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The population changes every Novemeber and changes back in March. About 20 to 30 % of the people go to Florida for the winter. The swans stay here now, they did nto migrate last year, but the people migrate.
The population is around 10,000. Maybe a bit more. The demographics are pretty much the same. mostly middle, upper middle and upper class white folks. Nice people though. Snobbery is not welcomed.
I saw 4 or 5 properties on the Wayne County Treasurer's list of those forfeited for next fall's auction.
In general - it seemed most of the houses on Realtor.com etc sites were the standard ranch etc nothing like the old mansions in Detroit. You are correct to live here you pay more and it seems many times more pricey per square ft than other Detroit areas.
Detroit City and Grosse Ile are night and day difference. Grosse Ile is one of the nicest communities in S.E. Michigan, while most of Detroit neighborhoods are some of the worst. You can buy houses in Detroit for $1. Comparing Detroit prices with Grosse Ile is like comparing Beverly Hills to Watts. Grosse Ile is not all rich, but it is all nice. Only a few areas of Detroit are nice, and then they get no decent services (fire, police, trash, code enforcement, schools) and insane taxes.
Even some of the nicer downriver areas like Trenton, Southgate, Riverview, and Wyandotte are not really comparable to Grosse Ile. They are completely different concepts. Grosse Ile is very different, kind of like living at a campground in some respects. A better comparison is Grosse Pointe, Bloomfield Hills, Northville, Plymouth.
There are some old mansions on Grosse Ile, but no one is selling them. You pay a lot more for waterfront/water access or even for waterview homes that you pay for subdivision homes in the center of the island. What is neat about Grosse Ile is that you can find examples of every kind of architecture, every time period and every price range (over $250,000, mostly condos for less than that, but there are a few houses). There are something like 400 houses for sale on Grosse Ile right now. Probably 10% of those are foeclosures (just a guess). Some of them are at the high end (even the foreclosures). I saw a house listed for $450,000 that was over $1.3 million three years ago.
The weather is slightly different than what we get in Downtwon Detroit and considerably different than what my parents get in South Lyon/Northville. Grosse Ile seems to get less snow and more wind. In the winter is is occaisioanlly a few degrees warmer than just accross the bridge. On a few occaisions Trenton had snow and we had rain. It is not a significant difference though. Frankly I would prefer snow to rain. Right now we have as much snow onthe gournd as Detroit does (about 2 inches).
I do not know why the swans stay. The Trenton Channel does not completely freeze over and they seem to like to hang out there. I do not remember them staying in 2005 or 2006, but there were there last winter and they are back this year. Maybe someone feeds them. In the spring, they are out there with thousands of huge chunks of ice that float down from Lake St. Clair. Remarkably they seem to avoid being crushed. I am amazed that they stay around, but they do. A few geese stay too, but not as many as swans.
Corection: I do know of one old mansion for sale on Elba Island in Grosse Ile, but it is not listed in the MLS.
How is the Ile governed? Mayor, manager, city council? Grand Poobah?
Township board with a township supervisor.
It will be interesting to see how things go. A new supervisor was just elected and seems to think that he is Grand Poohbah or Emporer. He is reportedly a good guy, just thinks that he now makes all fo the decisions. He may have some surprises coming when he learns that his decisions are nothing without the backing of a majority of the board.
There is also a planning commission, and several committees. For the most part the staff run things and the board/committees give them general directions.
Do you know how much is the pay bridge and can you get a pass that gives you a discount if you use it often? (Kinda like iPass in Chicago, you dont stop, you drive under these "cameras" that snap your iPass box and deduct the fees or just note that you paid)
Cold I tried to give you a reputation thingy but they said I've given you too many already ! Great info that you're giving out. Any differences between the east side of the island and the west?
I understand why Grosse Isle costs more than say DelRay lol -but perhaps in 6 months everything will be cheap.
Here are some of the forfeited properties on Grosse Ile- any bargains ? if the answer is yes - Write "FALLING APART" next to it lol so that only I can get it .
30019 EAST RIVER
25450 SIXTH
27680 ELBA ( ELBA good name that was where they exiled Napolean to)
26061 WEST RIVER
26219 JAMES
20423 CANAL
21212 SHURLEY
I want two stories and a water view and it has to be cheap and wait till I sell some excess property over here.
My little girl wants to know if they have wild rabbits in the lawns there like they do in Colorado.
It will be interesting to see how things go. A new supervisor was just elected and seems to think that he is Grand Poohbah or Emporer. He is reportedly a good guy, just thinks that he now makes all fo the decisions. He may have some surprises coming when he learns that his decisions are nothing without the backing of a majority of the board.
There is also a planning commission, and several committees. For the most part the staff run things and the board/committees give them general directions.
An ego is a turrible thing to waste.
What's the nature of law enforcement, is there a township PD?
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