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Info on Grand Rapids, MI area
I would greatly appreciate any information and your views on the Grand Rapids , Michigan area. It looks like my DW and I might be moving there sometime in the next 6 months, due to a job transfer. We know it gets cold and all, but, believe it or not, that's one thing we're looking forward to. We're trying to stay somewhere within 30 minutes of the main airport, probably east of Grand Rapids around Lowell,MI. But, we're open to suggestions. We'll also be looking to buy a place in the country on afew acres, just incase anybody knows of something.
Thanks, Steve and Gale |
We have friends that live near Grand Rapids, I love that area. There seems to be fertile soil, adequate moisture, plenty of snow. In the summer it is hot and humid and sometimes rainy. Lake MI is a lot of fun. I'd move there to be near my dear friends, but I like it too.
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I cant say I know much about it but I was born there LOL. Lived there till I was 10 or so, I remember hot humid summers with bugs! Nice winters with sleding and I am sure it was much smaller 40 some odd years ago!
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Grand Rapids is huge now and land is sky high anywhere near the city. Is there a special reason you need to be near the airport? My son is a GR city cop. He drives 45 minutes one way from up in Howard City.....the nearest place they could afford to have a small place like you are describing. The main airport is actually southwest of the City. They recently built a new "beltway" that cut into a previously nice rural area and all that land near the beltway is now really high dollar. I guess if you are making enough money you could buy one of the McMansions they are building on the 5 and 6 acre parcels. Did you want to homestead???
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I grew up in the Ionia/Belding Greenville areas. Lots of people live in these smaller communities and comute into Grand Rapids. GR's downtown has been recently revitalized and is a clean city to live in. Michigan's economy, hooked to the auto industry, is in bad shape. Lots more people leaving MI than moving to. Owners of Amway have pumped lots of money into GR. Amway headquarters is in Ada, east of GR, getting to be a high priced area. Buyers market in much of Michigan. Since you want to be near the Gerald Ford Airport, you might look south, Caladonia area. Good luck.
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Diane,
Your son and I have something in common. I now work for Customs and Border Protection, but if the transfer goes through, I'll be working for ICE. ( I know, I know, but it's a job). My DW will be working at the airport so I would like to stay 30 to 45 minutes from there. My office will be downtown. The commute doesn't bother me. Right now, I live 12 miles from work and it takes me up to 45 minutes to get there. Yes, we are looking for a homestead. A nice solid little house on afew acres where I can grow a garden and have afew small animals. Somewhere in the range of $200K. Anything like that up there? Thanks, Steve and Gale |
Wife and I just left there last year and both of our entire families live spread out within a 30 mile radius of Grand Rapids.
You won't have much trouble finding something on a few acres up to 200K (like someone else said, it's a buyers market right now). However depending on what you consider "a few small animals" you'll have go to the outside of the 30 mile range. The good news is 30 miles pretty much equals 30 minutes. Not like where you live now. So define what you are thinking when you say "a few small animals" and we can point you in the right direction. Right now I think you are doing good looking from Lowell south towards Hastings. Hastings may look farther on a map but it only takes my family 25 minutes to get to the airport from there. Caledonia is virtually exploding with new subdivisions so I personally would avoid there and look further south. The other option is to go north towards Greenville (where we just moved from). You would want to stay on the s.s.w. side, west of Belding. Feel free to PM me with any questions. If I don't already know I have many family members to ask :) |
Jerngen,
Thanks for the info. As far as animals, some rabbits , afew chicken for eggs and maybe afew Boer goats. I was looking at a map and on realtor.com and Lowell kept coming up. I guess one of the guys I'll be working with lives out there. He got a nice big house for him, wife and kids for a good price. He's only been there a couple of months, so he's not much help. I would rather have a smaller house with more land. Right now, we live in a subdivision down here in Orlando, and it's not for us. Thanks, Steve and Gale |
Greenville recently lost its largest employer to Mexico and that also effected smaller support factories. It is a nice community. Many Belding residents were effected, too. So those areas would be a buyers marketLowell might be a touch too close to Ada and Grand Rapids to be much of a bargin. A bit farther down M-21, past Lowell is Saranac, a pleasant,tiny rural community. Rockford would be pricy, too.
