Apartments near UofM (Ann Arbor, Livonia, Westland: crime, neighborhoods, to buy)

[Uma1]

Moving from WI to MI.
Our kid is at U of M. moving close to kid. kid will stay at dorm. Looking for 1BR, 1 Bath in safe community and drivable distance to UM.
Please let me know some good neighborhoods or apartments.

[leroythelion]

Originally Posted by Uma1

Moving from WI to MI.
Our kid is at U of M. moving close to kid. kid will stay at dorm. Looking for 1BR, 1 Bath in safe community and drivable distance to UM.
Please let me know some good neighborhoods or apartments.

...sounds of helicopters overhead.

[scorpio516]

Wisconsin is drivable distance to campus.

Once I drove to Green Bay and back to buy a car.
Chicago is just a 4 hour drive

[highlanderfil]

Originally Posted by scorpio516

Wisconsin is drivable distance to campus.

Once I drove to Green Bay and back to buy a car.
Chicago is just a 4 hour drive

That's a really cool story. Once I knew a guy who drove from Chelsea to Seattle and back to buy a car, as well. Aren't stories great? Tell another one!

[highlanderfil]

Originally Posted by Uma1

Moving from WI to MI.
Our kid is at U of M. moving close to kid. kid will stay at dorm. Looking for 1BR, 1 Bath in safe community and drivable distance to UM.
Please let me know some good neighborhoods or apartments.

Pretty much everything around campus is "safe". You may look at crime maps and get a different idea, but it's mostly campus-related and you're unlikely to ever feel the effects. But, as always with these questions, our recommendations will depend on your budget, distance you're willing to travel and other amenities you want around your new place of residence.

[scorpio516]

Originally Posted by highlanderfil

That's a really cool story. Once I knew a guy who drove from Chelsea to Seattle and back to buy a car, as well. Aren't stories great? Tell another one!

Did he do it in a single day?

Cause that's about as useful as the OP. There is no additional info. ANYWHERE in Washtenaw or Livingston county is commutable to campus. ANYWHERE in Washtenaw or Livingston county is safe. BUDGET and WORK LOCATION are much more important. Anywhere walkable to central campus is expensive, loud, and all students. Sure, it would be really easy to commute from S Division to the LSA building, but $$ vs. benefit is low if you own a car.

[highlanderfil]

Originally Posted by scorpio516

Did he do it in a single day?

He drove back in a single day, AFAIK.

Cause that's about as useful as the OP. There is no additional info. ANYWHERE in Washtenaw or Livingston county is commutable to campus. ANYWHERE in Washtenaw or Livingston county is safe. BUDGET and WORK LOCATION are much more important. Anywhere walkable to central campus is expensive, loud, and all students. Sure, it would be really easy to commute from S Division to the LSA building, but $$ vs. benefit is low if you own a car.

I mean, you're not 100% wrong, but if you're really interested in helping, some reasonable assumptions can be made. I agree, though, having OP come back with some clearer criteria would be helpful.

[Uma1]

20/30 mins car drive from central campus to would be nice..
budget is less than $1400.
Looking for 1B1B with W/D and patio.

[highlanderfil]

Originally Posted by Uma1

20/30 mins car drive from central campus to would be nice..
budget is less than $1400.
Looking for 1B1B with W/D and patio.

That should be pretty doable, but not widespread, especially in Ann Arbor proper. A quick Zillow search returns this. At this price point and looking as it does, I'd take it and run. Not sure about a patio, though - I didn't see one in the photos (although now that I'm looking at them again, I see a balcony - would that do?). But it's 10 minutes from campus, so maybe that helps make up for it.

Further afield, this looks decent, as well - and Dexter is a cute town. But, again, no patio.

Speaking more generally, the following communities alongside major highways would work for you in terms of safety and commute time:

US-23 North of A2: Brighton, Whitmore Lake, Hamburg, South Lyon and, honestly, pretty much anything else you can drive to in a half-hour.
US-23 South of A2: it's pretty rural, so you're probably not going to find many apartment buildings, aside from maybe some SFHs converted into duplexes/quadriplexes (sp?)
US-12: basically the entire corridor from Tecumseh (West) to Canton (East). I wouldn't go beyond, as Wayne, Westland, Garden City and Inkster are less nice; closer to Ann Arbor, Ypsi also has some questionable pockets, but you can easily avoid those. Canton in particular is nice as it has some newer housing stock and tons of retail, including Michigan's only IKEA. Saline is also pretty nice, but I'm not sure how many apartments you'll find there.
US-14: west to Chelsea (although, good luck with that budget), east to Livonia/Plymouth/Northville. Generally speaking, the farther east you go, the more options you have. Livonia's housing stock is probably going to be the oldest and cheapest of the lot.

I've found apartmentratings.com pretty useful when it came to customer reviews and filtering out the "bad" places, but Google reviews are also alright.

Hope this helps.

[highlanderfil]

Originally Posted by highlanderfil

He drove back in a single day, AFAIK.

Not that it's relevant to anything but my lack of desire to sound like an idiot, but I thought about it for a moment and it looks like I thought I "K", but, obviously, with 2200 miles to drive, that's incorrect. Dude's nuts, but not so nuts as to average over 100 mph on a cross-country trip. Three days now come to memory as a more accurate estimate.