HIGHLIGHTS FROM TOP 11 LIST

Below are the areas seeing the biggest booms in home sales, based on days on the market and median sale price. Rankings come from the team at RE/Max of Southeastern Michigan. See page 34 for methodology.

Dexter (48130)

No. 1

Dexter, a former farming town in Washtenaw County, tops our list, and Realtor Carmen Knick of the Cadence Real Estate Group says buyers here are part of the overflow from Ann Arbor’s popular west side, along with the towns of Chelsea, Saline, Grass Lake, and Waterloo.

Dexter offers a walkable downtown with low to zero commercial vacancy and lots of retail shops and restaurants. It is also home to a farmers market, the Dexter Cider Mill and Cornman Farms, and Zingerman’s event space. As for arts, they have the Purple Rose Theatre, and Knick says a summer music series is a huge draw every Friday night in the city center. For fresh air and a long walk, the paved Border to Border Trail (which connects cities and parks throughout Washtenaw County) runs through downtown, and two Huron-Clinton Metroparks are within the town’s borders. She recommends the Dexter Bakery for breakfast and coffee, the Fillmore Bar & Grill or Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales for drinks and dinner, and Aubree’s or Cottage Inn for pizza.

Public School Review, an online resource that ranks and evaluates public schools by statewide averages on several key criteria, such as teacher-student ratios, ranks Dexter Community School District’s seven schools in the state’s top 10 percent.

St. Clair Shores (48081)

No. 2

After searching for months for a house in Grosse Pointe Woods to be near his family last year, John Hales — who was moving back to Michigan after living in South Carolina for 15 years — landed on a three-bedroom/onebath, 1,000-square-foot home in St. Clair Shores, just a few miles away, and he’s glad he did. It’s just over the border from Grosse Pointe Woods, the price of $190,000 was a deal for his fully updated home, and taxes are lower. “There’s even new sod,” Hales, 60, says of his pristine lawn. St. Clair Shores boasts the Nautical Mile gateway to Lake St. Clair, with a long stretch of marinas — six public and one private — and many eateries and shops. Hales’ faves for breakfast are Charlie’s on Harper Avenue and The Yolk Brunch House on Greater Mack Avenue. “I love it here — it’s close to downtown Detroit and all the sporting events, it’s quiet and easy to get around, and I have really nice neighbors.” Nearby is Lake St. Clair Metropark, which has a large beach on Lake St. Clair, bike-friendly trails, a golf course, and an Olympic-size swimming pool with a waterslide.

The city has three school districts; here’s how they rate on Niche, another rating service: South Lake Schools (B-minus overall, with an A for diversity), Lakeview Public Schools (B overall, B-plus for academics and diversity), and Lake Shore (B-minus overall, B-plus for diversity, and B for teachers).

Madison Heights (48071)

No. 3

Ashely and Justin Tebedo, both in their early 30s, had been renting in Clawson, but when they started looking for a home of their own, most of the towns they thought about were way outside their price range. “In our search, Madison Heights was not on our radar,” Ashely says. Then they fell in love with a 1,200-squarefoot, three-bedroom/1.5-bath ranch with a three-season room, a patio, and a finished basement listed for $267,000 — in move-in condition and close to both of their jobs. “We love our neighborhood,” she says. “It has a small-town feel, homey, and a good mix of young families and retirees — the kind of place where you can talk to your neighbors over the fence.” And, she notes, “We have some of the best authentic food here, like Tienda Mexicana on John R.” The celebrated circa-1955 Green Lantern Pizza is on the same street. She and Justin also love the city’s Red Oaks Nature Center, where they can walk their two dogs and enjoy the 5.2-acre Red Oaks Dog Park. Families will love Red Oaks Water Park, which has a wave pool, waterslides, and a river ride. The city is also known for its fantastic Asian American grocers, including 168 Asian Mart and China Town Market.

Lamphere Public Schools are rated in or near the top third of schools in the Detroit area overall, plus in the areas of teachers and diversity, according to Niche.

Ann Arbor (48103) No.

5

Ann Arbor is hot, hot, hot! An article earlier this year on StudyFinds.com pronounced Ann Arbor No. 1 in its “Best Places to Live in America in 2023,” compiling comments from Money. com, among other sites, declaring that the city is more than just a college town — it’s “a mix of rural and urban, sporty and smart, outdoorsy and high-tech.”

Not to mention, it has a fantastic art, music, and food scene. Highlights include the annual art and folk festivals, music venues like The Ark and The Blind Pig, many bookstores and an amazing public library, and a 100-plusyear-old farmers market. Historically, Ann Arbor is LGBTQ-friendly — Movoto, an online real estate guidance tool, ranked it the second best city in Michigan for LGBTQ families. It scored a 100 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Municipal Equality Index Scorecard.

●A marina along the Nautical Mile in St. Clair Shores. This stretch of Jefferson Avenue includes seven marinas (six public, one private) and lakeside dining on Lake St. Clair.

According to Knick, many sales in Ann Arbor near the University of Michigan — where condos and townhouses average about $377,000 — are from parents buying for their students attending the University of Michigan, and they plan on living there themselves after their kids leave college.