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Steve -
Born and raised in GR and live an hour away now, most of our families live thre. Commuted there from 45 minutes away for many years also. If your office is going to be downtown and you'll be working at the airport also I would consider going east or north. With highway between downtown and the airport it's not a big deal to travel between the two. Really commuting in GR is not that big of a deal from any direction, sure there is traffic but things are laid out well and there are usually several routes to take. Lowell to the east and the areas more south like Caledonia and Byron Center are okay but are really getting developed with yuppies and mcmansions and livestock friendly areas are hard to come by. Right now the Greenville - Belding area like someone mentioned is a good place to check, lots of places on the market. You might also want to check further north of GR towards Sparta, Kent City or Cedar Springs. All are within an easy 30 minute commute by highway. Rockford to the north is tending to become more and more subdivisions so you may want to avoid that area, as well as Coopersville to the west. It is a buyers market up here so you'll have no trouble finding a place within your range, economy is down the drain at the moment. Just make sure to have your real estate agent check zoning on any places you look at, the zoning laws around here tend to surprise a lot of people. Zoning varies by township and every township is different. Our previous township required 3 or more acres for ANY livestock and then that was limited on a livestock to acreage ratio. This included goats, poultry and rabbits. You may find a small acreage farm with barns and everything and than find out you can't use the barn for animals because of zoning laws. Winter up here is really not that bad, my dh and I were just discussing that its been 10 years or more since we've seen a really "bad" winter. Most snow seems to come late and leave early, at least that's been the trend in the GR area over the last few years. Summers are beautiful, I don't think I'd trade Michigan (land and weather wise) for anything. Tami - Heritage Corner Poultry |
I want to thank everyone for your help and comments. Between what all of you have told us and by looking at numerous real estate sights, it does look like that area to the east and north are the best for us. Although , it will be somewhat of a haul for my DW to get to work at the airport, but, she won't be there forever. She has been thinking of going down to part time, maybe 4 days a week, this might be her chance. On your advice, we did look for places to the north and northeast and found a couple of possibilities. Both had cute little houses, one on 15 acres and the other on 20 acres and well within our price range. Time will tell and we will just have to make a trip to Michigan to take a look for ourselves.
Again, thanks to everyone and God Bless. Steve and Gale PS - If you can think of anything else, please let us know. |
Let me be one of the first to welcome you to Michigan. It really is a very nice place to homestead. I don't know how far north and east you are looking, but once you get up here I am up there very frequently visiting my daughter and grands and would love to meet you!!!
We really do need to have a Michigan get together!! There sure are a bunch of us here on this forum. |
Make sure you carefully reveiw any restrictions on how many and what type of animals you are allowed to have. Many of the rural areas are fast becoming developments with "city folk" buying up the properties. Many are even on 5+ acres. We are limited to 3 dogs and 4 INDOOR cats. We have just under an acre and live across the street from a horse farm and just around the corner is another farm with cows. Technically we are not supposed to have the chickens and ducks we do have and we are not sure what they would consider all the rabbits.
Lowell is a very nice area and you can still find some good homestead properties there, Caledonia is becoming rather expensive, Ada is expensive, Rockford has some good properties yet in the outlying areas, Cedar Springs and North to Sand Lake and Howard City have quite a few possibilities. I routinely do searches, dreaming of the day when we can buy some land and have a real barn :) |
I live near Kent City - 17 miles north of GR - and commute to within 1/2 mile of the airport every day. It takes about 35 minutes to drive it if traffic is decent. I am getting laid off at the end of March because the engineering duties in my office are being consolidated at the corporate headquarters in Switzerland. I have 5 acres, chickens, hunt deer and squirrels on my property, and the Rogue River State Game Area is 1/2 miles away. Neighbors both have chickens, there is a cornfield across the road ... my house was 125k in 2004.
