Traverse City, Michigan?

TedH71 · #1 04/07/12, 12:07 PM

Seems like a nice town from online searches. What's your experience with the town like?

where I want to · #2 04/07/12, 12:43 PM

I was not tough enough to stay in that admittedly beautiful place. One winter where it went from no snow to 8 feet drifting to 15 ft in a three day period. Only 6 weeks of frost free days. The horses could not go out in the fields because the snow was too deep- they ended up running back and forth under the barn eves.
Great for some but not for me. I went back down south where 3-4 feet snow falls were the norm.

TedH71 · #3 04/07/12, 01:10 PM

They get hit by what's called "Lake effect snow" due to their proximity to the big lakes so the clouds soak up all of that water then dumps it in nearby states. Experienced it myself when I lived in Rochester, NY. What irritated me was that Rochester tends to have misty rain..all the time. It wouldn't be raining hard and be over in less than an hour like in Texas where I'm from..it would be misty rain constantly for maybe several hours.

sunshinytraci · #4 04/07/12, 01:11 PM

I love it here. We have a seriously busy tourist season, but it clears out in the winter. Summers are beautiful with lots of recreation opportunities. I have a small farm and have found alot of support for local and naturally raised food. Good restaraunts and shopping (unless you are into Bloomingdales - we don't have one). People are friendly, especially in the smaller surrounding towns.

Property taxes and land values vary by county, often hugely. GT County and Leelanau County are high tax but your property value will be more likely to increase or maintain its value. Benzie county, Antrim county, you will find cheaper land and lower taxes but you will be further away from Traverse City and you are more likely to find a decent paying job in TC than anywhere else. Kingsley is a pretty nice town. I have alot of friends there who like it and its about 20 - 25 minutes to Traverse City.

We get snow, but I don't think its a horrible amount. People complain about the roads in winter, but I don't find them so bad. I don't slip and slide around so I'm good. Its a long winter though, most years I have been here, we have had a white Thanksgiving, a white Christmas and a white Easter with very little thawing in between. The past 2 or 3 years have been light but who knows how long that will last.

Good paying jobs are not plentiful and nepotism is rampant where there are good paying jobs. The saying is "the view of the bay is part of your pay."

If you are into homeschooling children, there is a great network of homeschoolers here and alot of sports and music opportunities for children and adults. There is a nice community of artists and musicians here as well.

I'm not so happy with the middle and high schools in TC. The elementary school my kids went to was great!! The feel of the middle and high schools here is the same as in any big city. There is no small town feel at all. Come to think of it, you don't get that small town feeling in TC, because it is a small city, not a town, but there are plenty of outlying towns close by where you can get that if that is important to you.

It's a beautiful place. I don't know anyone who could argue with that. This side of lake Michigan has sugar sand beaches, dunes 400 feet high overlooking lake Michigan, wonderful forested islands to go camping on, a thriving cottage food industry, cherry orchards, vinyards, rolling green hills spotted with red barns and white farm houses overlooking powder blue lakes, well, its beautiful.

But land isn't cheap here, unless you stay inland or south. Also, alot of the local township governments can be a bit of a pain to deal with, especially with alternative building ideas and I've lived in a few states and I consider Michigan to be pretty heavily regulated. It was tough for me coming from a place where they didn't care what you did, to a place where you need a permit for everything. Frankly though, so far I've never been prevented from doing what I wanted, I just needed to pay the fees, jump through the hoops, get inspected and licensed and all is well. I have heard horror stories from other people who wanted to do things more complicated that I have ever wanted to do.

This post has become very long winded.......eek sorry.

If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.

ryanthomas · #5 04/07/12, 02:46 PM

Very touristy in the summer, but beautiful area.

Kirk · #6 04/07/12, 08:57 PM

I grew up in Traverse City. I now live 70 miles down state, T.C. Has grown a bit much for my taste. Traffic in the summer can be pretty nutty. Employment is primarily in the service industries.

