Living In Canton Michigan | What You Need To Know - So Canton Michigan has piqued your interest a little bit as a potential place to live, but you’re not sure you want to call home just yet. In this video, I’m breaking down the some crucial things you need to know about living in Canton Michigan.
Be sure to watch this video until the end to understand why you should consider Canton Michigan to be your new home!
This blog is a direct transcript from the video below. This comes in 3 versions: You are able to watch the video, read the blog for your convenience or listen to the audio experience (which is linked under the video below).
As the title states, I’m going to be breaking down what you need to know before moving to and living in Canton Michigan. So if you’re relocating for work, to get closer to family, or just want a change in scenery, be sure to watch this video all the way through to figure out if Canton suits your needs. But before I jump into this, I want to take a step back and break down what actually makes a good place to live. Most sources define this broad question, as a place with a clear sense of direction and widely shared vision, but how can that be broken down to actually be understood? In the simplest terms possible, a good city has a little something for everyone: safety, quality healthcare closeby, a great school system, a growing community infrastructure or framework, and of course, good housing for their residents. I think you’ll be surprised about what Canton has to offer.
Canton, Michigan or what is officially known as the charter township of Canton. If you’re unfamiliar with the area, Canton is almost directly east from Ann Arbor, just about 15 miles, 10-13 miles directly south from Novi and Northville, and 30 or so miles west of Detroit. So it’s safe to say the city is pretty centrally located. This township, believe it or not, is Michigan’s second most populated township and ninth most populated municipality, and for good reason. An article by CBS Detroit, which touched on the top 100 safest cities in the country, ranked Canton Township 29th, and was also ranked 96th highest income place in the United States with a population of 50,000 or more. This township covers just over 36 square miles and has a population just under 100,000 people, which is a population density of just over 2,700 people per square mile. Niche.com ranked Canton #8 in the best places to live in Wayne county, and also ranked them very highly in these three categories out of 337 other cities.
On top of all those amazing rankings, the School district is ranked #4 in Wayne County, and has earned the #10 best school districts for athletes in Michigan out of 571, #34 best places to teach in Michigan out of 552, and ranked #37 out of 556 best school districts in Michigan. This is just one of the three school districts that cover Canton township along with Van Buren Public Schools, and Wayne-Westland public schools. I’ll link the school district website in the description in case you want more information.
Canton, Michigan is known as the sweet corn capital of Michigan, due to the high number of local farms that provide corn to the local grocery stores and on top of that, the central location in Canton has become a dairy farming center. I know what your thinking, this is just some Farmville, one horse, tumbleweed city in southeast Michigan, but actually that couldn’t be any farther from the truth, because the community has it all: from the acres of parks and recreation, to endless shopping, restaurants, entertainment and so much more along Canton’s main strip off of Ford Road. This road is easily the community's main retail corridor, but as of late, Michigan Avenue has become a hot spot for businesses, and the Canton Sports Center, which includes the Arctic Coliseum, an ice arena I spent a ridiculous amount of time at growing up throughout my hockey career. Not only does the township of Canton have great attractions, they have quite a few events to look forward to as well such as: the Canton Farmers Market, Liberty Fest, which is Canton’s biggest community event which involves, fireworks, carnival rides, live entertainment, and endless food and drink options, picnic in the park, along with their summer concert series which I’ll have a link to all of these cool events in the description as well.
Having major highways such as: I-275, US-12 (AKA Michigan Avenue), and M-153 (AKA Ford Road), along with a 63 acre public airport, along with Canton’s mobility transportation program which provides local transportation to people throughout Canton, Westland, Garden City, Wayne, Inkster and to any destination within a mile of the bordering communities gives this township a fat gold star when it comes to location and ease of transport.
Jumping to a few more crucial factors to consider, the cost of living and real estate prices. As you can see from this graph provided by bestplaces.net, it compares not only canton’s cost of living, but Michigan’s and the United states based on a 100 point average. Housing and Transportation are the two categories that have resulted in the 110.2 overall. Transportation is due to how Michigan's car insurance is structured, and if you want to know more about that, I’ll link a video in the description to a video I created a while back. As far as housing coming in at 121, this graph from the MLS shows Canton’s median sale price over the last 3 years, jumping 11.4% over a year's time to just over $341,000. Granted the 121 is above average, but I have been helping countless clients find a new home in southeast Michigan, in general and most times it comes back to Canton, Michigan, because the neighborhoods were nicer, the city is more taken care of, and their dollar went much further for a well-cared for home than it did in other places of interest in the area.
Numerous sources didn’t rank Canton high on the best places to live list, and I couldn’t disagree any more. This is one of the most underrated cities in southeast Michigan. Looking back on what defines a “good city”, Canton checks most, if not all, the boxes.
Just to put the cherry on top, here’s a few reviews from CURRENT residents saying how their experiences have been living in Canton. This first review talks about the safety, diversity of housing options, easy access to highways, unique culture, great diversity, along with great school offerings and job opportunities. The next review is from a resident who has lived in the area their whole life and the homey feeling that offers everything they need and more in a city. Chances are this person isn’t moving away from Canton anytime soon I bet. The last review talks about the friendly environment, the great school district, and easy access to highways, all while being centrally located between Ann Arbor and Detroit.
What are your thoughts about Canton Michigan? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
If you’re thinking about making the move to Canton or one of the many nearby areas, please don’t hesitate to reach out and I would be happy to help you out!
MENTIONED LINKS 🔗
→Canton Michigan Schools: https://bit.ly/3dqPCkc
→Canton Michigan Events: https://bit.ly/3AmP0UP
→Michigan Cost of Living: https://youtu.be/qWeDltOla58
Cheers,
Andrew
Andrew McManamon is a Michigan REALTOR® with Signature Sotheby’s International Realty and provides real estate services to Buyers, Sellers and Investors throughout SE Michigan including Livingston County, Oakland County, Washtenaw County, Genesee County & beyond. Andrew has become one of the rising stars of Michigan real estate agents. Prior to his real estate career Andrew was responsible for managing a senior living facility in Brighton, Michigan as a dining supervisor and an activities assistant. Andrew’s passion to help people is unlike any other, and he continues to strive to be best resource he can be. Andrew graduated from Cleary University in Howell, Michigan with a double major and currently resides in White Lake, Michigan.