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Old 09-29-2006, 03:01 PM
 
36 posts, read 68,392 times
Reputation: 22

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Quote:
Originally Posted by kd251 View Post
Hello! I just have a few questions for those of you that know the Detroit area. My family may be moving there shortly for my husband's new job. We have a annual income of around 60k. I plan on staying home with my 1 year old son. I am trying to find an area that is both generally "safe" and somewhat busy. Since I'll be home during the day I am looking for places to do things and meet people. Any suggestions on location? Any tips? I assume that your weather is closely related to mine since we are almost at the same longitude and area. I dont think we want to buy a home but maybe a condo or an apartment to buy? Any help would be awesome! Thanks!!
How did he find a job around here? LOL.. About half the people I know are unemployed in Michigan right now, so I wouldn't be too quick to move here, even with a promise of a job.

Anyway, go with Berkley. Good prices, great schools, VERY safe, and a better family environment than Royal Oak. I live in Royal Oak, and I don't consider it family oriented at all, and they are closing schools left and right here these days. Berkley is the best bet IMO, and it is only 1 mile from Royal Oak without many of the ill's Royal Oak suffers. Royal Oak seems to care more about the upscale single professionals, professional couples, and gay couples more than they do family life in the city. Although Royal Oak is beautiful, and has wonderful neighborhoods, it is quite expensive and the taxes are high.
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Old 09-29-2006, 10:12 PM
 
17 posts, read 112,847 times
Reputation: 19
Is Triumph a car dealer? motorcycle dealer?

My husband has worked in car dealerships for 24 years as a mechanic, service writer, and finally service manager. We are leaving michigan as soon as he can find a job that pays well enough to feed us and keep a roof over our heads. We'll probably lose our house because we can't afford it anymore and no one else can afford to buy it. This is especially difficult because I have been investing since I was 17 so I could have a nice home in the last years before retirement. We are in our 40s now, and too old to expect to ever get that money back.

We've gone through about $20,000 in savings trying to keep it all together hoping for better times that aren't coming. I went to work last year after homeschooling my kids for 18 years. Without recent work experience, I could only get a job making $8.00 an hour!

I've lived in MI for most of my life, hate the weather, and always said the only reason I live here is for the money. Well, now the money's gone and so am I!

Does your husband have much dealership experience? They are notorious for quoting hugely inflated pay. At the three dealers my husband worked, when they offered the job they all inflated his proposed pay by up to 50% more than he would actually make! He finally started making good money in the mid 90s, but since 2003, his income has dropped to about 40% of what he used to make. We need at least 80% of his previous pay just to make our bills. Plus we drive old cars that we bought last year for $800 and $1600, so we have no car payments and have low car insurance, but still can't meet all of our bills. Last winter, my heat and electric bill was between $700 and $1000 a month! I kept the temperature set at 60 degrees. The previous years, our highest bills were $350 per month when set at 68 degrees.

Anyway, make sure your husband's offer is in writing!!!!! Or at least try to bind them to a 'guarantee' pay for the first few months so you don't lose money in the move while waiting for his clientele to build up. Plus, I'm worried for you because the economy is so horrible here right now, nobody's really buying cars, houses, motorcylces, RVs, etc.

Good luck to you, and when you get here, look me up!
-Tracy
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Old 09-30-2006, 10:58 AM
 
36 posts, read 68,392 times
Reputation: 22
Tracy brings up VERY valid points to consider before moving to Michigan. Almost nothing in the automotive business (Sales, Repair or manufacturing) is a wise move in this state. Cars are *NOT* selling, so I couldn't imagine being a car salesman, they all seem to sit around outside of the dealerships longingly looking for customers. I don't feel bad, honestly, nobody wants their poorly made gas hoggers these days.

I got some bad news last night from a friend, the company he worked for just filed bankruptcy and closed. Add another person to the unemployment rolls! I feel so bad for people around here that can't make their house payments. We've had 3-4 Foreclosures on our block alone.

It doesn't help that places like Rock Financial were convincing people to take risky interest only loans! When we bought this home they tried to talk us into a no-interest loan for almost 2 weeks. But being heavily into financials and investing, I saw the writting on the wall with those.

Michigan is in desperate straits, I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to move here. My wife and I are secure, she is in the health care field at a major hospital and makes fantastic money. I am unemployed now, but we don't need my money (we have no car payments or anything), we've been investing and saving for years. We're now in buckle down mode here, I reinsulated the home with 2 feet of insulation for the long cold winter, replaced all of the bulbs with flouroescents, wrapped the water pipes and everything else I could think of to save money.

I think Michigan is more in a state of survival overall.
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Old 10-06-2006, 12:50 PM
 
Location: Kenosha, WI
13 posts, read 38,697 times
Reputation: 11
HI!
I live in Kenosha Wi, and my husband may have a transfer opportunity to Michigan, in the Livonia area. I'm glad I came across your post....you have a very upbeat attitude about the move....I'm a little more hesitent as I have 3 children, 9, 13 & 15 so schools are my main issue and we have GREAT schools hear in Kenosha, lots of choices so I will have to put out a post as you did to inquire on the schools in Mich.

