DON’T Move To Michigan! - Whatever you do, DON’T move to Michigan until you hear these 8 most frequently asked questions. Let’s get to it.
It’s no secret Michigan is becoming a very hot and spicy place to call home, from the worry of climate issues throughout the country, the inflated cost of living, and people just wanting to experience the natural beauty the mitten state provides, but before you crawl on over here for those reasons alone I wanted to share some of the most frequently asked questions not only from people I have helped relocate, but the most common on Google as well.
Before we jump to it, if you’re new here, My name is Andrew McManamon, A Michigan Realtor helping people like you buy, sell and invest in the wonderful state of Michigan, so if you ever need anything don’t hesitate to reach out I’m happy to be your go to resource.
ARE WINTERS IN MCIHIGAN BAD?
Kick starting this list with question number one, which is probably the most frequently asked and that is, are winters actually that bad in Michigan? The answer is, it depends. There’s this wild misconception that Michigan is just Antarctica with a different name, and that is just so far from the truth, the Upper Peninsula in some areas will get 80-150 inches of snow a year on average and I remember reading one time that there was a record of 355 inches back in 1978/1979, which is absolutely insane, so I guess when it comes to being that far north, antarctica may be an okay title. You could be in the middle/northern part of Michigan and get 150 inches or be in the southeast region and get 20-40. Location matters as I’m sure you can tell and it has a lot to do with the lake effect. We are surrounded by the Great lakes, and that wind can do some crazy things. Winds will typically flow out of the west, so most lake effect snow occurs east of each great lake. This simple image from the Michigan history museum lays out how the lake effect works. Dry air crosses warm lakes and it picks up moisture and heat and once that reaches land it rises, gets even colder and the moisture in the clouds freezes, and here comes the white stuff. So long answer short, it depends, but if you’re wanting a not so harsh winter, stay on the southeast side, I have lived here all my life, and yes we’ve had a lot of snow some years and not so much other years, and it is not nearly as bad as what people make you believe. I’m not driving around with chained tires, spikes in my shoes, and an all wheel drive heavy truck filled to the rim with bags of sand to add weight. I honestly didn’t get an all wheel drive vehicle until a few years ago, before that it was front wheel drive. The secret to avoiding accidents is to take it slow and be patient, give yourself more time for your daily commutes. I see so many times people drive the same during the winter as they do the summer and they are the first ones I see in a ditch with their hazards on, don’t be that guy.
WHAT IS MICHIGAN KNOWN FOR?
Next question, what is Michigan known for? This question was more searched based on curiosity, not so much by people actively making the move to Michigan, but I figured, why not brag a little bit about what we have here, so you have something else to look forward to (besides meeting me of course). I’ll rattle off several things to create some awareness for you. We have Michigan apples, there are 16 or so different types grown here in the mitten state, and honeycrisp is by far the best in my opinion. With apples alone there’s been an annual economic impact estimated at $700-$900 million. Next, we have Michigan cherries, this state grows 70% of the United states supply of cherries. Traverse City is known as the cherry capital of the world, so be sure to make a visit if you like cherries. It’s actually kinda overwhelming over there. Next, we got the beer, with over 400 breweries statewide, and Grand Rapids is nicknamed beer city USA, so if you’re all about the beer, get on over there. The next item is Detroit coney island hot dogs. It’s an absolute staple to our cuisine, it’s a beef hotdog, topped with beef chili, chopped onions and a little bit of mustard. They are usually extremely messy and a shower is necessary after, but well worth it. As far as famous people, the biggest name people would say that came from Michigan is rapper Eminem. We also made the first outdoor shopping mall, we are the cereal capital of the world at one point having Kellogg's and post nearby. There’s also the sleeping bear dunes, Mackinac island, the great lakes, Stevie wonder, vernors and so much more but I think you get the point. For those of you watching that know of other amazing things in this fine state, be sure to drop them in the comments below!
