Moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan | Is the Hype Real?

Ann Arbor, Michigan. It's been ranked one of the best places to live here in Michigan. It's also been ranked one of the top 20 places to live in the entire United States. It's had other accolades such as best place to raise a family, best place to retire, and it continues to rank as one of the nicest places in the U.S. Now you might be asking yourself, is the hype real? Or are there some hidden truths that I need to know about? Now although people are coming to Ann Arbor in droves, coming from the West Coast, coming from DC, coming from Chicago, New York, all these places, and you might be living there thinking Ann Arbor seemed like a really cool place, let's go check it out. Well in this video I want to pull back the curtain and show you what it's like to live here. I'm gonna give you my opinion on why I think Ann Arbor is such a destination place for so many people coming into Michigan, and then what I actually don't like about it. So stick around to the end because I'm gonna give you an honest look at what living in Ann Arbor is actually like, including cost of living, the weather, the economy, and so much more. And hey, if we're meeting here for the first time, my name is Eric Meldrum. I'm a realtor here with True Living Group, and I absolutely love helping people like you make that move here to Michigan. So if you are considering moving in one month or one year from now, don't hesitate to get a hold of us. All my contact information is in the description below. Feel free to reach out anytime. And if you like this video, give it a thumbs up, and don't forget to subscribe to the channel so you're the first to learn about all things living in Michigan. Alright, so I think a really good place to start is talking about what Ann Arbor looks like. You know, and if you've never spent any time here, never visited Ann Arbor, you might be relying on pictures from the internet or maybe my videos to show you around town, look at some of the neighborhoods, look at the downtown area. What it doesn't really encapsulate is how you feel when you're here. Ann Arbor is a beautiful town, and that's really what draws people in, is when they're here, you feel the vibrance of the city, you feel the energy, and you can feel like you're in nature. And some of the neighborhoods that you can go to, like Arbor Hills, some of the most beautiful real estate in Ann Arbor. You know, you could go over to Barton Hills, absolutely stunning homes, beautiful landscaping, trees everywhere. And it's not just those neighborhoods, you feel it in all these different pockets of Ann Arbor. And then you get the downtown area, which is connected with the University of Michigan. And that combination doesn't really exist anywhere else, right? To have so much happening on the University, so many students, one would think like, oh my gosh, students everywhere, and this is gonna be like a college town, right? There's partying all the time. That happens, okay? Don't get me wrong, that happens in the student area. But it doesn't spill over into the downtown area. Students have their own little downtown, it's called South University. So just having that campus there, which is breathtaking, like the architecture and the campus, so well-maintained, so beautiful. Some of the buildings are just, you have to go see them for yourself to really kind of encapsulate that. Alright, so that being said, the next thing I want to talk about is the quality of life. Ann Arbor is really known for its strong sense of community, great neighborhoods, and excellent schools. You know, that alone is enough for people to say, wow, I don't really have that where I'm at right now. You know, in addition to that, people here in Ann Arbor take education very seriously. We got the University of Michigan, there's a lot of highly educated and intellectual people here in Ann Arbor. So finding people that are passionate about the same thing, whether it's like microbiology or obscure engineering thing that you're doing, like trust me, there's so many people here in Ann Arbor, so many different walks of life, you will find that. You will find your tribe and everybody's very welcoming when it comes to that. And with the strong academics and intellectuals comes a lot of events too. You know, we have the Art Fair here in Ann Arbor, which is one of the largest art fairs in the whole entire world. People come from all over the place to exhibit and tour and just, you know, enjoy the art here in Ann Arbor. In addition to that, you know, we got music, got cultural events that happen on campus. You got really diverse speeches or lectures that take place. So if you're seeking that information out, it's available here in Ann Arbor, right? It's really not available anywhere else outside of Ann Arbor. This is the place to do it. Now we can't move on without talking about the strong economy here in Ann Arbor. You know, when we have global things happening where the economy might be going up or down or like sideways, Ann Arbor is kind of resilient to that, which is one of the reasons why buying real estate in Ann Arbor, you haven't seen that dip. You haven't seen that kind of fall off. Ann Arbor will be the last place in Michigan to really take a nosedive and home values if that does happen. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that things can't happen here in Ann Arbor from a global perspective, but it's just less of a chance because of the self-contained economy that Ann Arbor has kind of developed. And one of the big factors in that is the health care system. Okay. The University of Michigan is a huge employer, right? Over 35,000 employees between the university education side and the hospital system. Yeah, there's also two other hospitals here in Ann Arbor. There's the VA hospital for veterans and there's Trinity Healthcare. Yes, we have three major hospitals and also, you know, there's a lot of innovation coming out of the university. So we got a lot of technology companies that are here. We've even started blending, you know, the automotive industry into Ann Arbor. So there's a lot of automotive companies tier one, tier two, a lot of innovation happening there. So in addition to that, we have a ton of engineering jobs kind of flooding into the city as well. Now, the last thing I want to talk about is parks and nature here in Ann Arbor. Now, there's a lot of green space and Ann Arbor's always made an initiative that if they can preserve green space and have a park, you know, within a neighborhood or, you know, by a school or just they're developing something new, like the requirement for that developer to make that hotel and those condos and restaurants and retail locations, they needed to have a certain percentage of the land dedicated to a park. There's over 160 parks in Ann Arbor. 