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I have been called crazy for even considering this - being that Detroit's unemployment is nearly 30% and the city has half the population it used to.
That said, I live in the upscale north suburbs of Chicago now with my wife and 2 kids, 4 and 2. I work in advertising sales and while my pay has been quite good over the past 5 years or so...the stress of our high mortgage payment for a 40 year old home just doesn't sit right with me.
My wife is from the Bloomfield area and we go there every year for Christmas (her family is Christian/mine is Jewish). Any way, I have been given the green light from my boss to move the Michigan and cover the Detroit area as part of my territory. We were considering West Bloomfield for exclellent schools, lakes, safety and it looks like you can get a great home for $450k or even less - huge bargain compared to Chicago.
So, I'm wondering if people can give an honest opinion...is it crazy to move to the Detroit suburbs? I know they are beautiful and great schools. But if the jobs keep disapearing and housing foreclosures keep going up - tax revenues will be affected, schools will slip along with other basic amenities. Are people concerned that even these nice suburbs will start to go downhill because the economy is so bad in Michigan? Like I said, I love the idea of a much less expensive home and all the lakes etc - but is moving to Detroit 'burbs a bad idea??
Sorry for the long post - just wanted to try and paint a detailed picture of where I am coming from. Thanks in advance for responses.
Having just moved from the Detroit burbs to the Chicago burbs, I can say with absolute certainty that I don't think it is a bad idea at all.
I have lived in Troy, Sterling Heights, Lake Orion, etc almost all my life, and just recently moved to Chicago (for job purposes) and am currently living in the Naperville/Aurora area.
Without a doubt you can find very similar living circumstances (as far as lifestyle, school, shopping, etc) at a much discounted price in Detroit. Cost of living is probably upwards of 40% less than Chicago, especially in housing. If you're looking at houses in the $500k range, in today's economy, you will be able to find stunning houses in the Detroit suburbs (Bloomfield or elsewhere).
As for the future prospects of the area... I don't think anyone has any illusions about the auto-industry suddenly going full bore again and getting back to the roaring '90s type of economy, but there's no reason to suspect that the Detroit area will find a way to stay productive and healthy within the next decade. Housing prices could certainly continue to fall, but I don't think it would ever get to the point where areas like West Bloomfield, Rochester, etc will not be attractive areas to live.
If you've got a solid foundation for work and family there, I can't imagine any reason why you wouldn't want to live in Detroit. The problem 99% of us are having is finding that solid work. If you've got that covered I'd say you've got nothing to worry about.
$450,000 will buy you a small mansion, or a full on McMansion if you are into that sort of thing. The schools are decent. My niece just graduated from there this year. The high school is huge. I do not think it is on par with schools like Northville, Novi, Ann Arbor, or Plymouth Canton, but it is definietly one of the good to great schools in the area. Being a mega school, it has a lot of variety to offer students. Our kids looked at their cousin's school and shuddered (they had 148 kids in their graduating class, their cousin had well over 1,000, it may have been as many as 2,000 i cannot remember). The school is a small city. The plus side of that is that it offers a huge number of opportunities, programs, clubs, etc. The downside is that your kids may be lost in the crowd. It really depends on your kids.
Housing stock in West Bloomfield is mixed. They have lots of your typical McMansion modern subdivisions, middle aged neighborhoods and even some historic areas (mostly old farmhouses). There are some apartment complexes of various levels of quality/cost. I do not think that there are many trailer parks or low invomce living areas. There is good access to shopping, events and it is not far to drive to get out of the rat race and into nature. Traffic is unpleasant by Michigan standards, but may be no big deal by Chicago standards. It is a bit of a drive to Detroit, or to the Downriver area, but access to the wealthy north Oakland County areas is very good. Plus it is nto too far from Kensington Metropark (my favorite place).
Detroit has some nice events downtown and there are your tyupical large city theaters, sporting houses, and dining locations. It does not have the life and variety of Chicago, San Francisco or New York. While downtown is nice, most of the rest of the city is either empty or run down and scary. There are a few scattered pockets of nice. Mostly it is empty.
