Moving to Grosse pointe area from south

[poobert]

A lot of this depends on how much you make.

The Pointes are easily the most desirable suburbs in Metro Detroit, in my opinion. The maddening sprawl and traffic of the Oakland suburbs don't exist, and you have lakefront access with your parks. It is a quiet and bucolic place, very family oriented, with good schools. It is also a very tightly knit community. The housing stock is mostly incredible Tudors and Georgian style homes from the 1920s - 1940s.

The downside it is that it is a bit sleepy, lacking in retail, and has a stuffy reputation that often rings true to this day.

I lived for many years in SCS. It is indeed very safe, working and middle class, overwhelmingly white community. I wouldn't ever move back, though. The housing stock is 99% post-war ranch crap, and there isn't a lot to do. The people are pretty nice but mostly keep to themselves. In short, nothing to write home to mother about. The schools aren't great.

I currently live in East English Village, in Detroit. It's pretty nice. There is a strong neighborhood association and lots of ways to meet neighbors and get involved in the neighborhood and Detroit. Property and auto crime is much more prevalent than in the suburbs, still, though. There have been issues of creeping blight and foreclosures but all in all it's still quite nice. Aside from the community feel, you can get incredible Grosse Pointe type houses for the fraction of the cost. It's a bit more eclectic than the Pointes, too, which I like. Of course Detroit schools are crap, but St. Clare of Montefalco is down the road.

The rest of the eastside of Detroit away from downtown is generally no bueno.

My vote would be for the any one of the Pointes [[except maybe the Woods, which are a bit too burby for my taste) or East English Village.