How long will they stay?

[masterblaster]

Unless you're talking about living right on Woodward on Campus Martius, I can't think of any "great urban qualities" for residential neighborhoods in SE MI. No place in Detroit proper is really "conventionally urban" [[walkable, corner stores and the like, non-poor using transit).

Midtown, Corktown, the North End, North Corktown/Briggs, Woodbridge, West Village, Southwest Detroit, the East Riverfront, Hamtramck, all have the potential to be walkable and there are corner stores, they are just empty.

This linked article from DailyDetroit describes the transformation of a block of storefronts in John R in the North End. 4 businesses now occupy this block. This is is just one example of the potential of Detroit's inner neighborhoods. In addition, the North End has a plethora of little storefronts scattered in the middle of the neighborhood, like this one.

Corner store in the middle of Corktown residential #1

Corner store in the middle of Corktown residential #2

Corner store in the middle of Corktown residential #3

There are more. In the suburbs, Wyandotte has them

[CrashDummy]

Exactly. Northville is a great place with a charming and cozy 19th C downtown and historic district. It even had harness raceway. That appeals to a lot of people and I get it. I love dining and doing coffee there then cruising Hines Drive.

But there is next to zero quality art, culture, theatre, sports, and on and on compared to the New Center to Downtown corridor.

However as Northville-ians are affluent I can just about guarantee some of them have weekend pied-à-terre's downtown--another quiet factor influencing occupancy. Think of it like having a cabin in the middle of the action instead of up north--one a short drive away that can increase in value, making it an investment asset as well.

Exactly. Well, almost. Substitute Farmington for Northville and it is exactly what we did.

We own a house in downtown Farmington, and were considering buying a vacation home, perhaps in some town on Lake Michigan. A couple of years ago, while biking on the riverfront, my wife suggested we buy a place in Detroit instead. We bought an apartment in north midtown and couldn't be happier with our "foot on the ground" [[I don't speak French). And while we definately make more money than average, there are still tens of thousands of people in the metro area that make more.

As far as amenities go, there are definately more than Farmington, not even close. This year, I did 90% of my Christmas shopping on foot or by rail within a few hours. We have season tickets for baseball and to the Fisher theater. Walking distance to tons of restaurants and museums.

I think that people take too narrow of a view when they talk about which kind of people are contributing to downtown or midtown's success. If you're at a restaurant and see one table of young 20 somethings and another with a couple of 40 somethings with 2 teenage kids, what is your assumption? You would assume that the family will be going back their suburban home afterward and the youngsters would be going back to their hip downtown loft, but that's not necessarily true. While I do see some younger millenials at owners meetings and shopping around for condos, they are a minority. If you are looking to see where a lot of the money is actually coming from, you may want to look somewhere in that space between the millenials and the billionaires.

[Towne Cluber]

If I live in most of Indian Village, I can walk [[within a mile) to 3 quality restaurants, a quality cafe, a community center, a dry cleaners and even Belle Isle park. You can't do that in Northville living in a large home and you can't find the beauty of an Indian Village home there [[possibly with more demanding upkeep) either. The "urbanity" isn't a wash or perfect, but Detroit is urban and has those advantages.

On the contrary, there are probably just as many [[if not more) people in Northville [[population 6,000) that could walk [[within a mile) to restaurants, a dry cleaner, and community center than Indian Village [[population 1,672).