[chrisanddani]

My husband was relocated from Las Vegas Nevada to Detroit and we are moving to Northville to a home I have not seen but he has (i've seen pictures). I visited Detroit to find a place to live however had not found anything in the time I was there, so it was up to my husband to do the deed and find something. Can anyone tell me about Northville? Is it a nice city to live in? We don't have children so schools or child activities are not an issue. I do love horses so being near horses would be a plus.

[Cato the Elder]

I'm sure others with more experience can chime in, but I've heard only good things about Northville. You have the added advantage of easy access to a number of highways. IIRC, someone mentioned horses west of Northville, so I think you live in the right place in that regard. Welcome to MI!

[sundancer]

You picked a great place to live. Northville has a wonderful downtown, many fine resturants and shops. Maybury State Park in Northville has horse trails and I belive they still rent horses for riding. There is also Northville Downs just south of town, its a harness horse racing track. There are many horse farms near by for boarding or lessons........

[Angelstar490]

I used to work in Northville and lived in Waterford. It was ok, there are some nice areas but it's getting built up quickly around there.

[CoffeeAddict]

I used to live near Northville and I loved the downtown area. It's very walkable, beautiful and has a decent amount of shops. Everything there is very expensive though, so be warned you won't find any bargins there. The majority of shops are specialty type boutiques and they price accordingly.

You're not far from both Twelve Oaks Mall (huge) and Laural Park Place (smaller) though if you want more serious shopping.

The whole area and most of the surrounding areas are very safe and great places to live in my opinion. There are plenty of restaurants, a Borders only about 10 minutes from downtown, etc. etc.

I doubt you'd have to worry about crime, in more expensive suburbs like that it's practically unheard of. You could walk around downtown Northville in the dark and feel very safe.

You're close to South Lyon which is like horse country, lots of farms to choose from to take lessons or board your horses.

All in all I think you picked a great place. If I wasn't trying to leave MI I'd probably move there again.

[M TYPE X]

Congratulations on your move to Northville!

[chrisanddani]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I did get the opportunity to see Northville this weekend during an art festival that they were having. Love the small town feel especially after being in Las Vegas for so many years, but also love the fact that it's not far from everything one would need, like Twelve Oaks Mall.

Went by the house we are moving to and it is very close to the downtown area (less than a mile) so I'm glad that it is safe to walk the town.

Checked out Maybury park and some of the ranches in the area. Still hoping to find a horse to lease, but I'm looking forward to the move.

[jeffncandace]

Here's a few links...

//www.city-data.com/city/Northville-Michigan.html

Official Website of the City of Northville, Michigan (MI)

Northville Public Schools, Northville, Michigan U.S.A.

Downtown Northville, Michigan (MI)

Hope this helps! Good luck, and welcome to Michigan!

[kristenshellenbarger]

any recommedations of farms/stables for horse boarding in South Lyon..I'm looking at some options

[Coldjensens]

I grew up in between Northville and South Lyon.

Northville is a wonderful place. It was one of themost quaint small towns around. Then developers got hold of it and tore down a lot of the historic buildings and put up awful fake looking historic/modern buildings. They did not get everything and it is still cute, but a sad statement of what it was.

The schools are absolutely execellent. as a total package of academics and extracirricular activities, you willnto find substantially superior options anywhere.

Crime is not really much of an issue.

Northville is pretty expensive compared to other areas, but keep in mind you are paying for something when you pay more.

There is an atesian well in town where you can fill up jugs of natural spring water for free (unless they closed it). South Lyon is hosre country. When I lived there, it was listed in the almanac as the horse capital of the united states. I do nto know how hthat was measured, but that was our claim to fame.

If you like Morgans, try to find Debbie Marquardt in the South Lyon area (check the phone book, she proabbly has some sort of horse related business). You will not find many people with more expertise. She will be able to tell you pretty much everything about the horse scene (assuming that she is still around. She moved up north, but I heard that she was back in town now).

Northville has a great location. It is close to Plymouth (another really great town) not too far from Ann Arbor, and close to Kensington Metropark. For a developed park, no place is nicer than Kensington.

Maybury is a great park as well. It was once a turbuculosis sanitarium. I grew up exploring the old steam tunnels that once connected the buildings in the park. That is probably gone now. It is grat because it is relavtively undeveloped. It is a great place for X-C skiing and bike riding. They also have a neat farm with an intersting history ask about what happened when the barn burned down. It is a very intersting story, but too long to post here.

A little further down 8 mile accross from Maybury is a great wooden playground. It is even fund for adults. In the fall there are too many yellow jackets there to use it, but the rest of the year is nice. There are also some very large sports fields right there. This is a great place to fly a kite or a model airplane (or play soccer or baseball).

If you like malls, Novi is one big shopping mall and it is only a few miles away. To me 12 oaks is a horrid, crowded, closed in place that is only slightly better than dental surgury ont he scale of unpleasant things to do, but people who like shopping seem to love it.

Northville still has quite a few nice small shops downtown. They have an awesome independant lumber yard just outside of downtown where you can find things not available anywhere else in the area.


For big box stoes, Cosco is not far away in Livonia. Ikea (shudder - dental surgury is preferable to that place) is nearby in Canton. There is a Home Depot on 5 mile road at either Beck or Sheldon, but why go there when you have that awesome lumberyard?

Northville Downs a horse racing track is just outside of town. I have only been there for some ostrich races, a horse show and something to do with cars. Never saw a horse race there, but it would be neat.

Down near Northville lumber they moved a collection of historic homes and made a small park. It is neat to visit.

the housing stock in Northville is awesome. There are hundreds of classic beautifully maintained historic homes around the downtown. As you get out a little you can choose from multitudes of McMansion and mini-McMansion subdivisions, custom homes of all sizes shapes and ages, or even a hhistoric farmhouse on some acreage.

Northville is very close to two major freeways. However expect a lot of traffic. The area is getting overbuilt. It is about 40 minutes from the airport and about an hour from Detroit. People will say shorter times, but they are exagerating. I commuted from Northville to Detroit every day for four years and we rarely made it in less than one hour (parking lot to parking lot).

If you like golf, Lyon Township is home to more golf courses per mile than I have ever seen anywhere. Myrtle beach may have more, but it is close.

If you attend church there are scores of very good very active churches in the area. We particularly love the Methodist church in New Hudson, but it is too far away for us to attend it regularly. From Northville it is pretty close (and you could go out to Kensington after church).

Brighton is not far away. They have a little mound made of trash that you can ski on in the winter. Kensington has outstanding X-c skiing and the best seldding hills and tobbogan runs that I have ever seen.

I cannot imagine how you could ever regret choosing Northville as a place to live. We considered it and chose Grosse Ile for the water, but sometimes I wish that we had selected Northville or Plymouth. (Although Other times I am very glad that we chose Grosse Ile). The only downsides that I can see to Northville are traffic and a touch of pretension/snobbery (not much, but a touch - it stands out since the area is generally filled with down to earth friendly people).