[kimsandine]

My husband and I are looking for a nice lake community, northwoods feel, for our retirement summer home. Nothing fancy, however, in a nice area. My sister lives in Grosse Pointe Woods and I would like to stay within 2-3 hrs of her. We have looked in the Lake Orion, Algonac area already, not exactly what we are looking for. We would love a 250 acre lake or more, staying in the 250-275 price range. Any ideas???

[mostie]

City-data has profiles on just about every area in the U.S., and then some. When I wanted to find out about a certain place, I would put the name of the city and state in a google search, along with the word "profile", and it would usually give me a city-data related profile within the first two or three on the page. A lot of times, there are pictures along with it as well as just about anything you would want to know about the place, including any forum posts made about it.

That said, Michigan is full of lakes just about everywhere you look- you shouldn't have a problem finding what you're looking for! We used to live close to St. Clair Shores, and I positively loved it- it isn't too far from Grosse Pointe Woods.

[Cliffie]

Two words: Lakeland, Michigan. It's about an hour from the Pointes and has a parklike, way-out-in-the-sticks feel while being a few minutes from the freeway and civilization.

Also: the Barton Hills area outside Ann Arbor; the Pinckney/Hell area; Ore Creek; the Michigan Chain Of Lakes in general; Bishop Lake in the Brighton area; the Whitmore/ Horsehoe lakes; Silver Lake in South Lyon. You can't swing a baseball bat in Oakland County without hitting a lake, either.

Off in the other direction, there's always New Baltimore, very watery indeed; it's the home of the fish-fly festival.

[detwahDJ]

You're talkin' woodsy lakefront property with cottage and invisible neighbors?
After a quick search I found this.
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale...ect/13_zm/_fm/

NW Michigan has the "north woods", not so much the east side, especially close to Detroit. I searched Genesee County for this.
Check the topography here.
https://maps.google.com/?ll=42.80201...32093&t=h&z=14

Seems like you could check Zillow maps for homes, then the zoomable Google or Bing satellite maps for topography.

[Coldjensens]

Somewhat different from a lake, but you could look at Grosse Ile. It is very much like living at summer camp in parts. Other parts are more developed. Problem is at $275K you are not going to get waterfront. You may get something on a canal. You could get a waterfront condo unit. I think there are only two of them though so units may not come up often.

You would get a house on Buno Road just outside of Kensington. I do not think there is anything right on the lake, but it is very heavily wooded back there.

Most water communities lack trees. There are just tons of homes all crammed together. Those are the two I can think of that are not like that.

If you go way up north of the bluewater bridge there are some nice lake front communities with trees, but the road seems pretty busy.

[kimsandine]

Thank you everyone for your responses.

[detwahDJ]

I was intrigued, so did some searching.
Attica Houses For Sale & Single Family Homes - Zillow
Price seems low, but...

Leonard Houses For Sale & Single Family Homes - Zillow

Oakland Houses For Sale & Single Family Homes - Zillow

Oxford Houses For Sale & Single Family Homes - Zillow

Lake Orion Houses For Sale & Single Family Homes - Zillow

Dryden Houses For Sale & Single Family Homes - Zillow

I don't see the "northwoods" here, but some look peaceful - probably are.

[cmuguy25]

Check out the Fenton/Linden area. Affordable housing around plenty of lakes.

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Eastsiders seem to prefer lake homes in the Thumb area north of Port Huron. There's lots of affordable home and land up there as the rise in vacation home prices hasn't spread very far east. It would certainly meet your 2-3 hour criteria.