So you’re thinking you might want to make the move to Plymouth, Michigan? Plymouth MI is a great city in southeast Michigan that people are moving to. I talk about 6 things you need to know before moving to Plymouth Michigan. If you want to move to the southeast Michigan area, you definitely want to have Plymouth MI on your radar. I'll tell you everything you need to know about housing in Plymouth MI, shopping, things to do, commute times, restaurants, and more!
This blog is a direct transcript from the video below. This comes in 3 versions: You are able to watch the video, read the blog for your convenience or listen to the audio experience (which is linked under the video below).
The Plymouth area is split off into two separate municipalities: one being of course the city of Plymouth and the other being Plymouth Charter Township where a combined 36,000 people across 18 square miles, call it home. One of the best things right off the bat about Plymouth, is the downtown area. Plymouth was settled in 1825, and the downtown area still serves as a center not only for commerce, but social gathering as well for almost 200 years. Just to put the city’s priorities into perspective, In the 80’s the city actually hired a Downtown Development Authority to focus on economic development and to ensure the town is held to a higher standard. Just between the years of 2016 and 2022, the development authority has made quite a few accomplishments from renovating the central park deck and partnering with several sponsors for all the annual events to reconstruction of the Fleet Street Alley and adding a several dozen businesses in downtown Plymouth which has earned them among the lowest vacancy rates in Michigan.
Downtown Plymouth sponsors and puts on over 130 events annually which includes: Art in the park, the Plymouth ice festival, concerts in Kellogg park during the summer, Plymouth’s fall festival, along with Santa's arrival/tree lighting. There are also several groups that meet weekly for concerts, workouts, running, etc. Not only are these annual events extremely popular downtown, so are some of the entertainment options such as: performances at the historic Penn theater, live music at several of the venues throughout the town and of course the opportunity to experience one of the greatest history museums in metro Detroit at Plymouth historical museum.
I may have taken a field trip there as a kid, that’s how cool it is. Schools don’t take you on field trips to places that aren’t cool. The downtown area is the focal point to Plymouth as a whole, so on the other end of the spectrum, residents say that’s all there is to the city, is the downtown area. Outside of that it’s just your typical suburbia with not a whole lot to offer. I think to a certain extent, it’s a fair statement. I have covered several cities that have quite a few similarities to Plymouth and they offer a little more, but that does not mean it’s a bad place to live, it all comes down to what your preferences and lifestyle are like. Every city has something unique about it, otherwise I wouldn’t feel the need to continue making videos about the several different cities in southeast Michigan, and I'm sure a lot of Michigan residents can attest to that statement too.
Which brings me to the 2nd thing to note about Plymouth Michigan which contradicts what I just said about the downtown being the only thing there is to the town of Plymouth, so for those people out there unfamiliar with the town, it gives you a few different perspectives about the city offerings and at the end of it you can make your own well-informed decision based on everything that was laid out to you.
Kicking this off, we have Kellogg Park. Kellogg Park is the heart of Plymouth, where all the events and gatherings take place and branch out. In 1856, it was actually the site for the Barnum Circus. So it’s safe to say it’s been a huge focal point for entertainment for a few generations, as it’s smacked between Ann Arbor Trail, Main St, Penniman Ave, and Union St. So this attraction tends to get a lot of eyes on it as people drive by and admire the large water fountain in the middle of the park. If we take a look at Plymouth Charter Township as a whole, there are three different lakes: phoenix lake, Wilcox lake, and Newburg lake. Which seem to be all available to the public. Wilcox lake has a lengthy fishing pier in their recreation area with a playground across the street.
Phoenix Lake is surrounded by main roads, so I’d have to assume some people would fish right off Northville Road. Newburgh lake has a few different offerings from the Newburgh public lake access and Sumac Pointe Recreation area, to the Newburgh pointe, along with a few biking and hiking trailheads that stretch from one side of the lake to the other. These three lakes are also connected to each other by creeks and rivers and I have heard of people accessing the river to get to the lakes. In terms of parks and recreation, aside from the spots located off the few lakes and along the river's edge, there's the Plymouth township park, which connects to the Hilltop Golf course, and several little parks and playgrounds scattered throughout some of the residential areas.
The next aspect on this list, coming in at #3, is the location. Plymouth has a great location and is almost centrally located in Metro Detroit, so you have a nice easy commute near other great cities such as: Ann Arbor, Northville, Novi, and being just under 30 miles to Detroit, Royal Oak and Ferndale. It also has a great commute to the nearby expressways as well. Taking 275 north and south, and M-14 east to west allows you to have much more flexibility with your job opportunities in the area, since you’d be more than capable to handle a great commute from this location. With this in mind, depending on where your mind was at with all the parks and recreation destinations in Plymouth, you have the ability to hop over to Northville to experience Maybury State Park, Novi to go to twelve oaks mall, and Ann Arbor which speaks for itself.