Take care!
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Old 10-07-2006, 10:13 PM
 
36 posts, read 68,392 times
Reputation: 22
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carole T View Post
HI!
I live in Kenosha Wi, and my husband may have a transfer opportunity to Michigan, in the Livonia area. I'm glad I came across your post....you have a very upbeat attitude about the move....I'm a little more hesitent as I have 3 children, 9, 13 & 15 so schools are my main issue and we have GREAT schools hear in Kenosha, lots of choices so I will have to put out a post as you did to inquire on the schools in Mich.

Take care!
Berkley has GREAT schools.. Rochester has great schools.. Royal Oak has really good schools, but declining attendance which means school closings.. But class sizes are SMALL, students get very individual attention.

Again, i would STRONGLY caution against moving here, the job market is TERRIBLE.. Michigan now has the worst unemployment in the country.

50 MICHIGAN 7.1
50 MISSISSIPPI 7.1

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lis...ent/index.html
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Old 10-08-2006, 04:53 PM
 
3 posts, read 11,175 times
Reputation: 11
I grew up in Clinton Township and just around the block (literally) from Roseville. I know exactly where the dealership is...my dad works right down the road from it.

Anyhow, I am not sure how far he wants to commute, but we currently live about 10 or so miles North of Roseville in a city called Macomb Township (North of M59). We are in the Chippewa Valley school district which is a great school district. Lots of newer construction homes/Condos in this area. It's been really built up. Shopping and the major mall are right down the road. Very safe and very, very family friendly! We have a new rec center with a pool/waterslide/indoor playgym/fitness center/etc...I take my kids (2 and 4) there all the time. Awesome new library! A bunch of new parks. There are always things for me & the kids to do.

Some other nearby cities that are a bit older...but still nice...are Fraser, Sterling Heights, Harrison Township & St. Clair Shores. Utica & Shelby Township are two other cities that are worth checking out (great school districts), but are a tad farther northwest.

Hope that helps!
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Old 10-08-2006, 08:59 PM
 
1 posts, read 1,822 times
Reputation: 10
Default Moving to Michigan

Hi,
My husband and I moved to Detroit Michigan area 2 1/2 years ago. We moved here and Live in a home in Fraser, Michigan, It is very close to Roseville, 2 miles. It is a nice area close to everything yet safe and nice. You may what to check it out. We moved here also for a job. My husband is a pastor and we have a church in Roseville so I thought I would let you know having a small child and wanting to stay home. Everyone that lives here say's the school system is the best in Fraser, compared to all the school in the other area's, including Roseville. It to me is a large city, but the people of Fraser think it is a small town. Hope you find a place.

Dillon
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Old 10-09-2006, 11:15 AM
 
1 posts, read 1,821 times
Reputation: 10
Livonia has great schools as well as being the second (sometimes first) safest city in America with over 100,000 people. Livonia is FULL of huge city parks...City Council made the subdivision developers keep huge tracts of land for parks as a price for building new homes back in the 1950s and 1960s...some of these are truly great places today.

|Living in metro Detroit can be a huge challenege as there is N|O "public transportation|" to speak of. The happiest people are those who live about 5 miles or less from their place of employment. The least happy are those wh commute 20 miles or more, and get stuck in "rush hours" jams that rob them of hours of family time every week.

Live CLOSE to your work and you'll like it!

I am a tax consultant and have been seeing up to 1,500 people per year...they all have stories...and the most common one is the awful commutes from those who moved far from their job |!
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Old 10-10-2006, 12:21 PM
 
10 posts, read 62,893 times
Reputation: 14
Again, i would STRONGLY caution against moving here, the job market is TERRIBLE.. Michigan now has the worst unemployment in the country.

I agree to what the another post said above. According to the state of Michigan, our unemployment rate is at 7.1% .. The national average is 4.3%.

Things are bad here and they are getting worse. I personally have lost 30K in equity in my home in the last 12 months alone. I am leaving Michigan for better jobs elsewhere and I do plan to come back, but not until there is some stability around here. I will deeply miss Michigan, but the uncertainty of the job market is not worth the constant stress and worry.

Good luck to you.
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Old 10-11-2006, 06:39 AM
 
37 posts, read 144,745 times
Reputation: 22
Hello,
My husband and I were transferred from WI to the Detroit Area 6 years ago. Let’s just say I freaked out. I was worried about were to live too! The Detroit suburbs are very nice. I am not sure where you are from the WI area, so that would make a difference as far as comparisons for me to give you. I was from outside of the Milwaukee area and also worked in Milwaukee. So I was used to doing everything downtown work, play festivals etc. We moved to North Oakland County. I guess because I felt more comfortable with more land and the safety. My husbands job is in Troy, MI. Based on where your husbands job is it sounds like you have some good suggestions from others email such as Clinton Township, St. Claire Shores etc. Both very nice but I am not as familiar with them since I live North. One hard transition was that we are big Packers, Badgers, and Bucks fans and as you can imagine rooting for them here is sometimes challenging! Again depending on where you are in WI cost of living may be more. I found that to be true when we move here. If you husband is going to a dealership, he will fit right in around here since it is the Motor City. Everything is around the auto industry, so if you aren’t familiar with it now you will be when you move here. The job market is not good here right now and MI as a state has economically been struggling. We have the highest unemployment in the country. That’s good news that he has been offered a job here. Maybe our economy will start picking up and more people will start relocating to MI rather than leaving! Best of luck and welcome to the Motor City! 
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