5 things you may not know when moving to Michigan

Do you have a job relocation to Michigan?  Maybe you are just moving to Michigan to be near grand children or your kids?  Michigan is a great place to live and south eastern Michigan is a wonderful place to call home.  Michigan’s economy was once solely based on the automotive industry, but we are becoming more diversified as the years go on.  So yes we do have some economic ups and downs, but more people are moving to Michigan than leaving now days.  Check out my list of things you may not know when moving to Michigan.  You may be surprised to learn about some of these things.   I am a metro Detroit realtor and know the area well.  In my youth I lived in other states and I can tell you that Michigan has so many wonderful communities and lots to do no matter what you like.

Water

Michigan is home to one fifth of the world’s fresh water supply.  They say that you are never more than 6 miles from water any where in Michigan or 85 miles from one of the great lakes.  I always say that if global warming keeps going we are going to be the new Florida.  Everybody will want to come here to Michigan because it is too hot and dry every where else.  Michigan has 26,266 lakes that over an acre in size and 10 lakes over 10,000 acres in size.  Then we have another 36,532 ponds that are less than an acre.  Add in 120 rivers and 200 named waterfalls.  All but one of the waterfalls are located in the Upper Peninsula. However most of those falls are quite small.

Add in the 5 great lakes and you have lots of places to boat to your hearts content.  Whether you want to kayak, or canoe quietly down one of Michigan’s rivers.  You can enjoying paddling through forest and seeing the wildlife on the banks of the river.  There are many places in Michigan that you can rent canoes to enjoy the rivers.  Some of Michigan’s rivers are good trout fishing rivers.

There is a divide on boaters.  Some are big water boaters that want a 25′ or larger boat.  Other prefer the inland lakes to tube, water ski, and wake board on.  You may want to float around on your pontoon Just depends on what your family wants to do on the water.  Or maybe you want to sail on one of the great lakes on your sail boat.

Colleges

The main college rivalry in Michigan is University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (go blue) and Michigan State University in East Lansing (go green).  This an old fashioned nice college rivalry.  No destruction of the other teams cars or fights leaving the stadium.   The fans are very proud of their schools, and want bragging rights.  Now if you mention Ohio State to a Michigan resident then there is bad blood.  Still no violence, or destruction but Michganders do not have a soft spot for a Buckeye fan.

University of Michigan is the harder school to get accepted into.   You have to have a higher grade point to get in there.  Though the minimum grade point requirement at MSU is very high too.  U of M has an excellent medical and engineering school.  Michigan State has a veterinary school and also has a agricultural school.  It was nicknamed Moo U in the past.  As agriculture as a career diminished so has the curriculum.

If you are moving to SE Michigan you will be glad to note that there are many local colleges, and community colleges to chose from in the suburbs of Detroit.  You have Wayne State in Detroit, Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Lawrence Tech in Farmington Hills, Oakland Community College, Walsh College, Washtenaw College, Madonna University, University of Detroit Mercy, Baker College, and Eastern Michigan University.  Some of these local colleges specialize in nursing, engineering, or accounting.  One has a medical program and a law program.  So whatever your children are looking to specialize in you are sure to find a college that has their career choice.  You never have to leave home and can save a lot of money on housing expenses with all of these local colleges.

Coney Dogs

Well I have to say the most common restaurant in Michigan is going to be our coney islands.  You will find at least one or more coney islands in any community in SE Michigan.  They are usually very reasonable breakfast places and usually will serve you breakfast anytime of the day or night.  Our coney island restaurants have a Greek influence to them.  Many of them will have Gyros, and Greek salads as part of their menus.

But the main dish in any coney island restaurant is a coney itself.  It is a hot dog in a bun smothered in chili with a squiggle of mustard and onions on top.  It’s a little messy but sooooooo good.  The chili is a loose, almost soupy concoction that traditionally gets an extra-meaty punch from ground beef and a variety of spices.   A slight variation is the loose coney which is non hot dog, just loose beef in sauce in the bun.  You have to eat that one with a fork.  There are several chains of coney islands in the Detroit area.  It’s not a high class hot dog, but if you have a craving for a coney nothing will satisfy it.

The two famous coney island restaurants in Detroit are American Coney Island, and Lafeyette Coney Island.  They are side by side on W Lafayette in Detroit and started back in 1919.  They are as much Detroit as Joe Louis.

Low Crime

If you took the City of Detroit crime stats out of the state Michigan would have a low crime rate.  Like many major cities across the country Detroit has a high murder and violent crime rate by a few of the residents of Detroit.  The majority of the people are good, but like every major city with low income and education levels the crime tends to be higher.   It is no different than Chicago or Baltimore where a certain element or population of the city cause the biggest problems.  However, once you get out into the suburbs of Detroit the crime rate drops dramatically.  The majority of the suburbs have very little crime.   The safest Michigan cities buck that trend—75% of them kept violent crime below 10 total incidents. Many of them are domestic violence issues.  Michigan’s property crime numbers are on the lower end. Michigan came out with 5.53 violent crimes per 1,000 people, while the national rate is 4.49.

In the suburbs I would call it random crime.  Vandalism by a local kid, somebody breaking into a car.  You do not have gangs, or drug houses, or car jackings out in the suburbs.  Whether you live in Allen Park, Royal Oak, or Brighton you will find safe communities with a good police force.  Crime is basically a non issue that you don’t have to worry about in most communities in Michigan.  Yes, in Detroit, and a few other select cities you do have issues but the majority of Michigan is very safe.  In 95% of the communities you can feel comfortable walking around your neighborhood almost any time.   You can park your car and it will be there in the morning.  You can leave your house and it is not going to get broken into.  That’s the norm in most of Michigan.  Michigan was lower than the national rate for property crime, boasting just 21.47 incidents per 1,000, versus 27.11 nationwide. Among the safest cities in the state, 90% saw fewer than 10 property crimes per 1,000 people, with no city exceeding more than 21.

Golf courses

If you are a golfer you are moving to the right state.  Whether you want to golf up north in the woods, or over looking Lake Michigan our state still ranks in the top 5 nationwide for number of golf courses and is the top state for public courses.  There are over 650 public golf courses in Michigan that you can enjoy and a total of about 770 golf courses to enjoy during our beautiful spring, summer, and fall months.  Then you could always join one of the private golf clubs, or country clubs if you want.  There are fifty private golf clubs right in the metro Detroit area that you could join. each year more course owners are selling to real estate developers or are forced to close for financial reasons. Very few new courses are getting built because of the glut of golf course.  If you are looking to live in the suburbs of Metro Detroit you will be able to get to a golf course in a manner of minutes no matter where you live.  You could be teeing up the ball after work or be part of a golf league on one of the beautiful golf courses in Michigan.

If you are moving to Michigan and need a good real estate agent I will be glad to apply for the job.  I work with all the relocation companies and will sign the paperwork they require.  So give me a call or text today to find the right community for you and your family.  I am a full time, 19 year experienced real estate agent that knows the SE Michigan area very well.

Wondering what the past history of Homes for sale on Orchard Lake in Orchard Lake MI has been like in the past 5 years?  Check out the post if you wonder how much homes have gone up in the last few years.  If you don’t know what all sports lake means……it means that you can have any type of boat or water craft on the lake.  You can pull tubers, wake boarders, or even surf behind the boat on an all sports lake.  Here is a list of the Top All- Sports Lakes in Highland MI.

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