But instead of focusing on what Plymouth is located near, I’ll talk about #4 on this list, the restaurants and shopping scene. And before I dive too far into what the city offers, I want to attach a link in the description so you can see all the available parking in the city ahead of time so you don’t find yourself driving around in circles, along with a walking map business directory for all your downtown needs. I also want to link the city’s newsletter in the description so you can get an idea of upcoming events, changes, news and so much more happening in Plymouth. Plymouth has anything you could ever need and more with over 100 shops, apparel stores, eateries, surrounding Kellogg Park and encouraging you to take full advantage of the downtown walkability.
There are so many amazing restaurants in downtown Plymouth that I honestly can’t single any of them out because they are so unique and offer such a diverse food selection. I will say that the city does appreciate their Italian cuisine with the several pizza and Italian eateries, but if you were to twist my arm I think I’d have to go with Compari’s on the park. It’s a very authentic family owned and operated Italian restaurant right off main street. Campari’s was voted among the top 25 pizza’s in metro Detroit by the Detroit Free Press, which is a pretty good accomplishment since pizza places seem to be a dime a dozen out here.
Moving over to the 5th point on this list, the schools. For those of you that don’t know, Plymouth community schools is tacked on with Canton and Salem high school and is known as P-CEP (Plymouth canton educational park) and these are all smacked into once campus, so it’s safe to say this campus had to do one heck of a job diversifying their curriculum to cater to over 6,000 students. Some students have said you can focus on auto shop, dancing, art, management and so much more on the campus. The opportunities seem to be endless. With a school size of this magnitude, there’s more opportunity to create relationships during such a crucial time of a kids life, but on the other hand you could look at it as you being a needle in the haystack of students who attend the school and fly under the radar without going out of your way to become known. So depending on how you look at this school’s campus, there’s some pros and cons to say the least, but all in all, the schools have received great ratings and reviews from the students and parents of the students who attended the schools.
Moving onto #6, we have home prices and the cost of living. Over the years, there have been a few complaints about more and more upscale businesses finding their way into Plymouth, from boutiques to restaurants, so not only has the experience started to cost some more, the real estate prices have followed suit. Taking a look at this chart provided by the multiple listing service, you can see the average sale price for homes not only in the city of Plymouth (which is in green), but the township of Plymouth as well (in blue). This chart goes back 10 years where these home price averages were between $180-205,000.
Fast forward another five years and the prices range from $295-305,000.Jumping forward another five years to present day, you can see Plymouth township sits at an average sale price of $420,587, whereas the city of Plymouth is relatively similar at $420,223. So for those residents who have lived in the area for around 8-10 years, you can bet the city is looking a little different to them these days, but it is very similar across the nation when you look back 10 years and account for inflation. I think there is more of a sticker shock in Plymouth, because it was always known as this little city on the outskirts of Ann Arbor, and now the average price point is nearing half a million dollars. So yes, there is a little shock factor to that. In terms of the cost of living as a whole, this graph from bestplaces.net shows Plymouth is a 124 overall compared to Michigan being an average of 89.6. The two biggest factors that drive this overall as high as it is, is housing, which I touched on already and transportation. I’ve touched on the high car insurance in Michigan in several of my other videos, so I’ll link those in the description if you want to get a better idea of why that is. I have done several videos formatted this way in the past, but the transportation figure was never that high even with Michigan’s insurance structure, and I would theorize that it has something to do with the lack of public transportation so getting that service to come to you may be more costly which is why the overall is as high as it is.
After hearing these few things about Plymouth you may have not known, what are your thoughts about the community? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.
MENTIONED LINKS 🔗
→Plymouth Parking Map & Directory: https://bit.ly/3BFXbvT
→Plymouth Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3C5sfXl
→Cost of Living Video: https://youtu.be/qWeDltOla58
Cheers,
Andrew
Andrew McManamon is a Michigan REALTOR® with Signature Sotheby’s International Realty and provides real estate services to Buyers, Sellers and Investors throughout SE Michigan including Livingston County, Oakland County, Washtenaw County, Genesee County & beyond. Andrew has become one of the rising stars of Michigan real estate agents. Prior to his real estate career Andrew was responsible for managing a senior living facility in Brighton, Michigan as a dining supervisor and an activities assistant. Andrew’s passion to help people is unlike any other, and he continues to strive to be best resource he can be. Andrew graduated from Cleary University in Howell, Michigan with a double major and currently resides in White Lake, Michigan.