162 to be exact. And when that new development on the Huron River is developed, there will be added to that. Alright, so I know what you're thinking right now. You're like, Eric, sounds great, but what's the catch? The first thing you need to know about Ann Arbor is it's not a cheap city. So when you're comparing it to a lot of the other cities here in southeast Michigan, like Birmingham, Northville, Plymouth, Brighton, Saleen, Dexter, Ann Arbor is actually up there. You know, when you look at the average cost of a single-family home in Ann Arbor, it's right around $530,000. Now, that's down from last year. So it shows you that the real estate market really took a spike last year. It's down about 7%. You know, sounds like a big number, but in reality, I think we just have this equilibrium. Like, the real estate market has been really hot in Ann Arbor for the last couple decades and last year was exceptional. If you're looking for a condo in the city, it's going to cost you right around $385,000. You can look outside of Ann Arbor and those prices may come down a little bit. The average home in Michigan is around $275,000, but don't let this fool you. You know, just because a home is on average $530,000 that you're going to find this everywhere in Ann Arbor. That's not the case. There's neighborhoods that will command a million dollars starting price to be in that neighborhood. There's neighborhoods that will command a 1.5 or 2 million dollar, you know, starting price to be in those areas as well. And when it comes to the lower price houses, you know, around the $500,000 and maybe even $450,000, you're going to see a lot of competitiveness. It's the price of a starter home in Ann Arbor. And when it comes to the real estate market here in Ann Arbor, you are not going to find a better team than my team to help you go with your real estate needs. So, go ahead and get a hold of us. All my contact information is down below. And the next thing you need to know about are the winter months. Some people ask, well, how bad is it? Or do we get a lot of snow? And quite frankly, the winters recently have been mild. If you're living on the west side of the state, you're going to get blasted by the lake effects over there. Northern Michigan, it gets a bunch more snow. But here in Ann Arbor and southeast Michigan, it's not like we're getting a ton of snow all the time. So, the winter can be frigid. You know, you do need to learn how to drive in the snow or just be prepared to break a little bit earlier. Take your time. I personally, I don't add any extra time when commuting than I normally do in the summertime. I think it's actually the opposite. In the summer, you need to account for a lot of the construction here in Ann Arbor. So, your route, you better plan out where you're going. Make sure you're not in a construction zone and add a little bit extra time if you are. And the next thing I want to talk about is the traffic and transportation here. If you're somebody that's looking at Ann Arbor and saying, well, can I move here without a car? The answer is yes. Okay, that is possible. Bus system is great here. You can pretty much get around. They have started turning the downtown area into a lot more bike friendly lanes. So, if you do want a bike, they're really pushing that. They're really pushing this zero emission initiative by a certain point in 2030. But, here's the reality. Because of all that, it's made driving in Ann Arbor, it's made it a pain in the butt. Because they have taken what used to be two lanes downtown and a lot of the side streets and they put a bike lane in. And you're not allowed to drive on that side of the road anymore. Those are reserved for bikes. I, for one, don't see a lot of people biking in Ann Arbor. Certainly not in the winter. Certainly not, you know, when it's cold out. There's still people doing it, but it's not the norm. Alright, and it seems to me like those lanes are just going to use making it much more difficult for traffic and people driving to get around. Parking downtown can also be a challenge sometimes. It gets really busy, you know, at certain peak hours. But, we haven't really spent more than, I would say, five, ten minutes finding a spot if you know where to look. There's one underground parking, which really nobody knows about. You know, if you're coming down down the street you just see this like ramp that goes down and there's a parking sign there. But, you drive right past it because you don't expect that in a city like Ann Arbor. So, parking can be a pain in the butt. Traffic can be a pain in the butt. And, especially on game day, when you're going to a game, like, good luck getting around the city. There's thousands and thousands and thousands of more people coming into the city just making it more so impossible to get around. Now, if you live in a state that doesn't have any state income tax, well, sorry to tell you that Michigan does. State income tax is right around four and a half percent as of right now. So, any money you bring in, you're going to pay a state income tax on your earnings. And, in addition to that, we also have some pretty high property taxes. Nothing like New York or New Jersey. But, we do rank kind of right in the middle. We rank all the states for high property taxes. And, you know, in different little cities you're going to have different property taxes. So, Ann Arbor, for one, is one of those cities that has a higher property tax. If you're in the city limits, on average, you're going to be paying 51 millage. And, there's a fancy calculation that you can do. I'll put the website down below. But, you can move outside of the city limits into Sio Township, Lodi Township, any of the townships. And, your property taxes might go from here to here. So, it is a significant difference. I was just looking at this with a client the other day on Zoom. And, we were looking over in Sio Township. And, it dropped from 51 in the millage to 39. Okay. So, when you run the calculation, it was a big difference. It was about a $6,000 a year difference in those taxes for that house. We're going to get to our last topic for today. And, something I think you should just be aware of, you know, when moving to Ann Arbor, moving to Michigan, because they read what they read on the internet. And, we're talking about the geopolitical climate of Michigan and Ann Arbor, specifically. And, if you look at Michigan, it's a blue state. If you look at Ann Arbor, it's a blue city, you know. So, in terms of where it falls on the geopolitical spectrum, you know, it leans left. And, somebody that leans right on the geopolitical spectrum, myself included, may have some issues with that. I can tell you from first-hand experience, I've never ran into any issues. People in Ann Arbor do whatever they do. Some people may say, well, it's a liberal city and they have an opinion about that. But, the city is very well run. I can tell you the quality of life and the job opportunities here, the school system, and just a lot of things that we've talked about in this video, it's well worth it for a lot of people. At the end of the day, that hasn't affected my quality of life living here in Michigan. So, hopefully you guys enjoyed this video. If you have questions, again, drop those in comments below. Or, better yet, reach out to me directly. All my contact information is in the description below. Whether you're moving here in one month or one year from now, my team and I want to be the best resource for you in moving to Michigan. And, we've got your back when doing so. So, go check out these other videos about all things Michigan. And, we'll catch you on the next one.