When you get into the suburbs it is great however. Royal Oak is a fun lively little city for adults (it also has the nice Detroit Zoo). Ferndale is pretty fun (and fashionable!). Birmingham can be a nice place to get to know and spend a day once in a while. Troy has perhaps the nicest shopping mall that i have seen anywhere in the country. Grosse Pointe and its spin off Pointes are very nice places to live and have great schools. Ann Arbor and all of its surrounding little towns are marvelous (again great school options there too).
Lots of water sports. It is very easy to buy water front property because there are so many lakes and rivers. For Example, where i live, at $450,000 you could readily buy a decent sized house with a dock on the Detroit River. Four years ago, the same houses were selling for $800,000 to $1 million plus. The schools are exemplary, crime is nil, and we are half an hour from Detroit. This is just an example, but it is common everywhere. High end home values are especially hard hit.
West Bloomfiled is even cheaper, although there is less waterfront property available and only on small lakes. If you see a house that does not seem like a phenominal deal, keep looking for a while. Real estate is really cheap and still falling. If you are not afraid of losing your job to downsizing due ot the economic conditions, this is an absolutely great time to buy a house in this area if you are going to stay long term.
I do not know what business you are in, but not every business is failing. OUr business has grown considerably during the past three years and while profit margins are down, we will continue to grow slowly or at least hold at current levels.
I do not know what business you are in, but not every business is failing. OUr business has grown considerably during the past three years and while profit margins are down, we will continue to grow slowly or at least hold at current levels.[/quote]
Thanks so much for thoses responses...I work in national online advertisng sales and would gain Michigan as part of my territory if I moved there, though the bulk of my business would still be in Chicago. My compnay has had layoffs just like pretty much everyone else. I am the only midwest salesperson though, so they definitely need a body. However, if for some reason I did lose my job or decided I didn't want to be here any more, it does concern me that there may not be an advertising job (specifically sales) for me in the Detroit area.
Overall, housing/schools/safety etc make it look very attractive. I'm just nervous that MI is such a single industry state. Its like having a non diversified portfolio.
Michigan is not really a single industry state anymore. Some might say that right now it is a no industry state. You concerns could be an issue. I do hear radio stations looking for salepersons. No idea what it pays. Most sales jobs here ar probably going to be comission based and sales will be difficult.
On the other hand Michigan is obviously going to have to re-make itself as a multiple industry state. You can get in from the bottom up on potential growth industries. I am confident that Michigan will turn around. There are a lot of reasons, but one big reason is water. Many industries, especially high tech, need lots of water. Michigan has plentiful fresh water supplies. Supposedly water is will soon be a bigger commodity than oil. Further, Michigan will evnetually attract companies again becasue their employees can find very nice very affordable places to live with great schools and a very well designed road system (although it is currently decaying) and plenty of available buildings for businesses at very reasonable rates. We just have to get our government to relieve some of the anti business atmosphere that the state has created.
I would rather live in Detroit suburbs then Chicago ones. The traffic isnt as bad in Detroit as it is in Chicago.
Maybe instead of buying a real expensive home, why not downgrade, and save money to form more of a barrier against any upcoming economic decline. I think investing in that much real estate, is a bad idea, housing stock values will probably continue to fall in the Detroit area.
I would rather live in Detroit suburbs then Chicago ones. The traffic isnt as bad in Detroit as it is in Chicago.
Maybe instead of buying a real expensive home, why not downgrade, and save money to form more of a barrier against any upcoming economic decline. I think investing in that much real estate, is a bad idea, housing stock values will probably continue to fall in the Detroit area.
I have been called crazy for even considering this - being that Detroit's unemployment is nearly 30% and the city has half the population it used to.
That said, I live in the upscale north suburbs of Chicago now with my wife and 2 kids, 4 and 2. I work in advertising sales and while my pay has been quite good over the past 5 years or so...the stress of our high mortgage payment for a 40 year old home just doesn't sit right with me.
My wife is from the Bloomfield area and we go there every year for Christmas (her family is Christian/mine is Jewish). Any way, I have been given the green light from my boss to move the Michigan and cover the Detroit area as part of my territory. We were considering West Bloomfield for exclellent schools, lakes, safety and it looks like you can get a great home for $450k or even less - huge bargain compared to Chicago.
