Atlanta to Detroit (Warren, Troy, Royal Oak: to rent, condo, big house)

[Stormhammer]

Hi all,

Currently in final rounds of negotiating a new job role with GM ( tech sector ) so I'll be posted up at the Warren facility. Wife and I are also expecting our first in March.

Was wanting to further inquire from others are which areas are not within an unreasonable commute time ( say, no more than 30 minutes ), with young family neighborhoods/good schools. Housing budget is we can afford anything up to $700k ( both engineers and will be selling a high rise condo down here to act as a down payment ).

Any advice or perspective is appreciated!

[mgkeith]

Troy, Birmingham, or perhaps the Grosse Points might be good for you. $700K goes a long way here. Best wishes and hope all goes well with negotiations!

[DTWflyer]

$700k will get you pretty much anywhere and a whole lot of house in Metro Detroit. Nothig is really off limits in that price range and you can probably find something really nice for well under that price.

The usual factors will come into play into deciding which areas make the most sense.
Obviously you mention within 30 minutes / reasonable commute.
However you will have to decide if you want newer build/new construction vs. older, established areas.
What ammenities you desire in close proximity.

Places that should look at include:
Troy - stereotypical car-centric suburbia, with really good schools, excellent city services and wide array of housing stock
Birmingham - generally upper class, with a higher-end entertainment/commerical district downtown. excellent schools, expensive housing market, more traditional walk-able street grid. Mix of older (and well maintained homes) and tear-down new builds
Bloomfield Twp - a more sprawly and quieter version that heavily aligns with Birmingham, bigger lots in general
Shelby Twp. - lots of pockets of new build construction in the past 20 years, anywhere from $300-$600+ depending on the neighborhood. Generally car-centric and sprawling, but lots of kids and families
Macomb - similar to Shelby
Washington Twp. - similar to Shelby and Macomb, although a bit more recent development, a bit farther out from Warren
Grosse Pointe - the other direction than everywhere else, but an identify of itself, on the waterfront. Generally older, well maintained housing stock
Royal Oak
Huntington Woods
Pleasant Ridge

[Coldjensens]

You are going to laugh when you see what $700K will buy here.

A client once game me advice - do not get a big house. Your family disappears into their personal areas and you lose a lot of the closeness you have in a smaller house. I should have listened. We did not get a huge house, but big and I definitely saw what he was talking about. My advice form experience doing it wrong - get a really nice small house and put the rest of the money away for travel, entertainment, college, and retirement. I would suggest you get a $300 K house and put $100 K into each of the four categories. Your life and your family's lives will be better for it. Of course you will nto listen, I do didn't. Nobody does. We all just look back and say we should have done that. Should have listened.

Another thing to consider. The housing market is at or just over a peak. It may be prudent to rent for a few years and see if prices fall. that is another ting I did not do and should have. We moved here at the end of 2005 and "bought" our house in 2006-2007. Could not have times it worse.

[lynnc99]

Coldjensens is right on with his $$$ plan! (Well, even if you put 50k into each of those categories....better than most by far!)

In the Tech Center area a lot of people commute from Troy and Rochester areas. Rochester is beautiful with a great downtown and both offer top flight schools. Your commute from Rochester will be a bit longer, however.

Closer to your work, consider some of the nicer areas in Utica Schools attendance area. (It's huge - 2nd largest district in MI, and offers a lot to kids). You may get more bang for your buck in a house in Macomb County - areas would include Shelby Township and even out toward Washington Twp. No real downtowns there, but close to trails and apple orchards and all the main amenities.