Mabel Gray at 23825 John R Road, right, is a nationally recognized foodie destination. (City website image)
For years, home buyers and selling agents alike have been looking for "the next Royal Oak." Or Ferndale. Or Midtown. This time it looks like we may have found it. And it's Hazel Park.
Stop laughing. The working-class suburb is having a well-deserved moment, the Free Press reports, with bidding wars for houses, a couple of hot restaurants and -- you might want to sit down for this -- a 40 percent jump in median home prices over this time last year. But houses there are still a bargain in the red-hot summer market, and the couple in the lead thinks they did all right:
For (Mike) McFall, 44, and his husband, Jacob Cooper, who came back to Michigan after a yearlong job transfer to California, there was a happy ending. They bought a three-bedroom, one bath, ranch-style home on East Madge Street, south of 9 Mile and a couple of blocks west of Dequindre, last August for $80,000.
"We may have come in a little high a year ago, but I don't think we got robbed," McFall said.
The small city hugging I-75 even has a brew pub, its municipal website shows.
City manager Ed Klobucher enjoys all of this:
“We’re glad the city is experiencing a renaissance of interest, although as we all know, overnight success is usually the product of years of hard work,” Klobucher said.
He credited taxpayers for supporting millage issues to maintain city services during the tough economic times and the willingness of city employees to make sacrfices.
The city has operated its own version of a land bank in recent years, and has a Promise Zone to attract families with school-age children. Mabel Gray and Joebar/frame are there for foodies. No wonder things are popping.
