[animatedmartian]

And speaking on Buffalo, I watched this video and I definitely can see the similarities between Buffalo and Detroit. Even some of Detroit's downtown neighborhoods (most Corktown and Woodbridge) look almost exactly like parts of Buffalo.


Buffalo: America's Best Designed City - YouTube

The only real difference is that you can tell Detroit was way larger. There's more high rises, lots more neighborhoods, and Detroit has and is doing a lot of the stuff that Buffalo seems to have gone through in the video, but you still don't see crowds of people like that. A lot of Detroit's neighborhoods still have a feeling of emptiness and it's still pretty easy to find lots of decay.

However, it's kind of contradictory because then you have events like the Auto Show or the Electronic Music Festival that are jammed packed with people, or even when there's baseball and football games the streets have decent streams of people. So it's like Detroit only ever feels like a big city every once in a while but a majority of the time you can sense the emptiness. Of course then you drive out to the suburbs and realize where everybody went. It seems like things will hopefully improve in the near future. There's a lot of momentum building up for a downtown revival though the rest of the city still more or less has a ways to go before there's improvement.

[detwahDJ]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

And speaking on Buffalo, I watched this video and I definitely can see the similarities between Buffalo and Detroit. Even some of Detroit's downtown neighborhoods (most Corktown and Woodbridge) look almost exactly like parts of Buffalo.


Buffalo: America's Best Designed City - YouTube

The only real difference is that you can tell Detroit was way larger. There's more high rises, lots more neighborhoods, and Detroit has and is doing a lot of the stuff that Buffalo seems to have gone through in the video, but you still don't see crowds of people like that. A lot of Detroit's neighborhoods still have a feeling of emptiness and it's still pretty easy to find lots of decay.

However, it's kind of contradictory because then you have events like the Auto Show or the Electronic Music Festival that are jammed packed with people, or even when there's baseball and football games the streets have decent streams of people. So it's like Detroit only ever feels like a big city every once in a while but a majority of the time you can sense the emptiness. Of course then you drive out to the suburbs and realize where everybody went. It seems like things will hopefully improve in the near future. There's a lot of momentum building up for a downtown revival though the rest of the city still more or less has a ways to go before there's improvement.

It's because downtown Detroit was always zoned "business only", and residences weren't allowed, so downtown emptied out at night and only employment or special events would draw people back. Yeah, I worked downtown then, and there was no reason to remain after business hours. There were lounges etc, but there was no need for many of them. We would seek "adventure" down there, but overall it was pretty bleak.
I don't know if that has changed, and I have heard the same complaints about other cities.

[pokeable]

Originally Posted by DaniellaG

At one point Bloomfield Hills was considered the 4th wealthiest city in the US. I am not that familiar with DC but thought it was costly to live there compared to MI suburbs. See in OC you can live in an upscale area for a more affordable price compared to many other states. I know when I have lived out of the state and in the new state wanted a similar area to what I was used to in MI it came with a much higher price tag.

Yeah, DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) is pretty pricey in regards to real estate. Slightly higher taxes than Michigan, property taxes are a slightly lower here. Utlities are definitely higher here in Maryland. Going out to restaurants is slightly more expensive here.

I live in Howard County, MD, and have a cousin who lives in Fairfax. The home prices, are similar to those of living within walking distance of downtown Birmingham, without the charm of the neighborhoods of Birmingham.

FWIW I went to Andover, and my folks still live in in B.H., am very familiar with OC

To OP: I really like Philly as an option, however, if you are thinking about kids in the somewhat near future, you maybe best served looking across the river in NJ or MainLine neighborhoods; I hear the schools in Center City are very much a crapshoot unless you are willing to shell out 30-40K/yr in private school tuition.

[dburbs1975]

I've worked at Detroit Receiving Hospital and still fill in occasionally.

I have been in the region for over 20 years, but never lived in Detroit due to the need for good schools for my non-African American child. There are numerous charter schools in Detroit that cater to affluent and well educated African American children, but the public schools are an unfortunate scene.

There are also beautiful and well kept neighborhoods in Detroit with neighborhood associations that still attract people who can well afford to live anywhere in the metro area.

Here is my take on the area:

If you can see yourself living in one of the well kept pockets of the city, go for it, but do not buy, rent first. Your car insurance will be very high in Wayne County (the line is 8 mile road) DMC (which is now owned by Vanguard) was offering incentives to live in the city for employees, I would suggest looking into those incentives. There are pockets of areas where young people are moving in to previous shambles and taking over drug infested areas. This is happening very very slowly and time will tell if the improvement will stick. You will need to do lots of research to figure out where these places are, one area is Corktown and some streets around it. Once the young people have kids and need schools, they tend to go elsewhere, but gentrification is still a possibility, though not on a large scale since about 1/3 to 1/2 of the city is literally fields and abandoned homes and warehouse/office space. Due to this reality, emergency services are not available in the way they should be, so should a break-in occur, or, say, your car is stolen (everyone knows someone who has had a car stolen) you may not get the police response you would want.