IS DETROIT MICHIGAN SCARY?
The next frequently asked question, is Detroit Michigan as scary as people say? This was a very frequent search and question from my clients relocating to Michigan. People have fallen victim to the misconception that Detroit has just eaten the whole state of Michigan. People watch Eminem’s movie 8 mile and just think the whole city is categorized as overly neglected, and again, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Of course, I’m not oblivious, I know there’s areas of Detroit, just like any major metro area across the country, that is neglected more than others, there’s an increase in homelessness, foreclosures, neglect, etc., but that does not and should not define your opinion on Detroit. I go over there for sporting events, restaurants and other entertainment and people are surprised that I lived to tell about it. The city of Detroit has done such a wonderful job of creating a comeback. It’s still a work in progress, but it is extremely impressive to say the least and I encourage anyone to go to Detroit for a day and experience it first hand before believing all the negativity.
MICHIGAN CONSTRUCTION AND ROADS
Moving along to the next frequently asked question and that is, are the roads and construction in Michigan really bad? The answer that one has to be a yes, compared to a lot of the places everyone is coming from to live here. Michigan roads get destroyed with the weather changing, then you add the salt on top of that to remove the ice during the winter time and you just got yourself a pothole city. There’s an index somewhere online that states that Michigan is among the top 10 states with the worst roads, but the good roads still outweigh the amount of bad. I’d have to say, I spend a lot of time driving all over the state of Michigan and I don’t have any problems with the roads. There was a list recently created with the top 10 worst roads in Michigan, and there were 3-4 on that list in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Ludington and parts of Wayne county. Those aren’t areas I spend too much time on, even though I’m located in metro Detroit, Most of my client’s are looking for something in the outskirts of Detroit in the several cities I have videos for throughout the area. So to say Michigan roads are just a piece of Swiss cheese for your call to fall through is a little over exaggerated, but I have learned in comparison to people in other states who don’t have fluctuating weather, their roads are much better. But again, it gets so overexaggerated, I get people asking me how many times I get a flat tire or have to rebuild my car's suspension, it’s not like that at all. As far as construction, there’s a lot of it around here, our roads don’t last as long and I often question every time the construction starts, didn’t they just redo this? So there’s always that split second irritation, but even right now, there’s so much construction happening in the main expressways going in every direction, but even with that being said, I’m still getting around fairly well with all the alternative routes. It’s typically the onramps to expressways where things get a little congested, but after that it moves pretty consistently.
MICHIGAN LIFESTYLE
The next question is a very popular one and that’s what is the lifestyle like in Michigan? I wanted to create some awareness of a video I created a little while back touching on this topic and it talks about finding you Michigan lifestyle to make your home search easier, so I will put that in the description for you to add to your queue. I have had a lot of people ask me this question, and from my experience of living in the state of Michigan for my whole life (granted it was primarily in the same place, so there’s some bias there) I’d say overall, the state is fairly slow paced. It doesn’t matter what city you’re in for the most part, aside from the heavier populated areas like Detroit, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, etc. the lifestyle tends to be fairly relaxed. To explain this further, when you think about New York or California, you think fast pace, heavily career focused, nose to the ground and just working. Whereas in Michigan, it’s relaxed like I mentioned, again this is based on my experience, but I’ve come to realize a lot of people here aren’t so much defined by the job they have, but more so allow it to be a way for people to fund their passions and vacations. Whereas me on the other hand I truly love what I do, I'm passionate about videos, it’s a hobby of mine, so I have very much intertwined my work and personal life together, and I truly believe that’s what has allowed me the opportunity with so many of you across the country, by just showing people what I value and what I care about. So if there was one complaint from me about Michigan, it’s just the fact that it’s a little slow paced, but that opinion is coming from someone who wants to bake the cake and eat it to, because I’m not a city person either, so that mix doesn’t exactly add up. There’s compromises that are needing to be made when choosing your lifestyle so watching that video I mentioned will definitely help you with that.
