HI Michiganders.. We are going to a lake cottage on a Lake near Traverse City in August with my whole family. I can't wait. Love those lakes!

Signed,
Indiana Native and DC Transplant.

13:56 here. How could I forget about Meijer. If you move - go to the Okemos Meijer. Much nicer than the others.

I tell people here it's like a SuperTarget, only better. HUGE produce department. Real meat department. Plus the "general merchandise."

My dad worked for Meijer corporate - I used to tell him that if Meijer would locate a store here, Michigan "expats" alone would make it succeed. Plus they treat their people well.

Dissenting opinion here. Not a fan of MI simply because its economy is so bad. Is the job tenure track? Because once you are there it is going to be very, very, difficult to find another one if anything happens to the first one, given the state of the economy there. Yes, you will find an inexpensive home, because no one is moving there. To say it is a buyers market is an understatement. Where are you from originally? Are you only movig for the job? Will you be leaving friends/family? All of these things factor in.

Anonymous wrote:Here's a center hall colonial that would fit right in DC, but at a fraction of the price on twice the lot:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/623-Kensington-Rd_East-Lansing_MI_48823_M40164-20822

Wow. At that price (relatively high for East Lansing), I'll bet that the home really is within good walking distance of campus. Keep your eye on this one, OP.

Ohhhh, Meijer. Sweet, sweet, beloved Meijer. Spotlessly clean, helpful friendly clerks, open 24 hours round the clock. Need both high-end salad ingredients and a pair of toddler snowpants at 6:30 in the morning on your way to work? Go to Meijer. Why oh why did I leave you, Michigan?!?

Oh, and one more thing-- Michigan has Meijer. Everyone I know from Michigan has a deep an abiding love of Meijer. You will too-- trust me on this. Oh, and cider mills. Can't find them out here. They are the best.

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, Thanks for all the feedback. We would love to live someplace that is walkable to things- restaurants, library, grocery store. The job would be at MSU- could my husband bike to work from Okemos?

If you want walkable, live near downtown East Lansing. Just FYI though, East Lansing is not going to be "walkable" in the sense that DC is walkable. I never had a car for the 4 years I was there, so it's doable. Walking to restaurants or the library? Sure. Grocery store? Not so much. EL is suburban in that sense. However, you will be able to find parking spaces.

As I mentioned above, it's a car culture. Campus is definitely bikable; outside campus, not so much. I would not commute via bike from Okemos. Plus, winter is no joke-- you aren't going to be biking in the winter unless you are super hard core. Also, Okemos is also not really walkable. It's very much a suburb-- think Olive Garden and shopping malls.

13:56 again - we find Lansing's airport to sometimes be a better value than GRR or DTW. Don't write off the airport just because they're small!

NP, also from Michigan - I went to school in Lansing for a while. Okemos to East Lansing is not something *I'd* want to bike. Um, no one's mentioned that it SNOWS there, sometimes 6 months a year. And not the kind of snow we get here where it melts a day or two later - it sits on the ground for months. Not sure I could bike through that, particularly not as a planned commute.

On the upside, Michigan has these things called snowplows. We tend to be unfamiliar with them here. So even if it snows 6 months of the year, the roads are generally cleared within an hour or so after it stops snowing. In 13 years of school in Grand Rapids (K to 12), I can count on one hand the number of snow days we had. The road crews are that good.

Housing prices there make me weep. My townhouse in Woodbridge cost four times what my sister's single family home in Grand Rapids did.

Also, echoing the recommendations to move to East Lansing, Okemos (even without being able to bike) or DeWitt rather than Lansing. If you're close to the University, East Lansing would be walkable. Just be sure you know if the house next door is an unofficial frat house before you move in!

And for vacation - Lake Michigan beaches rock! I fly home to vacation there once a year, I still like it better than any other beach I've vacationed at. Probably has something to do with the FRESH water - no salt!