If you do buy in the city, property taxes are astronomical to make up for all of the property that is not paying taxes due to abandoned status, or just because they don't want to pay taxes and the city doesn't want to repossess yet another house.

Think of Detroit as the wild wild west.

Now, if you don't want to live in the city itself, your work hours will dictate how far you can tolerate living. If your shift is something like 6am - 2pm, you can live anywhere within 30 miles near one of the freeways, and do OK. Unless it is snowing. Then all bets are off.

I recommend if you are not going to live in the D, draw a 10 mile radius around Receiving, and look at what you get. Go on Zillow and choose the areas with high schools rated at least 8. All of those areas are safe, and will work out well. Rents can be reasonable as long as you are not tied to living in a 'downtown' area. And around here, 'downtown' can mean 3 blocks with shops and restaraunts. You will pay 200-400 per month premium to live near a 'downtown.'

As far as Receiving is concerned, if you can survive there, you are one bad-ass respiratory therapist. You will see the most extreme cases there and meet the most interesting and talented staff there. It is a premier teaching facility, and doing well there can open many doors for you.

I must add to make sure of where you will be allowed to park before you take the job and scout out how far you will need to walk. The med center is a series of building attached by a tunnel system, but there is some remote parking.

[aapm]

Originally Posted by Arthur Digby Sellers

If you have a $250 - $275K budget for a home, you can live in some of the most affluent suburbs in the country.

And you can still do pretty decent for less than that.

Can you please suggest a few, Where one can get such bang for ones dollar ?
Thank You

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Originally Posted by aapm

Can you please suggest a few, Where one can get such bang for ones dollar ?
Thank You

Rochester, Troy, Plymouth and Novi are all affluent communities that have plenty of homes in that price range.

[DTWflyer]

$250k-$275k in Birmingham will only get you some 1000-1200 sq ft 1950s bungalow on a 7000 sqft lot that and in need of some updates. The same exact house and everything can be found in Royal Oak, Clawson, and Berkley for $75-$100k less.

[cdris7319]

Just a quick additional commentary in response to some of the threads I read here... Lack of affluence in Oakland County (or anywhere in the metro) should not be judged on the basis of how many foreign vs. American cars are on the roads. Detroit (and burbs) is the HEART & SOUL of the American automotive industry. You better believe people here drive GMs, Fords, & Chryslers! Even the affluent people. It's kind of sacrilege not to... And I'm not on the "Buy American" soap box - I have a BMW and a Chevy in my driveway :-)

Also - regarding heavy traffic during am/pm rush hour... Again - this is the Motor City - the birthplace of automobile. We like our cars, we like driving them and we lack viable public transit (probably because we like our cars!).

[dboca]

I have been living in Metro Detroit since 1998 and I do not share the upbeat tone of some of the posters in this thread. First, crime in the suburbs has increased quite a bit lately. There have recently been murders (generally committed by Detroit transplants or visitors) in places where before something like this would be unthinkable: Troy (gas station clerk), Dearborn (two kids at a Family Dollar store), Clinton Township (party store robbery) etc. Not to speak of the increase in home invasions and non fatal shootings even in places like Bloomfield Hills or Birmingham. The clientele at Somerset Collection has also changed along with an increase in shoplifting incidents and even shootings - all with Detroiters involved.

I used to live at times in Warren, Sterling Heights, Canton and now Birmingham. All of these places have suffered major declines in the past decade. Downtown Birmingham is still nice to go out, but there have been incidents there that simply were not even conceivable as recently as 5 years ago.

The cost of living is still very competitive, and it is true that you can get a lot of house for the money compared to elsewhere. The economy is coming back a little bit and the salary/cost of living ratio is very favorable.

However, all incidents I mentioned above have a common denominator: Detroiters expanding the crime domain to the suburbs and even moving there mostly by renting apartments or condos to game the school system (Seaholm HS in Birmingham is a perfect example).

[animatedmartian]

^Except that crime has statistically been the lowest in decades for many suburbs, including the ones you mentioned. Crime in the suburbs are now becoming more high profile because crime in Detroit is getting lower and news media outlets need to keep up their ratings. These incidents only seemed rare because the were rarely reported which unsurprisingly gives people a rosy-eyed view of the suburbs.