Planning to Move to Detroit. Help! (Warren, Sterling Heights: insurance, buying a home, neighborhoods)

[santane]

Hi. We are from Puerto Rico and we are planning to buy a house in the Edison St. between McQuade St and Savery St. We have no family or friends there in Detroit. We have never visit Detroit before. We have 5 little kids and I want to know how is the neighborhood. Is a good place to my kids? Please let me know honestly.

Thanks!

[ranman469]

i would read the posts on this board and really do your homework.
look up the schools online where your kids will go

[sugarbeet]

Might I ask why you are moving to Detroit and buying a home in an area you've never visited? Are you buying the home without seeing it and the neighborhood first? I hope you do realize that Detroit is one of the most crime-ridden cities in the US and the part of town you've chosen, while not the worst, is far from the best. Please reconsider unless you have an opportunity to visit before making any commitments.

[MIEng]

I do not know where you will be working, but if you have to commute to Detroit there are affordable nicer areas with better schools in the suburbs surrounding Detroit. Dearborn, Livonia and even some areas of Warren are nicer and much safer. If you were a single person with no children or a couple with no children it would be a different story. But having 5 children in Detroit will leave you broke paying private education. Please take your time and visit Detroit. Yes, there are nice neighborhoods with beautiful brick houses in Detroit, but with 5 children it will be really tough.
Please check out Dearborn, Livonia, Canton, Troy, Sterling Heights, there all afordable and the schools are good.

[Dexterguy]

If you have not bought your house yet STOP!! Avoid Detroit and look towards the suburbs, much better schools even in the worst suburbs. Detroit Public schools are falling apart and are a very poor. Look into the Northern Suburbs, if these are not in your price range, look into the suburbs south of the city, the southern suburbs schools are not as good, but are far from what Detroit is.

[Coldjensens]

I beg to differ Dexter guy. Southern (Downriver) suburb schools are as good or better as northern suburbs (depending on which districts you are comparing). Grosse Ile schools compare favorably to any other district. They are not always the very top ranked, but they are certainly comparable with any top school. Trenton Schools are very good. Most Dearborn schools are good. Livonia is not bad (they seem to be on a downswing). Huron Schools are pretty good. There are two or three other districts that are upper mid level to top schools I just cannot remember all of them. Sure there are some not so good schools, but there are some not so good schools in northern suburbs as well.

For High school aged kids, Detroit has some very good options. I have heard that many of the elementary schools are pretty good as well. There is always private school for Jr. High. Maybe there is a decent public jr high. If so, I have not heard about it, but there might be one.

However in general, I would agree. Detroit is a challenge for people with children. It can be workable, but it will be much harder to raise your children well than it would be in many (most) suburbs. You have to have a pioneering spirit and be willing to take risks and work very hard. We almost did it, but we already did the inner city pioneering thing for nine years. We wanted a change (we also wanted water access). Economically, what you save on a house, would make up for private schools, except for the absurd taxes in Detroit and higher insurance rates (plus you need private security).

[Coldjensens]

Oh we southerners should be allowed to claim Canton and Plymouth as part of the "southern suburbs" as well. Excellent schools there too.

[Dexterguy]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

I beg to differ Dexter guy. Southern (Downriver) suburb schools are as good or better as northern suburbs (depending on which districts you are comparing). Grosse Ile schools compare favorably to any other district. They are not always the very top ranked, but they are certainly comparable with any top school. Trenton Schools are very good. Most Dearborn schools are good. Livonia is not bad (they seem to be on a downswing). Huron Schools are pretty good. There are two or three other districts that are upper mid level to top schools I just cannot remember all of them. Sure there are some not so good schools, but there are some not so good schools in northern suburbs as well.

For High school aged kids, Detroit has some very good options. I have heard that many of the elementary schools are pretty good as well. There is always private school for Jr. High. Maybe there is a decent public jr high. If so, I have not heard about it, but there might be one.

However in general, I would agree. Detroit is a challenge for people with children. It can be workable, but it will be much harder to raise your children well than it would be in many (most) suburbs. You have to have a pioneering spirit and be willing to take risks and work very hard. We almost did it, but we already did the inner city pioneering thing for nine years. We wanted a change (we also wanted water access). Economically, what you save on a house, would make up for private schools, except for the absurd taxes in Detroit and higher insurance rates (plus you need private security).

I agree with this, I would not consider Livonia a southern Suburb, I do know that Dearborn is one of the coomunities in that area that has good schools, and I should have excluded Grosse Ile for sure. I was thinking of the cities as Lincoln Park, River Rouge, Melvindale. The cities that are just south of the city, I was not talking about the cities that you suggested.

[santane]

Thanks for your responses. After reading your comments and other threads, we have reached the conclusion that so many people can not be wrong in saying that Detroit is a not good place to live. We will consider another place to move.

It is very sad to see like a so pretty city with big and beautiful houses and with potential is decaying as much.

I can not understand how some people that like to live in a violence atmosphere, because they have decided to look for the easy way of drugs, are taken control of a city that must belong to people who like the progress and work hard to come out ahead.

We will visit Detroit some day!

[sugarbeet]

I hope you won't be discouraged from checking out the other parts of the Detroit area - many people have mentioned them here. It's really just certain parts of the city that are of concern. And I still don't think you should move anywhere without visiting first!