So, I'm wondering if people can give an honest opinion...is it crazy to move to the Detroit suburbs? I know they are beautiful and great schools. But if the jobs keep disapearing and housing foreclosures keep going up - tax revenues will be affected, schools will slip along with other basic amenities. Are people concerned that even these nice suburbs will start to go downhill because the economy is so bad in Michigan? Like I said, I love the idea of a much less expensive home and all the lakes etc - but is moving to Detroit 'burbs a bad idea??
Sorry for the long post - just wanted to try and paint a detailed picture of where I am coming from. Thanks in advance for responses.
There is a common disconnect in your post. You are using statistics for DETROIT PROPER…ie…30% unemployment and half the population of its peak (where do you think most of the people who left the city went? Yep...the suburbs), while being interested in moving to the Detroit suburbs. That would be akin to me deciding whether I should move to Aurora, Illinois based upon the statistics of the South Side of Chicago. In other words, one area really has nothing to do with the other and hence to use statistics from one area does not map to be true of the other.
What people need to realize is that the city of Detroit, Michigan proper, is NOT a microcosm of the Metropolitan Detroit area. Said another way, what is true of a part cannot be assumed true for the whole, a common fallacy. In truth, the Detroit area is really not that different from the Chicago area. The city of Detroit population represents about 15% or less of the greater metropolitan area and its land mass probably less than 10% of the areas square miles (constrast that with Chicago). The main difference is where the rich and upper classes choose to live in the metropolitan area. In the Detroit area, the City of Detroit has a very, very small percentage of the areas upper-class and wealthy, while in the Chicago area the City of Chicago proper has a much, much greater percentage of the upper-class living within the city limits. Also, where office jobs and retail are located in the two areas are different as well. The City of Chicago proper has a much greater percentage of the areas occupied office space and retail than does the city of Detroit proper in the Detroit area.
In light of this, most core cities in America are much more of a microcosm of their metropolitan areas than is true of the Detroit area. The suburbs of Detroit are not that different than the suburbs of Chicago and the unemployment rate in Detroit suburbs are not even close to what the unemployment rate is in the City of Detroit proper. So my suggestion to you is that a move from the Chicago suburbs to the Detroit suburbs will not be a big adjustment at all. At this point going forward, chicago will loose as many jobs as Detroit because Detroit has essentially hit bottom with the Auto Industry, unless they go completely out of business...which the government will not let happen. There are not that many auto jobs left to slash and so other sectors of the economy will grow in Michigan and will not be offset by continued loss of auto jobs.
People in America need to stop judging Metropolitan Detroit by the conditions that 15% of its citizens live under. Its not like that other areas in America don't have 15% of its citizens living in relative bad conditions. Should people not move to the Chicago area because the South Side of the city has a lot of problem? Yet, people are leary of moving to the Detroit area because the City of Detroit (the equivalent of Chicago's South side) has a lot of problem. Go figure...
Last edited by Indentured Servant; 10-15-2009 at 12:31 PM..
common disconnect... using statistics …ie… of its peak... would be akin. In other words... and hence... does not map to be true of the other.
...Michigan proper, is NOT a microcosm of... Said another way, what is true of a part cannot be assumed true for the whole, a common fallacy.
In light of this, most core cities in America are much more of a microcosm of their metropolitan areas than is true of the Detroit area.
I'm sorry... but while I wasn't scratching my head reading your post I was laughing. I've had college professors who didn't cram this much jargon into an hour long lecture, let alone an internet forum post.
What time is the recitation for this sociology class? Are we going to be graded on attendance?
I would rather live in Detroit suburbs then Chicago ones. The traffic isnt as bad in Detroit as it is in Chicago.
Maybe instead of buying a real expensive home, why not downgrade, and save money to form more of a barrier against any upcoming economic decline. I think investing in that much real estate, is a bad idea, housing stock values will probably continue to fall in the Detroit area.
When you say 'real expensive home' are you referring to the $450k price tag I mentioned? In Chicago's suburbs, the northern ones any way - that is basically a tear down 50's ranch with no updating.
My home was purchased for $765k and was built in 1969. So while a house for $450k might seem big/expensive there...it is a bargain compared to our lifestyle now. The homes I have seen in West Bloomfield for that price range are anywhere between 3,000 - 4,000 sq feet. My home now is 3,200 sq feet. So I guess its all relative. We would simply like a newer home of equal size to the one we have now for less money. Going too far below $450k the homes look like they start needing a lot of updating (not in the cards for me - been there done that).
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