I left Detroit for LA in 2002. Was living in hamtramck and D was getting close to it’s lowest point. Woodward was a ghost town after the offices emptied. Most storefronts bordered up. The most beautiful buildings emply and extremely run down. You wouldn’t want to walk down it at night. I decided to move within 2 weeks of someone shooting a gun outside my home because I felt my life was at risk then.

Fast forward to today. Woodward is nearly completely rebuilt from the riverfront to highland Park. Empty storefronts now filled. Book building and Michigan Central fully restored and beautiful again. Population growth for the first time on my life in downtown. Even corktown which was just a slum of old warehouses is now a hot place to move to in the US. There are still major issues here. While some have benefited the wages in the area are too depressed to drive any real growth and the mismanagement of the big 3 automakers still put the entire region at great risk.

I live less than 20 minutes from downtown and would even consider moving there but the school system is still a shamble and the downtown prices are equal to other big cities with more opportunities. I hope for more growth outside of auto in this area cause the overall COL is low. Half of what it cost me to live in LA. You can still move to the region and buy a nice starter home in a safe area close to work for under $300k. Even less if you can do some rehab yourself. it is growing slowly but that is good for this area as it has 60+ years of decline before this very recent recovery. People are hopeful but they are still very skeptical it is permanent.