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We are thinking of moving to the area and wanted to get a feel for it. Read a handful of topics where the schools aren't that great, parking is a bust, and that real estate is overpriced.
Royal Oak has become more oriented to recent college graduates who do not want to let go of college. It is busy, lots of nice taverns, at night really drunk people are all over the place. People throwing up is no all that unusual. There are also a number of adult (sex) stores in town. The focus is heavily on younger singles and couples with no kids. The older housing is family oriented, newer housing is more apartments and condos (some homes, but more apartments and condos). There is still a healthy stock of SFRs, but the focus in building has been on more temporary housing. However it is still somewhat family oriented. They have the zoo. Schools are pretty good. They are just not as good as they were. There are more family oriented towns in the area. (Franklin village for example)
CJ.....with all due respect, that is a pretty broad stereotype, somewhat based on the RO of 10 years ago, and also really applies to the immediate downtown area.
I lived in Northern Royal Oak from 2008-2016 timeframe, not too far from Beaumont. Actually where I lived was closer to Downtown Birmingham than Downtown Royal Oak.
Royal Oak one on Metro Detroit's inner ring suburbs, that is a very popular place to live and has broad appeal. Partially based on its central locations to major employment centers around the region, good highway access to get throughout the metro area, and good proximity to downtown Detroit. The downtown and adjacent areas were built-up in the early 1900s, while the rest of Royal Oak-proper was a post-WWII baby boom suburb of tract houses of a lot of bungalows and slab-houses. Population peaked in the 1960s baby boom era when every house had multiple kids, etc. Then began a slow population decline as children grew-up, parents became empty-nesters, etc. The school district went through several rounds of contraction in the 1980s, 90s, early 2000s and the enrollment dropped as the schools were sized and built for peak baby-boom population, and as the age of residents became more broader, people were having less children, and not everyone living in the city had 2.3 children and a dog.
Royal Oak's resurgance and arguable due to two things - one was the opening of I-696 in the early 90s, and secondly since Detroit was at the time not a real option for young professionals to live and play at the time. Downtown Royal Oak was super funky and counter-culture in the 80s, and then started morphing into a regional entertainment destination in the 90s with the post-college bar scene exploding. The counter-culture, LGBTQ, and artist/hipster scene really moved out of Royal Oak and down into Ferndale and neighborhoods in Detroit. Downtown Royal Oak was peak place for post college, young professionals in the late 90s, 00s. In the past decade or so its changed a bit, with some of those 20-somethings now 30-soemthing settling into Royal Oak, Birmingham has gotten super-pricy, its priced out many and they are looking at Royal Oak instead, resurgence of Downtown Detroit has moved some of the young professionals living down there, along with some of the entertainment scene.
TL/DR - Royal Oak continues to evolve and is more multi-dimensional than just a 20-something party scene.
Downtown Royal Oak has a number of bars and restaurants and yes, gets pretty loud and somewhat rowdy later in the evenings. Its a regional entertainment destination. Downtown has tried to diversify and wants to make it more family friendly, but it still heavily appeals to the bar crowd.
The farmers market is good, the library is good, they keep talking about wanting to build a "central" park to make it more family-friendly but not sure where it would go. Instead they keep building more high-rises in the downtown area.
The neighborhoods adjacent to downtown, primarily east of downtown are heavily rental, and a lot of younger post-college crowd. West side of downtown, and really north of Catalpa or 12 Mile you are away from that scene.
Outside of the immediate downtown area Royal Oak is no different than Berkley or even parts of Birmingham.
There is some really cool housing stock in pockets, particularly some of the 1920s stuff, along streets like Vinsetta.
The schools are perfectly fine and good. They aren't on the so-called "Top 10" lists but they are perfectly fine for anyone who makes parenting a priority and promotes getting an education.
I heard many good things about Northwood Elementary when I lived there.
In the past several years there has been an increasing amount of tear-down / new builds in Royal Oak. Tearing down smaller 1000 ft homes and building 3000 sq ft homes that fill up the lots.
The whole Woodward corridor real estate is hot, and rightfully so as its a desirable place to live. That being said, real estate every where is overpriced since supply/demand is all out of place.