The 32-school Ann Arbor Public School District has one of the highest concentrations of top-ranked public schools in Michigan, according to Public School Review. On U.S. News list of the top high schools in Michigan, Skyline High School is No. 10 and Pioneer is No. 22.

Troy (48098) No. 6 (five-way tie)

This affluent and diverse burb was ranked No. 1 on Niche’s 2023 list of the best places to live in the Detroit area and No. 2 on its list of the best places to live in Michigan. The city also has plenty of parks (totaling more than 100 acres), a 127,000-square-foot community center with an aquatic center and licensed preschool program, and the annual Troy Daze weekend festival, plus plenty of restaurants (Morton’s, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Ocean Prime, Eddie V’s, Fogo de Chão, and others) and one of the best malls in the Midwest (the Somerset Collection, with Nordstrom, Saks, and much more).

“We’re getting a lot of inquiries for new builds and move-in-ready homes,” says Cathy LoChirco, director of operations and client management at TVA Homes, a real estate agency in Birmingham. While a recent search found one home for $1 million, the median listed home price in this area is $409,900 as of March 21, according to Realtor.com and a stately 3,700-square-foot new build in the West Troy Meadows community off Livernois Road with four beds/four baths and a three-car garage lists for $969,900.

●This 2,388-square-foot home is located in Ann Arbor’s Loch Alpine neighborhood. It has four bedrooms and four bathrooms and sold for $493,000, according to Zillow.

Troy’s schools, among Michigan’s top 1 percent for diversity according to Public School Review, are a big draw for many families: Troy High School and Athens High School are ranked Nos. 5 and 12 in the state on U.S. News’ list, and Public School Review ranks the school district among the top 5 percent in Michigan overall.

●Sand volleyball in Troy’s Boulan Park. The city includes over 100 acres of wellmaintained parks and a 127,000-square-foot community center with an aquatic center.

Dearborn (48124) No. 6 (five-way tie)

“Architecture from the late 19th- and 20thcentury colonial and Tudor revival can be found up and down the streets of these charming neighborhoods,” says Laila Dakroub with RE/Max Team 2000. Ryan Allen, 35, bought a condo here in 2022 after living in Detroit and loving city life for a year.

It was a new job with Nokia Corp. that offered college tuition — he enrolled at the University of Michigan Dearborn — that prompted his move to Michigan’s seventh most populated city and into an 11-unit condo association called Garrison Hills off Military Street. “I didn’t realize how nice a downtown area Dearborn had,” he says.

“It’s walkable, cultural, and diverse.” He names several of his favorite spots for coffee: Qahwah House and The Great Commoner on Michigan Avenue, and the Parisian-inspired Gateaux Patisserie on Military Street. For dinner, he recommends Middle Eastern eatery Malek Al-Kabob and the Indian restaurant The Himalayan Flames, both on Michigan Avenue.

As far as museums, Dearborn is best known for being the home of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, but it also has the Automotive Hall of Fame and the

This Troy ranch-style house has three bedrooms, one bathroom, a two-car garage, and a back deck. It sold for $161,000 in late 2020, according to Zillow. It’s now listed to rent for $2,000 a month.

Whitmore Lake

(48189)

No. 6 (five-way tie)

Another spillover town from Dexter, this affordable, laid-back rural area with a mix of modest and luxury homes is all about the 667-acre spring-fed lake (voted the best inland lake in Michigan in a poll by MLive), with year-round water sports and fishing and acres of nature trails and woods.

“It’s definitely growing,” Knick says, point- ing to a low tax base; public access to the lake, boat launch, and rentals; and fun places to hang out. RE/Max Classic associate Eileen Denhard calls it “a beautiful rural community with a vibrant yet relaxed feel,” adding that there’s interesting shopping in nearby Brighton and world-class health care, dining, and more in close-by Ann Arbor. For breakfast, try The Peaberry Bean & Beats, “a really cool mom-and-pop spot with open mic both day and night,” Knick says. Denhard likes the Whitmore Lake Tavern for a burger and a brew, and both real estate agents love Captain Joe’s Grill’s huge outdoor patio, featuring an American and Mediterranean menu, live music, and comedy acts.

Public School Review ranks the district in the top 50 percent in the state.

Below were the steps RE/ Max of Southeastern Michigan took to get the rankings featured in our county charts. Data was pulled using residential sales only, meaning this did not include condo sales data, vacant land, or farmland.

1. Median sales price was pulled for each ZIP code by month for 2021 and 2022.

2. Average median sales price was found for 2021 and 2022.

3. The percentage increase/ decrease from 2021 to 2022 was run for each ZIP.

4. A rank of “1” was assigned to the ZIP with the highest percentage increase in median sales price from 2021 to 2022; ranking continued downward through the list.

5. Days on market data was pulled by month for each ZIP code for 2022.

6. The average number of days on the market for 2022 was run for each ZIP code.

7. A rank for days on market was assigned, with “1” representing the ZIP code with the lowest average number of days on the market in 2022.

8. We then added up the rank each ZIP was given for the percentage change in median price with the rank for average number of days on the market and divided that number by 2 for an overall score.