I lived and graduated from UI, both of my siblings went to law school in the MW, one to IU the other NU and my pop lives in MI along the lake (he gets a ton of snow!). suffice it to say, I do not miss the horrible weather one bit and don’t see much going for MI near term as far as business opportunities. Bottom line is talented folks prefer to live in nicer climates given the choice.
I also seriously doubt there is much going for MI from an investment perspective given the death of manufacturing in the auto industry, and to the extent that there are small company spin offs out of the MI universities, they run lean and mean and simply do not hire nearly the number of people as traditional manufacturers. Being in the Bio and tech space, MI does not stand out, and in fact, if you want to live in a winter wonderland, WI has much more going for it.
But, if you want to buy at a possible bottom, and If your investment horizon is long enough, like 50-100 years, than go for MI. I see more business opportunity on the west and east coasts, and Asia.