne COUnty - high.
Some people will not come to visit you. they thing you are really secluded and you are a little bit. It takes 5 - 10 minutes to get across the bridge from typical home locations, then you are downtirver, which is a former heavily blue collar/factory area that is slowly getting nicer. A lot of friends you make will live in North Oakland County and will be an hour drive away. Many will nto visit you because they think North Oakland county is the only place where there is anyhting worthwile in metro detroit and they think you are just way way out there.
While there is a cluster of big box stores and supporting stores in Woodhaven, there is no decent mall anywhere around. Southland, the closest mall is ok, but kind of run down and old. Fairline in Derborn is 45 minutes away, and also run down somewhat. There is a nice mall down near Toledo Ohio, but if you are really into mall shoopping, you will likely drive an hour plus to Somerset in troy or 12 oaks in Novi.
Obviously we love it here, but there are a lot of places we could have loved as much (Plymouth, Northville, Grosse Point, Ann Arbor, Lyon township/south lyon, Wyandotte (if it had better schools). There are a lot of great places to live.
You budget should get you a decent rental almost anywhere. There are not a lot of rentals.
In grsosse Ile, 300-400 K will get you a nice house inland in Grosse Ile. Maybe even in Jewel Colony. (One of the nations first subdivisions). It is not too likely to get you a place on the Riverfront, There might be a small place or two in the $400K range. You also might be able to get a place inland, but on the canal. The canal allows people to have a dock and a small power boat or canoes/kayaks. You cannot sail from the canal because of the bridges. A lot of peopleon the canal have jetskis, The water in the canal moves only a little, so it gets icky looking in some spots, not horrible, but I would not want to swim in it (although people do).
It is really safe everywhere. Grosse Ile and South Lyon were the recent safest and second safest places in Michigan, but it is all relative, one violent spousal dispute, or two idiot high school kids and the crown changes hands Safest, is just a bragging title, most communities are very very safe.
Lots of places have trails scattered about. Some are through wooded areas some through tonws.
I can tell the most about Grosse Ile because i live here. It is a group of 14 islands nestled close together some are divided only by a canal. There are about 10,000 people. Schools and safety are execellent. You access the township by one of two bridges. One is free the other toll ($3 I think - I refuse to use it the current rate is highway robbery). The township tries to keep things open and green. They have a fund to buy "open space" land which I think has about 680 acres scattered around in different sized parcels. Most are forested, some have trails. There is a land conservancy area as well (the site of former undergoung missle silos which have been removed). The township has a small airport that used to be a naval base. The navy gave it to the township in the 1970s I think. It is used for small hobby planes, helicopters and an occaisional blimp. We also have events there (runs, Island Fest, etc). The township also owns a farm/equestrian center, a golf course, an outdoor community pool, some soccer fields, a hocky rink (outdoors), sledding hill, a marina, and 20 some miles of nice bike trails. There are some unusual private amenetis also, three yacht clubs, three golf clubs (counting the township course), an alpaca farm, an alzalia farm/wedding spot, an indoor tennis club, a dance/gynmnastics studio and a bicycle museum. "Town" consists of a single street. It is not quaint and old fashioned, but it is nice to walk around. It iis slow paced, speed limits are 25 and 30 or 35. There are four traffic lights. All the kids attend the same school. There is only one school that covers any given grade. Everyone goes to the high school football games and to the parades in town. the community is mostly appealing to families and retired people. Young people and dinks do not find enough to do and everyone is busy doinfg kid events or retired people stuff. There is a small amount of shoopping and dining (Kroger, a hardware store, a handful of resturuants, a bakery, some boutque type places.) Woodhaven about 7 miles away is the place for chain shopping and dining and Wyandotte, is the place for small town independant shops, teverns and the neatest game place you ever saw. There are four chuches. Sometimes we do coorindated service or events (Look up "Boars Head Grosse Ile," it is really neat).
Housing is an ecelctic mix of old, new, in between. Big, small,medium and mansion. there are subdivoions inland. Most of the waterfront is zoned one house per acre, but older smaller lots are gradfathered in. East river road is a beautiful place to walk or bike. A vast expanse of water with canada on the other side on one side of the road, and big beautiful houses of all ages and styles on the other. West River is pleasant too, but it is only about 1/4 mile to the michgian shore and the michigan shore is less pretty (factories, condos, apartments, etc). Even inland is very bretty with lots of well settled trees, some georgeous landscaping and intermittant open space or remaining bits of undeveloped land.
When you come home from work, you breathe a sigh of relief upon crossing the bridge, you just feel comrtable. You have to dodge bikes, runners, walkers, roller skaters, geese, and sometimes swans, ducks, deer, foxes or raccoons on your way home. Growing things is next to impossible becuase there are so many deer all over the place.
Perhaps our favorite thing was our rules for the kids. Do not leave the island, be home by dark or call and tell us if you are spending the night somewhere. That is about it. We also requried that they wear life jackets if they went into a boat of any kind. We just did not need a lot of rules.
