[brindlemastiff1]

My wife and I are considering a move from Chicago, IL to Fennville, MI. We want to live in a rural area but that has close access to nice walkable towns (e.g. Saugatuck) as well as beaches, and also be relatively close to South Bend Indiana. Also we want a "permanent" place to settle down which will be safe & quiet for decades to come.

We were told that the Fennville area has fewer people (and less crime) then some of the rural areas to the south.

1. Is there any aspect of living in Fennville that might not be obvious to us, doing the "normal" research?

2. Is it a relatively low-crime area?

3. In the future is there likely to be population growth and/or crime coming in from nearby cities or towns? (in my experience back in Ohio sometimes this happened to "nice" rural towns over a decade or more where nearby suburbs / towns sort of expanded and over time the crime situation changed a lot for the worse) ... Obviously Saugatuck is growing but I wouldn't be worried about that as much...

[detwahDJ]

Fennville is becoming a far-flung "suburb" of Saugatuck/Douglas with some "arty" gay-friendly businesses. It is definitely Smalltown USA if that's what you want and can travel to Holland, Grand Rapids, or Kalamazoo for serious shopping or entertainment.
I don't have first-hand knowledge of crime even though I am eight miles from there.
From crime stats:
Violent crime is half (2.15) of the Michigan 4.45 (natl median of 3.9 per thousand).
Property crime is about even with Mich avg (24 vs 26) natl median being 29 per thousand.
Another source with a scale of 1-10 for violent crime and property crime give it a 3 for both vs a U.S. avg of 4.
We do have B&Es occasionally, but I see Fennville as a more close-knit community.
All crimes are below the national average except rape for some reason.
I was curious, so I did some research.