Need help choosing a suburb (Milford/Brighton/Dexter/Macomb Twp/Orion Twp) (Detroit: new house, movie theater)
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These are the main towns we are considering and we could really use any info on these areas. We want a newer home, and we both work from home so are flexible on location. Our top priorities are safety and schools. Thanks for any info!!
Milford - I think I read in another post someone said it is not as family-friendly as, say, South Lyon. Can anyone explain any more about that? We like South Lyon but prices are higher. A couple posts I found didn't have the best things to say about Huron Valley schools- greatschools gives the district an 8/10. Interested in any personal experiences w/the schools, esp. Heritage elementary in Highland?
Brighton/ some of which seems to be in Hartland schools? - Any thoughts on this area? I like that this seems closer to an expressway than Milford - which seems like there's no quick access to.
Macomb Township - I posted asking about Macomb Twp. before and it sounds like a pretty family-friendly area. A lot of new homes at good prices, not sure on the schools (Thoughts on Chippewa Valley district?).
Lake Orion/Orion Township - Another completely different area but have seen some good listings here and have friends near there.
Dexter- This is further out than we want to go but Ann Arbor would be nice to have nearby and I've heard great things about Dexter.
These are the main towns we are considering and we could really use any info on these areas. We want a newer home, and we both work from home so are flexible on location. Our top priorities are safety and schools. Thanks for any info!!
Milford - I think I read in another post someone said it is not as family-friendly as, say, South Lyon. Can anyone explain any more about that? We like South Lyon but prices are higher. A couple posts I found didn't have the best things to say about Huron Valley schools- greatschools gives the district an 8/10. Interested in any personal experiences w/the schools, esp. Heritage elementary in Highland?
Brighton/ some of which seems to be in Hartland schools? - Any thoughts on this area? I like that this seems closer to an expressway than Milford - which seems like there's no quick access to.
Macomb Township - I posted asking about Macomb Twp. before and it sounds like a pretty family-friendly area. A lot of new homes at good prices, not sure on the schools (Thoughts on Chippewa Valley district?).
Lake Orion/Orion Township - Another completely different area but have seen some good listings here and have friends near there.
Dexter- This is further out than we want to go but Ann Arbor would be nice to have nearby and I've heard great things about Dexter.
Milford is family friendly, but the schools are not as good. On the other hand if you live in town, you have a cute little town, with a river and a small park and you are just outside of Kesington Metropark. Of course South lyon is not far from Kensington either. If you are just looking for subdivision living, Lyon Township is full of new subs and it feeds to South Lyon schools. Lyon township tends to be a bit cheaper. Milford has access issues. There is really only one way in/out, if you go with rush hour traffic, it is no fun.
Brighton has the best schools in Livingston conty I think, or at least some of the best. Unfortunately that does not put them in real competition with South Lyon, Northville, Plymouth, Novi and several other places in the area. They are not bad schools, just not great in comparaison to Oakland County and a few Wayne county schools. Really good schools for livingston county. Brighton has a ski hill (ski bump?). It is a joke, just a pile of garbage (literally), but it is the only ski place in the area. Brighton has not one iota of quaintness or old fashioned small town atmosphere. What it does have is lots of room, the back side of Kensington park and good access to 23 and 96 freeways. There is plenty of big box/stip mall and fast food in Brighton. It is also at the outer edge of Detroit traffic, meaning it had better access to places like Lansing and the West coast of Michigan than most Detroit communities. The downside is it can be a struggle to get to Detroit or DTW. Ann Arbor is pretty easy access though. You can be in farm country in minutes, in fact, you are in farm country in parts of Brighton.
Dexter is an Ann Arbor suburb. Really neat quaint little town. very good schools, very safe/family oriented. Not as nice and not as expensive as Chelsea or Plymouth. It is a ways out from Detroit metro. Not a bad commute to Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor is surrounded by fabulous cities. Chelsea, Plymouth, Dexter, Saline, Tecumseh, Dixborough (actually a villiage) (and quite a way out: Grass Lake, Hell,) In the my order of best for families and quaint/cool little towns (or small city in the case of Plymouth).
Macomb Township - a super high growth area prior to the crash. That is really all I know about it.
Lake Orion. Pretty nice place. Getting out away form things a bit. Very Good schools. It has a lake. We have an office there, but I have nto had any reason to go there other than to look at it when we opened it. OUr people who live there love it but they do not have kids. (not saying it is bad for kids, they just do not ahve them, so they realy no information about family friendly.)
