Relocation to Grand Rapids

[slowmoe]

I've been in GR for about 1 1/2 years now. Moved here from Metro Detroit. I think this city is fairly conservative because they have a ton of old people who live here and have lived here their entire life.

But the younger community is pretty laid back. Traffic is virtually nill and housing will probably not drop much more if at all. If you have good job it wouldn't be bad here at all you will find that you have tons of extra money I knwo I do.

I actually am moving out of here in a week to go to San Diego ironically. Got a good job out there and I have lived in MI my whole life I am dying to know what it's like to have no winter. Particularly no MI winter, particularly no GR winter, winter in GR is extremely rough IMO. More snow than Detroit and colder overall, those from warmer climates I think will have a tough time here the first winter.

But if your concern is conservativeness, I wouldn't worry this city makes it very easy to avoid people who you don't see eye to eye with. Gorgeous summers here too.

[slowmoe]

Oh and in terms of crime, being from Metro Detroit I suppose I have a biased opinion but I would say that I would never even consider worrying about crime here, just nothing to worry about at all.

[suydam]

Regardless of where you end up, my advice to homebuyers is always buy the home you'll be happy with in a few years.

If you think it'll be an easy sell to move to EGR when "it's time to send the kids to school" you might find yourself in the middle of a recession, or real estate crash, or whatever. Buy what you want for the long term. If you need to upgrade later, you'll be selling an EGR house and looking for a new one a few blocks (or a couple miles at the top end) away (it's a tiny city)....when that happens, if it takes 2 years to sell your house, you're at least where you planned to be in the first place.

You can do what my wife and I did. We really like the city of GR, we needed EGR schools, we moved to the western side of EGR and can easily walk to Eastown for a beer and some nan bread at Bombay, or we can walk to Gaslight Village for dinner on Reeds Lake at Rose's. It's possible to enjoy both.

[Cato the Elder]

San Diego sounds like a great opportunity. It sounds like you are relatively young so now's the time to do it! Don't be surprised if you move back to MI after several years though. If you think going from Detroit to GR was a shock, wait until you hit CA and see the pricetag on everthing. My uncle is an exec for Motorola who made oodles of money at the turn of the millennium. He feels lucky to have the house he bought in the 90s, but wants an upgrade for his family. Unfortunately, he would have to mortgage his life away to get a larger house while staying in the neighborhood!

[CaseyAnnWMU]

I went to EGR K thru 12 and could not be more thankful for the education!!! I'm 25 now and live downtown in a high rise, but EGR was great growing up. I would NOT raise my kids in Heritage Hill. GRPS are not very good. The conservative thing has never struck me as a huge issue. If you want to avoid that, avoid Ottawa County. (Jenison/Grandville/Hudsonville/Zeeland, etc.) That's the "Bible Belt" of West Michigan.