I’m another Michigan-born who moved out here 17 years ago but my dad is still back there and I visit once every year or so.
Basically for decades Michigan has been really three economic districts– the Detroit area and Flint, epicenters of the auto industry and cratering of same, located around the “base of the thumb”. Then there is “outstate Michigan”, which is the rest of the “mitten”. In the south along I-94 you have Ann Arbor (as mentioned, doing all right), Battle Creek (doing middling), Kalamazoo/Portage (doing all right). A bit to the north is Grand Rapids, which is also doing OK, and Lansing, which is kind of suffering from the aura of the auto industry crater, I believe.
Further in the north of the “mitten” you have Traverse City and Mackinac Island… their economies have a large tourism component; I’m not sure how they’re doing.
Finally there is the “upper peninsula”, whose country and economy more resembles rural Canada or Minnesota than the southern part of the state.
If you want to invest in Michigan fairly conservatively, I recommend Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, or Ann Arbor. Stay the hell away from Flint and Benton Harbor, they are crime epicenters.
Detroit itself still has a way to fall, unless you can hook something up with the artists & musicians & the like who are moving back in there– if you can, knock yourself out. Musically and artistically I think Detroit is a jewel very much still in the ground, but it has a lot of potential because those artists basically have free rein of the place. See Detroit Lives! to see what I mean.
