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I know a few others have mentioned Detroit suburbs, but have you considered places like Ann Arbor or Royal Oak, Michigan? These are large suburbs with good schools, great communities, walkable downtowns, tons of family-friendly activities, solid economies, low crime, and home prices in the $300k-500k range. Ann Arbor is home to arguably the best public school in the country and Royal Oak houses a huge zoo. Detroit, for all its shortcomings, has some pretty incredible and affordable suburban areas with everything you'd find in the suburbs of cities like Seattle or Denver, but at a third of the price.
Other quality, family-friendly Detroit suburbs with good schools and low crime would be Berkley, Birmingham, Northville, Novi, Plymouth, Troy, and Rochester Hills. None of them have quite the broad appeal as Ann Arbor and Royal Oak, but I think they have their own charm to them and you can find homes in them anywhere from $200k+ with $700k landing you 4,000 square feet in a prime location.
We get 4 seasons here with plenty of warmth and sunshine in the summer, brisk fall mornings and balmy afternoons, incredibly green springs, and a white Christmas, but not so much snow that you can't get anywhere. I have some bias here, but Michigan is severely underrated, especially when you compare its very affordable cost of living and generally higher incomes (in the southern part of the state). Grand Rapids and Lansing also have great suburban areas worth considering, but I don't know that part of the state as well.
Oak Park is a diverse, walkable first-ring suburb. It has great schools, literally borders the city, and is served by two CTA el lines, as well as Metra commuter rail.
I know a few others have mentioned Detroit suburbs, but have you considered places like Ann Arbor or Royal Oak, Michigan? These are large suburbs with good schools, great communities, walkable downtowns, tons of family-friendly activities, solid economies, low crime, and home prices in the $300k-500k range. Ann Arbor is home to arguably the best public school in the country and Royal Oak houses a huge zoo. Detroit, for all its shortcomings, has some pretty incredible and affordable suburban areas with everything you'd find in the suburbs of cities like Seattle or Denver, but at a third of the price.
Other quality, family-friendly Detroit suburbs with good schools and low crime would be Berkley, Birmingham, Northville, Novi, Plymouth, Troy, and Rochester Hills. None of them have quite the broad appeal as Ann Arbor and Royal Oak, but I think they have their own charm to them and you can find homes in them anywhere from $200k+ with $700k landing you 4,000 square feet in a prime location.
We get 4 seasons here with plenty of warmth and sunshine in the summer, brisk fall mornings and balmy afternoons, incredibly green springs, and a white Christmas, but not so much snow that you can't get anywhere. I have some bias here, but Michigan is severely underrated, especially when you compare its very affordable cost of living and generally higher incomes (in the southern part of the state). Grand Rapids and Lansing also have great suburban areas worth considering, but I don't know that part of the state as well.
For the bolded area, I'd say that East Lansing and the Meridian township communities of Okemos and Haslett would be good choices. All have a Michigan State University influence and have very good schools. East Lansing is also walkable, while Okemos has plenty of big box shopping. CATA is a good bus system and you can use it for shopping to say Meridian Mall from East Lansing.
It is also only about an hour/hour and a half from Detroit and Ann Arbor. So, you are also close enough to go to those places whenever you can/feel like it.
I know about GR suburbs like East GR, Ada(Amway is based there), Rockford, Grandville and a little further out, Jenison have a very good reputation and are quite nice.
I know a few others have mentioned Detroit suburbs, but have you considered places like Ann Arbor or Royal Oak, Michigan? These are large suburbs with good schools, great communities, walkable downtowns, tons of family-friendly activities, solid economies, low crime, and home prices in the $300k-500k range. Ann Arbor is home to arguably the best public school in the country and Royal Oak houses a huge zoo. Detroit, for all its shortcomings, has some pretty incredible and affordable suburban areas with everything you'd find in the suburbs of cities like Seattle or Denver, but at a third of the price.
Other quality, family-friendly Detroit suburbs with good schools and low crime would be Berkley, Birmingham, Northville, Novi, Plymouth, Troy, and Rochester Hills. None of them have quite the broad appeal as Ann Arbor and Royal Oak, but I think they have their own charm to them and you can find homes in them anywhere from $200k+ with $700k landing you 4,000 square feet in a prime location.
We get 4 seasons here with plenty of warmth and sunshine in the summer, brisk fall mornings and balmy afternoons, incredibly green springs, and a white Christmas, but not so much snow that you can't get anywhere. I have some bias here, but Michigan is severely underrated, especially when you compare its very affordable cost of living and generally higher incomes (in the southern part of the state). Grand Rapids and Lansing also have great suburban areas worth considering, but I don't know that part of the state as well.
Take a look into the suburbs of Philly. Chesterbrook(#2 on niche best places to live in America)/Berwyn/Wayne. The area gets all four seasons, great schools and cost of living. There's state public schools like Penn State which is a bit far, but maybe your kids will want to live at school for college. There's also a satellite campus or two. There's also Villanova nearby if they go private. It's also like an hour and a half into NYC, and around the same amount to AC and Jersey beaches.
I'm a single dad 25 y/o, looking to move in one or two years (family of three; 1 y/o & 4 y/o), currently at NYC but it's not good for kids (bad public non-selective schools, not very safe, people aren't kid-friendly, not much accessible kid activities). I will also be starting my own business in the new location.
Housing: Looking to purchase for ~750K (could go higher if it's my only option, but prefer not to)
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What I want :
Priority is kids so good schools & activities for kids and families, good economy, good community, safety, good public in-state universities
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Preferable but not necessary:
Snowy winters/Christmas (not very frequent rains preferably however), close to a city
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I will live in a suburb, I'm looking at: (but also looking for other suggestions)
Colorado (Denver & Colorado Springs)
Oregon (Portland)
Wisconsin (Madison)
Minnesota (Minneapolis) appears to have very harsh winters though
Illinois (Chicago)
California (San Diego)
Texas (Austin & Dallas)
I'd choose Minneapolis or Madison. Winters can be harsh but Midwestern people are salt of the earth.
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