Pros:
- Central location to many of the major employment regions in the area; Downtown Detroit, Warren/Sterling Heights, Troy, Southfield
- Close to quasi-urban experience - close to farmers markets, lots of restaurants, events, entertainment venues, the Zoo, festivals (Arts, Beats, & Eats)
- Easy to get to downtown Detroit for sports, concerts, events, things in the city
- Lots of younger people around; Gen Z, Millineals, etc.
- Diversity in the community; maybe not necessarily racial diversity so much but I'm talking about ages, careers, occupation, martial status, political leanings, etc. Its not a cookie-cutter, everyone from the same mold type of place like some new-build McMansion communities are. Loved talking to the old-timer retirees on the street that were still the original owners.
The only real downside / considerations about Royal Oak are the following:
- Lots are small, if you want a big yard, you need to look elsewhere
- Busy; again kind of goes with its location; Woodward is a busy major throughfare, kind of loud if you live adjacent to Woodward, or by Beamont hospital, or by I-75, or by the railroad.
- Traffic - again Woodward gets busy, I-75 in the midst of a big construction project, and with the density of that area, the mile roads get busy
- Lack of quality greenspace. There just aren't any real big parks / trails nearby. You have to drive a bit up toward Rochester to find bigger parks, trails, or the Metroparks
- Relatively Expensive; granted its less expensive than a comparable house in Birmingham, but you can get the same "house" for less if you look over at Madison Heights, or parts of Macomb County. Again, its all about location and where you want to be.
- Basement flooding - ask anyone about how their basement faired in the August 2014 monsoon. Some people have had trouble again this summer. If you notice the homes have all new furnace, water heater, and re-did their finished basements in 2014, you know they had a flood / sewer backup. Our house at the time stayed dry, since we were a bit higher up by 13 mile, but that was bad.
Honestly, my wife and I would've stayed if we wanted the quasi-urban living of Royal Oak. We ultimately wanted more greenspace, and closer access to all of that.
If I were single, I would've stayed.
Downtown Royal Oak has a number of bars and restaurants and yes, gets pretty loud and somewhat rowdy later in the evenings. Its a regional entertainment destination. Downtown has tried to diversify and wants to make it more family friendly, but it still heavily appeals to the bar crowd.
The farmers market is good, the library is good, they keep talking about wanting to build a "central" park to make it more family-friendly but not sure where it would go. Instead they keep building more high-rises in the downtown area.
The neighborhoods adjacent to downtown, primarily east of downtown are heavily rental, and a lot of younger post-college crowd. West side of downtown, and really north of Catalpa or 12 Mile you are away from that scene.
Outside of the immediate downtown area Royal Oak is no different than Berkley or even parts of Birmingham.
There is some really cool housing stock in pockets, particularly some of the 1920s stuff, along streets like Vinsetta.
The schools are perfectly fine and good. They aren't on the so-called "Top 10" lists but they are perfectly fine for anyone who makes parenting a priority and promotes getting an education.
I heard many good things about Northwood Elementary when I lived there.
In the past several years there has been an increasing amount of tear-down / new builds in Royal Oak. Tearing down smaller 1000 ft homes and building 3000 sq ft homes that fill up the lots.
The whole Woodward corridor real estate is hot, and rightfully so as its a desirable place to live. That being said, real estate every where is overpriced since supply/demand is all out of place.
Pros:
- Central location to many of the major employment regions in the area; Downtown Detroit, Warren/Sterling Heights, Troy, Southfield
- Close to quasi-urban experience - close to farmers markets, lots of restaurants, events, entertainment venues, the Zoo, festivals (Arts, Beats, & Eats)
- Easy to get to downtown Detroit for sports, concerts, events, things in the city
- Lots of younger people around; Gen Z, Millineals, etc.
- Diversity in the community; maybe not necessarily racial diversity so much but I'm talking about ages, careers, occupation, martial status, political leanings, etc. Its not a cookie-cutter, everyone from the same mold type of place like some new-build McMansion communities are. Loved talking to the old-timer retirees on the street that were still the original owners.
The only real downside / considerations about Royal Oak are the following:
- Lots are small, if you want a big yard, you need to look elsewhere
- Busy; again kind of goes with its location; Woodward is a busy major throughfare, kind of loud if you live adjacent to Woodward, or by Beamont hospital, or by I-75, or by the railroad.