Grand Rapids has a great medical industry outlook but the auto industry that a lot of people in this area are employed in is in rough shape. There is an 11 month supply of homes in the area so you should be able to pick up a decent home on 5-10 acres in the country for well less than the $200k you mentioned. Check the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors website - www.grar.com for all the houses in the area. Certain parts of the Lowell area are McMansion subdivisions, but other parts just a few miles away are more akin to rural West Virginia. Other areas to take a look at if you want to stay on the SE side of GR (nearer to the airport) include Alto, Middleville, Saranac, and Caledonia (outside the city). There are some state game areas, rivers, lakes, farmland, woodlands, - you should be able to find a decent place. Another couple of options include something that you can commute from on the west side of GR via the new M6 highway, up my way - Cedar Springs, Kent City, Sand Lake, Howard City, or to the northeast of GR - Belding or Greenville areas. Good luck, I hope you like all four seasons, can deal with a cloudy winter, and if you aren't familiar with icy slushy snowy roads just go easy on the gas pedal and you'll get there. Let me know if you have any questions. |
Diane,
Thanks for the welcome. We're not there yet , but our fingers are crossed. Hopefully, DW and I will be moving there in 4 to 5 months and we would love to meet you , also. Say a prayer and cross your finger for us. Wildfire_Jewel, Thanks for the info. I didn't realize there were so many restrictions up that way. I understand the restrictions say, down here in Orlando, but up there in the country. We're going to try to get 15 to 20 acres so that might solve the problem. We'll just have to keep our eyes open. arbutus, Thanks for all the info. It's been a real big help. As I type, DW is on the other computer looking for property in those areas. Sorry to hear about the job, though. Steve and Gale |
Do you have younger kids that will be attending public schools? If so I can tell which school districts to stay away from.
I second the www.grar.com site. Click on public property search on the left. Then residential (I'm sure you figured it out already but I had to explain that to my mother last week). Once again, feel free to ask any questions that pop up :) |
Jerngen,
No children, atleast not with us. They're all grown and out on their own. Just me, DW and the dog. I haven't had a chance to look at www.grar.com, but I'll try to get to it tonight. I'll probably have more question about the area once I get a chance to look at it. Again, we appreciate all the help and information everyone has given us. We should have final word on the transfer in 90 days or less. You know how slow the government works. All we can do is say a prayer and keep our fingers crossed. Thanks again, Steve and Gale |
my husband works in downtown grand rapids and we live in orangeville which is about a 45 minute commute for him. we chose orangeville because it was approximately halfway between kalamazoo and grand rapids and at the time i was still working in kalamazoo. we also looked in middleville which is a nice area to look for houses with land (there are a lot of forest lands in that area too). you could also consider south in the dorr, or wayland area although wayland is getting to be a bit pricey.
it's really kind of nice out in this neck of the woods and grand rapids really is a nice town (if you like bigger cities). good luck on your move! |
Grand Rapids is far enough east to miss most of the lake effect snowfall that hits my area. I live in Ottawa county and it's still pretty much a farming area. A lot of it is clay soil - great for growing things if you get to it at the right time. There are a lot of nice home for sale since Delphi is leaving us. It's a nice conservative area if you like that type of thing...no Sunday beer or wine sales. Some towns are just getting their liquor licenses. Close to Lake Michigan and close to GR for city lights. The whole area is pretty conservative which if just fine with me and others like me!
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I'll add www.mlive.com as a website to check out as well - They ask for your age and zip code to view the pages, but then you can follow the appropriate links to the housing ads in the Grand Rapids Press and a number of other Michigan Newspapers.
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Just Bought 10 Acres north of Grand Rapids
Actually bought 10 Acres in White Cloud. Hour north of Grand Rapids and 15 minutes west of Big Rapids.
We plan on using the property for recreation and then perhaps a hobby farm. This area is currently 3 hours from our primary residence. |
enjoy the lake effect snow! i was down by GR yesterday and it was snowing alot!
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Hopefully GR has a better political climate than Grand Traverse County. They are a bunch of anal, money grubbing socialists up here.
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Hey Pedigo43...we're neighbors! Welcome to the neighborhood. I think you'll like the area, it's beautiful up here.. We are a little bit north and west of White Cloud, still officially a White Cloud address though.
Tami - Heritage Corner Poultry |
Wow, I am Northwest of White Cloud, just north of Hesperia with 30 Acres :) We Love it
Lisa :dance: |
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~Paul |
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