Troy Michigan Pros and Cons| Living in Troy Michigan - So you're thinking about making the move to Troy, Michigan? In this video, I touch on some history about Troy, Michigan, 3 pros and cons, along with some information pertaining to real estate and the cost of living.
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).
Troy, Michigan. A place you’d think would be full of swords, shields and battles, but it’s not I promise you. I’m kidding of course, but there is a little irony in that statement. The name “Troy” comes from an Irish surname meaning “soldier” and after Troy township’s establishment in 1827, 1955 rolled around and the city was officially incorporated to prevent bordering cities from trying to take more land. So in a sense, the “soldiers” were just standing their ground. I won’t make this all about the history of Troy, but I will link a few sources in the description in case you wanted to dig deeper into it.
Another notable thing about Troy to put into perspective, is this 33.63 square mile slice of land is home to over 87,000 people who bring in an average household income of just over $101,000. Making it the most populated city in Oakland County. And if you know anything about Oakland County, you know it's very big. Like 907 square miles, kinda big.
Since there are so many good things to say about the city, I’ll start off by breaking down the pros of living in Troy, Michigan. (I'll also link cool stuff to do in Troy, in the description).
To kick this list off with pro #1, I'll just knock out the city’s impressive rankings now. Troy was ranked #2 of 815 best places to live in Michigan. #2 of 337 best suburbs to live in Michigan, and #8 of 337 best suburbs to raise a family in Michigan, according to niche.com. And I don’t want to say all this is solely from one source, CNN Money, patch.com, livability.com, bestplaces.net, and US news have all attested to these rankings.
Pro #2, Is the growing global business hub that over 6,000 businesses call home. Troy isn’t shy when it comes to leading by example, promoting innovation, embracing diversity and of course encouraging collaboration. These aren’t just 6,000 mom and pop shops, they are global companies and fortune 500 corporations that have employed over 129,000 people. Just to throw some more numbers at you, 7 million square feet of retail space, 16on square feet of manufacturing space, and 21 million square feet of office and engineering space, this is southeast Michigan’s heart for the largest high-tech workforce in the country. I don’t know about you, but this pro alone has a million green flags popping up in my head. Great opportunity, great job market, great economy, and just all around great.
Pro #3, Troy schools. According to the U.S news, who nationally ranks schools based on performance, graduation rate, and college preparation, ranked Troy high school #6 best high schools in Michigan, #4 best high schools in the Detroit metro area, and #275 best high schools nationally. That may seem high, but according to edweek.org, there’s over 130,000 public and private k-12 schools in the U.S, so I'd say Troy is doing pretty well. Other schools that serve the Troy school district weren’t rated anything less than an “A”, and a lot of them rank pretty high on the chart for best public schools in Michigan.
Alright, enough about the good things to look forward to when living in Troy, let’s transition into the not so good things...
Con #1, Transportation. It’s no secret that with such a booming business center being the focal point for Troy, that the traffic and driving situations aren’t as good as they could be. With the city bringing in so many outsiders to the already heavily populated city, it can cause a few headaches. I will surely throw some solutions to the problem your way friends. The city of course tried to fix these issues by establishing the SMART bus, which has fixed routes throughout the city, RYDE, spelled R.Y.D.E that offers transportation options for people over 60 or over 18 with disabilities, taxis and other rideshare options such as: lyft and uber that can shuttle you wherever you want to go, Amtrak which is located in Troy’s transit center, and FAST which is frequent affordable safe transit, which takes passengers all over metro Detroit, 7 days a week. With all these options out there, there are still complaints about the lack of transportation, so be sure to dig deeper into your commute options in advance so you can get a spot on one of these options.
Con #2, with the millions and millions of square feet of retail, manufacturing, engineering, and miscellaneous office spaces taking up a good chunk of the city, it leaves a lot of residents saying, there isn’t a whole lot to do. It’s a fair statement, unless you’re a full blown workaholic who doesn’t mind it and simply enjoys never leaving the office ever, I’m kidding…… It’s always nice to have stuff to do in a place you live. It’s not that there’s a shortage of restaurants, entertainment or shops (considering the gigantic Somerset mall is located in Troy), it just lacks the walkability, and with that being said, the Somerset mall is just used in place of the lack of downtown walkability. There was a proposal to redevelop the Troy civic center to prove the downtown atmosphere the city is lacking, but based on pros and cons, the proposal was denied.
And last but not least, con #3, the cost of living, particularly for transportation and housing, everything else is at or below the national average. Transportation was covered with a few solutions that tend to reach into your wallet a little bit if you’re not careful. As far as housing, the average sale price in Troy as of recording this, is over $388,000, which is a 11.3% increase from the year before, and almost $120,000 over the average sales price in the state. The home appreciation in the last 10 years has been over 97.1%. In the rental market, 25% of the population is renting, and roughly 1.3% of the houses, condos and apartments are available to rent. In terms of months supply, Troy is at a 1.2, meaning it would take 1.2 months for the city to completely run out of housing inventory given no more were being added. As of right now, there are about 124 homes for sale in Troy, which is a 26.2% decrease from last year. I just threw a whole lot of stats at you, so feel free to pause and rewind if you didn’t catch all that in the first go.
So that brings us to the question, what are your thoughts about Troy, Michigan? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.
Overall, Troy is a southeast Michigan city you don’t want to look over if you’re thinking about making a move to the area, and if you are, feel free to text, call, or email me anytime with questions about Troy or any of the surrounding areas.
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.
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