BEST PLACE TO LIVE IN MCIHIGAN?
The next question that a lot of people ask me is what’s the best town to live in Michigan? And I don’t very much like that question because everyone is so very different when it comes to their wants and needs in life, and to give you one or two cities based on my opinion (which could be much different than yours) wouldn’t be very beneficial, so again that video I mentioned will create some direction for you in terms of what type of life you’d be interested in Michigan and at that point it will help narrow your interests down so I can give you recommendations that make sense. I know you can hop on google right now and type in “what are the best cities to live in Michigan” and that will give you a very data driven response that again, isn’t very catered to what you’re looking for. I could sit back and say Brighton, Northville and Milford are all amazing cities, because they give off that small town vibe, have cool downtown spaces, but the traffic is a little heavier since everyone loves the area, that might not be the lifestyle you’re looking for especially if you were raised on 10 acres and had the freedom to do whatever you wanted to, to a certain extent.
JOB OPPORTUNITIES IN MICHIGAN
Stepping over to the next question, are there actually job opportunities in Michigan? And of course the answer to this question is very situational, since it depends what industry you’re diving into. If you’re getting into the automotive industry, manufacturing in general, healthcare, technology, or finance, then you can definitely do pretty well since those are the top 5 industries within the state. Again, it goes back to the lifestyle in Michigan, as I mentioned it’s a little slower paced, so certain jobs would make sense elsewhere. For example, if you’re shooting for being a social media influencer, most of them find success in California since there’s such a huge population of creators who work together to build each other up, whereas that influencer population is slimmer out here so the growth rate isn’t as fast with not as many people to piggyback on, but there’s definitely some big name influencers who have come from Michigan, I’m just saying generally speaking. If I had one piece of advice for someone who's thinking about relocating to Michigan and you have this question, be sure to find something or have an idea of the industry you’re looking for before you bring everything over here. I know there are people who are just dying to get over here and they will just figure it out when they get here or do whatever they need to do to make it happen, and I am definitely anyone’s biggest cheerleader for taking a chance and taking on some risk, but I always encourage people to have a general sense of what you’re looking for and I know that may seem obvious, but everyone's situation is different and I have had people jump here without an ounce of thought, for some of them it worked out and others ended up making their way back for a different opportunity.
CHEAPEST PLACES TO LIVE IN MICHIGAN
Last but not least, the last question is where’s the cheapest place to live in Michigan. Again, this is a tough question to answer, and this isn’t keeping mind anything else aside from the price, because when we talk about cheap housing in Michigan, there’s quite the variety out there, we are talking about cities that not a lot of people know the names of, a lot of the places you’re located quite a ways from an expressway or other nearby amenities I know a lot of people value here in the southeast region, but at the same time there’s a several cities that are known cities. It just comes down to preference. For example, for a lot of people like myself, I don’t want to be miles and miles away from entertainment and attractions or in a place where we are worrying about cell reception, WIFI or if someone will actually come out to pick up your garbage. I’d rather buy a piece of land up north to camp throughout the year, not live on it full time. I have a video covering the areas in Michigan with the lowest cost of lying which I will be sure to add to the description so you can add that to your queue. New Home source came out with their top 10 list of most affordable cities in Michigan, and I'll just rattle through these 10 for you. Number is Jackson, #2 is Mount Morris, #3 is battle creek, #4 is burton, #5 is Kalamazoo, #6 is Saginaw, #7 is flint, #8 is Muskegon, #9 is Bedford and #10 is Detroit.
MENTIONED LINKS ⬇️
→Michigan Lifestyles Video: • DON'T Move To Michigan Until You Watc...
→Cheap Places To Live In Michigan: • Cost of Living in Michigan | 5 Places...
For those of you that made it this far, what other questions do you have about living in Michigan? Drop them in the comments below.
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 Brighton, Michigan.