The schools are very good, particularly the music education programs. Traverse is only a short distance from Interlochen, which has an acclaimed music school/camp. This draws many music professionals to the area, some of them settle here and teach.

The winters are not as bad as some would make them out to be. There is also a lot of winter recreation available; snowmobiling, skiing, skating, and ice fishing.

Like Traci said, the outlying areas are cheaper, but they are also slightly less restrictive. The scenery is top notch and there is always something to do.

Jerngen · #7 04/07/12, 09:08 PM

I much preferred it 20+ years ago.
Way to overgrown now and there are so many better areas of northern MI without the crowds.
I still have family there and we visit the general area, but I go out of my way to avoid the actual Traverse City itself.

ronbre · #8 04/08/12, 08:11 AM

I live between Traverse City, Cadillac and Lake City Michigan, and they are all beautiful places, and Traverse City is still rural enough to where the prices haven't caught up with other cities of such quality and there are still a lot of jobs available.

I am about 45 minutes out of Traverse City and you get this far out and the prices drop like a rock (speaking of real estate) ..the gas prices and food prices etc are about the same as the rest of our state, not increased much, however there are some touristy stores that are a bit high, I just don't shop at those.

They have tons of activities year around in Traverse city, and it is a great place to raise a child or to retire. There isnt' as much snow in Traverse city as it is nearly surrounded by water, has lakes or big lake bay or rivers all around, so it moderates the temperatures and usually the lake effect will blow over the city itself (onto us south of there )

It is a fruit belt area, a good place to grow fruit trees up on the rolling hills around the town and out on the penninsulas that go out from both sides of the city to the north.

I highly recommend it, but honestly prefer to live outside of the metro area, like we do, where it is much nicer to me, and we can always drive to one of the towns if we want to "do something"..which we generally don't as we are pretty stay at home here.

willow_girl · #9 04/08/12, 08:21 AM

It's a beautiful town with something for everyone -- a vibrant downtown shopping district AND a modern mall; wonderful restaurants; great beaches! The surrounding countryside is some of the prettiest anywhere. While most of northern Michigan is pretty staid and conservative, TC fancies itself to be hip and liberal. There is an alternative newspaper, a Saturday morning farmers market and about 5 great thrift stores!

Land there *is* a bit pricey, but if you get about an hour out of town, you can enjoy TC's amenities much more cheaply. I lived about 75 minutes away, in Lake City, but commuted to TC for work for about a year. Later, I worked all over the NW quadrant of the Lower Peninsula ... Charlevoix is another outstanding town; a bit smaller than TC but even prettier, IMO.

Edited to add: Here's a nice homestead for ya; about an hour out of TC, house only 7 years old and neat as a pin, nice pole barn, 10 acres, only $109,000!

http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...1_M35184-39976

Kazahleenah · #10 04/09/12, 04:19 AM

A nice place to visit, but I prefer "my side" of northern Michigan.

Less snow, a bit longer growing season and not as expensive to buy land or live.

loghome mom · #11 04/09/12, 06:06 AM

I agree Kazahleenah! Traverse City is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Our son graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy so we spent quite a bit of time there. The school is amazing!

dirtman · #12 04/09/12, 07:11 AM

No tornado's, not earthquakes, lots of fresh water, Lots of locally grown food, Lots of people involved in self sufficiency. beautiful surroundings.

the bad things. Tourists, cherry festival, more tourists. lots of local officials who want to tell you how to live. more tourists.

ronbre · #13 04/09/12, 08:26 AM

I live 40 min away and there are 3 homes for sale on our road ranging from around $130,000 to $200,000 ..both are fairly new and have land with them.

There are less expensive places all over the place as well, my neice spent $37,000 on her home and land a couple years ago, with the repos you can get some great deals.

I lived in Traverse city for a while but my husband preferred country living so we moved here.

haypoint · #14 04/09/12, 03:56 PM

Mild enough weather to grow cherries. Land too pricy for most to farm.