What is the best Suburb for a young family? (Detroit: houses, school district)

[Dkendr02]

My wife, 2 boys (age 4 and 6) and I are moving to the Detroit area in april 2009. I will be working out of Farmington Hills, and have heard that the Birmingham and Northville areas are places I should be looking at closely. Are there any other family friendly areas with access to parks, a great elementary schools, and a thriving main street downtown?

[renter8319]

royal oak, novi

[DaniellaG]

I think Birmingham schools are very good. I don't have much good to sy about MI but if I had children I would want them to go to Birmingham schools. Bloomfield Hills though I think are on those lines as well. In Birmingham there is a cute downtown with shops and a park. It is close to Troy which has major malls and not too far from Farmington Hills depending on where. It is very safe though some of the homes in downtown Birmingham are expensive and are older/smaller. If you like more a new style home there is Bloomfield Hills and West Bloomfield. All good schools but expensive though in this markey you can probably get a good deal.

[Dexterguy]

1. Birmingham

2. Northville

3. Novi (in Northville schools)

4. Bloomfield and West Bloomfield

This would be my list, I live in Novi, and have always enjoyed it, but if you look into Novi look in SOUTHERN NOVI, were the Northville schools are, you are closer to downtown Northville, and closer to M-14, I-96, I-275, etc.

I love Birmingham and the surrounding area, but some areas of the city, the taxes are very high, and homes are very expensive, but Birmingham is a great area.

[Buggle]

Hi,
I've lived in Royal Oak for going on 9 years. Why not look in Farmington Hills? The schools are good, there are a lot of beautiful houses available and there really are hills! I wouldn't drive from FH to Royal Oak or Birmingham every day when you have larger, less expensive houses available in Farmington Hills! I would look at Northville, too.

[Coldjensens]

Farminton hills is pretty nice. West Bloomfield is nearby and nice with good schools. Northville is terrific and has great schools. South Lyon/New Hudson are nearby and also have very good schools.

If you do not mind a bit of driving, Plymouth is awesome and has great schools.

You might also want to look at Milford, Walled Lake, Franklin, Northern Livonia, Canton.
All of these places (Except Franklin) are discussed at length on these threads somewhere. All offer differnt things. Northville and Plymouth probably offer the best combination of what you said you are looking for (good schools, nice/quaint downtown and parks). Welcome

[hemmie]

Originally Posted by Dkendr02

My wife, 2 boys (age 4 and 6) and I are moving to the Detroit area in april 2009. I will be working out of Farmington Hills, and have heard that the Birmingham and Northville areas are places I should be looking at closely. Are there any other family friendly areas with access to parks, a great elementary schools, and a thriving main street downtown?

Hi,
We're in a very similar situation, except that we're moving this summer and my husband will be commuting to Wayne State. I started this thread a while back that may have some details you may find helpful (or confusing!). I strongly suggest you check out Great Schools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community for school ratings; I have found this to be enormously helpful in comparing schools, although take both the quantitative and qualitative ratings/rankings with a grain of salt, as you never know what may be bringing a school's score up or down. Helpful anyway though.

Also, for Birmingham, for example, the city itself has extremely high taxes, but some of the neighboring townships still give you access to the school district but without the sky high taxes. I'm sure there are trade offs - I don't know personally what those might be yet, but I'll find out, as I'm going to visit in a couple of weeks.

I've done a lot of research (as much as I can possibly do, I feel like, without having gone in person yet), so please feel free to PM if you'd like.

[Shrewsbury Road]

Ann Arbor is in the list for best places to raise a family in the U.S maybe there.

[bc008]

Plymouth has great history, parks, schools and even better: very low home prices.

[Bhaalspawn]

What's wrong with Farmington Hills schools and living in Farmington Hills?

Last time I checked, except for the four square mile area between Inkster-Orchard Lake, 8-Mile, and 10 Mile, with most of the blight and lower class areas being along Grand River, Farmington Hills is a solid middle class city with college-educated and professional degree-holding residents. The city also has a large upper middle class contingent (becoming more upscale to the north and west). As far as I know the schools are first-rate, or at least North Farmington High is.

It might not be as pure white and as upper class as some of the newer and more expensive suburbs like Novi, Commerce, and West Bloomfield, but it's isn't exactly Southfield either.