There are a lot of amazing places not on your list. IMO the best place to raise kids, especially if oyu do nto need to commute is Grosse Ile. Northville is probably next. Both are expensive, depending in what you want. Waterfront can cost a bundle. Plymouth is a really neat town and with execellent schools. Novi is great for people who love shopping malls, big box and subdivisions. It has execellent schools and diversity (at least a little bit which is more than almost everywhere else). Go look at Chelsea. Or maybe you should not. You may not want to live anywhere else after you visit and it is expensive (personally I still like Grosse Ile better, but then I like water).
Grosse Pointes are also very nice and have execellent schools. Close to Detroit and the sports, museums theaters ect there. Downside is it is surrounded by detroit and people complain about slightly limited shopping without a bit of a drive. You want to be in the G.P. South high school district.
Troy is nice for subdivision living and has one of the nicest upscale malls in the Country. Good schools.
Rochester - cute little town, great schools. Kind of way out there from anything but Pontiac. Not many new homes there, but Rochester Hills is nothing but newer subs. A bit pricey, but there are cheaper options. R.H. is where a lot of my wealthier friends live.
Ann Arbor is a nice and fun place to live. get away from the university, but still in biking distance form downtown and it is great. More expensive though. Schools are top notch.
realistically there are another 10-15 fabulous cities to consider. This is a great area.
Of oyur list I woudl choose Milford or Dexter, but I like quaint small towns and older homes and hate subdivisions and strip malls. Your preferences may be the reverse of mine.
Oh one last bit. You might want to look at Romeo. I keep hearing really positive things about romeo. I have never been there. It looks nice on Google.
Welcome to S. E. Michigan. There is a town here for everyone to love.
Lots of good input above. We moved to Milford 5 years ago and absolutely LOVE IT! The schools have been going through some organizational changes the past few years due to budget cuts - they're not bad - just not as award-winning as others in Oakland County. The elementary schools are doing some exciting and great things that we believe will likely start showing up in MEAP scores soon.
We truly believe we have a great "community" with a great downtown, metro park, state parks, mountain biking, paved trails, and other fun things I won't bore you with. Simply, we LOVE Milford and I'm not sure I'll ever get my wife to live anywhere else again.
There are lots of great towns around the area though and my suggestion would be to drive through them to see which ones you like better for you and your family.
Lots of good input above. We moved to Milford 5 years ago and absolutely LOVE IT! The schools have been going through some organizational changes the past few years due to budget cuts - they're not bad - just not as award-winning as others in Oakland County. The elementary schools are doing some exciting and great things that we believe will likely start showing up in MEAP scores soon.
We truly believe we have a great "community" with a great downtown, metro park, state parks, mountain biking, paved trails, and other fun things I won't bore you with. Simply, we LOVE Milford and I'm not sure I'll ever get my wife to live anywhere else again.
There are lots of great towns around the area though and my suggestion would be to drive through them to see which ones you like better for you and your family.
Sorry about Saturday Sparty, but it was our turn and long overdue.
I live in Milford and cannot agree that it is not family friendly. We are just far enough away from more developed cities to still be close. Milford is working on trying to get a new family friendly outdoor activity park for skate boarding, bikes and a few other activities. I seen the plans and it looks nice. As far as the schools I have my 2nd child going through the huron valley school district and we have been fairly happy for the most part. I know my kid comes home with work I am clueless about so they must be teaching them something. We have a nice downtown area. Kennsington metro park is awesome with a ton of things to do and right in our backyard. There is a movie theater, canoeing, and the wild life is abundant. My wife and I pulled over and watched a bald eagle circling for a few minutes driving up hickory ridge rd yesterday. It was huge! In the last week I have seen that eagle, countless deer and a coyote cross the street in front of me. Another nice thing about this area is you can live in a large new house downtown, or an old home with great style downtown. Or newer and even older homes on the outskirts. Farm houses, houses set up to have horses. It's pretty amazing what you can find here.
These are the main towns we are considering and we could really use any info on these areas. We want a newer home, and we both work from home so are flexible on location. Our top priorities are safety and schools. Thanks for any info!!