Downsides: There is almost no diversity, it is pretty white. There are a few mixed (black and white) couples, and a handful of families from India, Asia, the middle east. There are some extraoridinarily wealthy people (hundreds of millions $ if not billions). They are pretty quiet and mostly unpretentious. In general the people ae pretty down to earth, but like all wealthey places, there are some people who are pretentious and flashy, but they do not fit in real well. Still they are there. Problems are rare, but whent they occur, they tend to be wierd. Most recently some kids fomr the LaCCross team killed a guinea pig and smeared the blood ontheir faces before the game. It was a huge evil thing, made international news, big investigation, two kids were prosecuted, No common, but once in a while really wierd stuff.
If woodsmoke bothers you you will not like it. Someone has a wood fire going either in their yard or in a fireplace pretty much always, it smells like a campground all the time. You are not choking on smoke, but you defeintiely smell it.
Taxes are high for wayne county. Almost every milliage for schools ro for public safety passes. Theat means more proeprty tax. Tax is not really high compatred to Oakland COunty, but for wayne COUnty - high.
Some people will not come to visit you. they thing you are really secluded and you are a little bit. It takes 5 - 10 minutes to get across the bridge from typical home locations, then you are downtirver, which is a former heavily blue collar/factory area that is slowly getting nicer. A lot of friends you make will live in North Oakland County and will be an hour drive away. Many will nto visit you because they think North Oakland county is the only place where there is anyhting worthwile in metro detroit and they think you are just way way out there.
While there is a cluster of big box stores and supporting stores in Woodhaven, there is no decent mall anywhere around. Southland, the closest mall is ok, but kind of run down and old. Fairline in Derborn is 45 minutes away, and also run down somewhat. There is a nice mall down near Toledo Ohio, but if you are really into mall shoopping, you will likely drive an hour plus to Somerset in troy or 12 oaks in Novi.
Obviously we love it here, but there are a lot of places we could have loved as much (Plymouth, Northville, Grosse Point, Ann Arbor, Lyon township/south lyon, Wyandotte (if it had better schools). There are a lot of great places to live.
I find myself curious everytime you talk about Grosse Ile. I had no idea it was that big. I wish I would of checked it out before they fu*ked up I-75. Now I have to wait until they're done.
I find myself curious everytime you talk about Grosse Ile. I had no idea it was that big. I wish I would of checked it out before they fu*ked up I-75. Now I have to wait until they're done.
Island fest is coming up. That might give you a reason to come other than just look around. Island fest is a combination small town local fair and chintzy portable carnival rides and games. The fireworks show is quite good, I forget what night that is. Personally I am not much of a fan of Island Fest, but our kids love it and it seems pretty popular. Island fest is probably the time we have the most visitors from outside the township all year. (Boars head is probably a close second, but it is only every three or four years).
During Island Fest,the Historical Society gets a school bus and does Island tours which is a nice way to see some of the island and learn about historical sites. Pretty sure the tours only run during daylight hours on one or two days, and I think it is free.
If you do decide to come down, I would suggest you cut over to Jefferson early on. Fort street is in better shape, but it is a mind numbing drive. Every part is the same. It is hard to tell where you are, even after driving it hundreds of times. I find Jefferson to be pretty interesting as you go past Fort Wayne, the sewer plant (gross, but at least not boring), through the desolation of Del Mar, and then through River Rouge, Ecorse and Wyandotte. I think it is a very interesting drive.
Jefferson does not connect all the way to downtown. You have to take fort for a while and then turn down to Jefferson on - sorry I forget, it might be Clark. Past the bridge, you will see a hotel on your left (a place that frequently seems to have police cars or swat teams with flashing lights parked outside), the next light is where you want to turn left. You end up at the old Boblo Boat terminal which is one of the most dilapidated looking buildings you will ever see. You can go down Fort a bit further and there are some other streets that connect to Jefferson, but most of them do not go through.
If you go that way, the first railroad track crossing is terrible and can wreck your car. Go super slow, and veer all the way over to the right, basically up onto the shoulder or sidewalk whatever is there. I can get over the tracks in my truck at very slow speed without veering way over, but i would not want to try it in a car. The second railroad crossing is really bad too, just go slow. After that it is not too bad. Watch our for holes. Once you get to River Rouge, the road is pretty decent, it is just the first mile or two that is so bad you will laugh and wonder if you are even on a road at all.
If you do come down, you might want to make a day of it and stop off at Fort Wayne for a tour. A lot of the buildings are collapsing, but the main fort is maintained and a really interesting tour (I thought anyway).
BTW - Recently I detoured from fort street at St Anne's church to look at the location of a charity our church is considering supporting. I never found the place I was looking for, but that St Annes neighborhood area is reasonably nice looking. I did not expect the area to be so nice. The security doors and bars on some windows are a bit ominous, but most of the houses and yards are well cared for and there are some really neat houses, plus St Annes is an awesome building. Although it is surrounded by industrial wasteland, the neighborhood itself appears reasonably livable.
Last edited by Coldjensens; 05-10-2017 at 07:57 AM..
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