- Traffic - again Woodward gets busy, I-75 in the midst of a big construction project, and with the density of that area, the mile roads get busy
- Lack of quality greenspace. There just aren't any real big parks / trails nearby. You have to drive a bit up toward Rochester to find bigger parks, trails, or the Metroparks
- Relatively Expensive; granted its less expensive than a comparable house in Birmingham, but you can get the same "house" for less if you look over at Madison Heights, or parts of Macomb County. Again, its all about location and where you want to be.
- Basement flooding - ask anyone about how their basement faired in the August 2014 monsoon. Some people have had trouble again this summer. If you notice the homes have all new furnace, water heater, and re-did their finished basements in 2014, you know they had a flood / sewer backup. Our house at the time stayed dry, since we were a bit higher up by 13 mile, but that was bad.
Honestly, my wife and I would've stayed if we wanted the quasi-urban living of Royal Oak. We ultimately wanted more greenspace, and closer access to all of that.
If I were single, I would've stayed.
It's perfect for the early 30s parents who still want some semblance of downtown life by them, while being able to live enough blocks away from (or right on top of!) RO downtown to provide the safer suburb and park life for their kids.
The prices are also getting crazy with all of the new colonials built on top of the old bungalows. Some steets have 5 of them back to back and a couple show up for sale (new) each month.
I feel this will keep the prices rising and be more desirable to the younger, more well off family that can't justify living downtown Detroit, but don't want to be in snooty birmingham (but can afford either).
RO remains as the best place to live if you want to get anywhere fairly quickly. They will ways he that and if they can figure out their niche (likely younger families with decent money) then it will be great in 5 years or so.
The one thing thst will kill RO on their path to this is the terrible elementary school ratings cut from east of main. If anything, this single factor will break RO because young families will continue to move away when their children are entering school.
For awhile now, RO has been on a demolition frenzy. In many areas now, they just tear down smaller old houses and build now. The small homes are less and less likely now to be re-occupied. And many aren’t in bad shape. That means there’s a slew of new housing that is larger and more suitable for families. For awhile, it was more of a rental/starter home city for singles or young couples. Additionally, there were a lot of old people who were still holding on to the homes theyve been in for decades.enrollment dropped and they merged the schools. With all the new, larger housing stock everywhere, and therefore a higher income, it’s probably more desireable for families than it was 20 years ago.
For awhile now, RO has been on a demolition frenzy. In many areas now, they just tear down smaller old houses and build now. The small homes are less and less likely now to be re-occupied. And many aren’t in bad shape. That means there’s a slew of new housing that is larger and more suitable for families. For awhile, it was more of a rental/starter home city for singles or young couples. Additionally, there were a lot of old people who were still holding on to the homes theyve been in for decades.enrollment dropped and they merged the schools. With all the new, larger housing stock everywhere, and therefore a higher income, it’s probably more desireable for families than it was 20 years ago.
Imo that's why RO needs to prioritize school ratings, starting with elementary asap. Young families move out of Royal Oak to Berkely and Birmingham when their kids enter school age.
Secondly, they need to reflect this in their businesses. Chipotle and bars is not what they need more of. What they need is desirable, semi fancy restaurants with quality, unique food that you want to door dash.
RO could and should probably get away with some things Ferndale has, like the board game and axe throwing place.
Having grown up in Royal Oak I’ll give you a heads up; the schools are generally pretty awful. Not just elementary, but middle and high school. Bullying and bigotry is rampant, and a good fraction are on drugs of some sort. Fights will occasionally just start in the middle of class. It’s extremely cliquish as well. Teachers are extremely hit and miss, with a handful being good and legitimately caring about their job, while the rest are either burned out, or just rude. Many teachers join in on the bullying and orchestrate it. The schools have no budget, so there’s no busses, most programs are neglected, and the food is plastic. I knew too many people who came out of the schooling system with a plethora of problems.
There’s a good reason why it’s mentioned above that many families move away when their kids get to schooling age. If you want to see a concentration of people with personality disorders, check out RO schools.
Osmium - how recent did you graduate and what years are you referencing?
This sounds a lot more like what might have been common in the 70s-80s-early 90s versus anything resembling a high school experience in the 2020s.....
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