Milford - I think I read in another post someone said it is not as family-friendly as, say, South Lyon. Can anyone explain any more about that? We like South Lyon but prices are higher. A couple posts I found didn't have the best things to say about Huron Valley schools- greatschools gives the district an 8/10. Interested in any personal experiences w/the schools, esp. Heritage elementary in Highland?
Brighton/ some of which seems to be in Hartland schools? - Any thoughts on this area? I like that this seems closer to an expressway than Milford - which seems like there's no quick access to.
Macomb Township - I posted asking about Macomb Twp. before and it sounds like a pretty family-friendly area. A lot of new homes at good prices, not sure on the schools (Thoughts on Chippewa Valley district?).
Lake Orion/Orion Township - Another completely different area but have seen some good listings here and have friends near there.
Dexter- This is further out than we want to go but Ann Arbor would be nice to have nearby and I've heard great things about Dexter.
Oh!! I envy you, to be in a position to live enywhere you want because your jobs are flexible.
Instead of Macomb Twp I would look into Shelby Twp (schools are more desirable) or even Washington Twp, still there is nothing wrong with Macomb Twp, lots of newer construction. I would look also into Rochester and Grosse Pointes.
The list you provided all seems to have decents schools. It all comes to what type of area you like, do you want to be near shopping, restaurants or are you happy been away of it all in a more secluded rural area.
I missed the part about Milford not being family friendly. I disagree completely. Living here for 5 years with young kids, we believe Milford is tremendously family friendly with all kinds of amenities. Join us for some of the festivals or parades (such as the little league kickoff parade) and I think you'd agree.
Everyone has a right to their own opinion though so I'd be open to hear if someone thinks otherwise.
When I think of Milford I think of Clancys (daughter says it is the best chicken fingers anywhere), the Shutter Shop and Kensington Metropark. The mill pond park is pretty neat too if you do not mind goose poo. Fabulous housing stock. The shutter shop is owned by some kind of warlock. He was old when I was ten and almost forty years later he is still there and looks the same. He is not aging! He still sells the same cameras and toys form 30-60 years ago (lus a few neat new ones). I think some of his stock is still there from when I was a kid. Kesington is simply put, the best developed park I have seen anywhere. It is awesome. I worked there for six years and I still love every minute I can spend there. It would be really neat to get one of those houses on Buno road nestled in Kesington. That would be hard to beat. A really quaint very walkable downtown. The only real downsides are the schools being good but not great and the access/traffic issue.
Anyway I am tired, so I just thought I would write some random thoughts about Milford and then go to sleep.
1. Brighton traffic to Oakland County is often baaaaaad. There's pretty much one way in and one way out, Interstate 96, and there's frequently something going wrong during rush hour.
2. Greatschools 8/10 is pretty good for SE MI. Schools quality varies widely from district to district.
3. Macomb Township is completely soulless, if you care. Strongest housing market in Macomb County, but now the unwashed masses from southern Macomb want in. I'm not sure how Chippewa Valley is going to fare from a demographic/socioeconomic standpoint in the next few years, especially on the Clinton Township side. Dakota HS and its feeder schools are probably a better bet than CVHS and its lower schools. I graduated from that district and all I remember is that I didn't think too highly of the district, but it was definitely better than Warren Consolidated from which I came, which leads to...
4. Troy: Troy has several school districts. Stick with Troy or Birmingham for best results, Troy HS is better recommended than Athens. Avondale, maybe, never heard anything good but never heard anything bad, either. Royal Oak and the aforementioned Warren Con are also in Troy and are not at all the same caliber of Troy Schools.
5. Plymouth and Northville are truly recommendable.
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Milford is working on trying to get a new family friendly outdoor activity park for skate boarding, bikes and a few other activities. I seen the plans and it looks nice. As far as the schools I have my 2nd child going through the huron valley school district and we have been fairly happy for the most part. I know my kid comes home with work I am clueless about so they must be teaching them something. We have a nice downtown area. Kennsington metro park is awesome with a ton of things to do and right in our backyard. There is a movie theater, canoeing, and the wild life is abundant. My wife and I pulled over and watched a bald eagle circling for a few minutes driving up hickory ridge rd yesterday. It was huge! In the last week I have seen that eagle, countless deer and a coyote cross the street in front of me. Another nice thing about this area is you can live in a large new house downtown, or an old home with great style downtown. Or newer and even older homes on the outskirts. Farm houses, houses set up to have horses. It's pretty amazing what you can find here.
