Should me and my boyfriend move to Michigan?

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Idk if any of you here have any insight on that, but figured may as well see if anyone has any thoughts on it. But yeah we live in Colorado but well it is too expensive here for us. At least it feels like that, and we have heard Michigan may have lower housing costs. So we have been somewhat considering it.

We'd both sort of miss the mountains but, there is a great lake there and probably rather thick forests, Idk I figure it might be a little bit like Minnesota where I have spent some time. So sure not mountains but it is still a pretty landscape.

It has a lower cost of living because there are no jobs there.

A friend who lived in Grand Rapids told me that its the only city she ever lived in that had "no rush hour". Has the same lack of traffic all day long.

So...if you dont mind being unemployed I guess its ok.

The Upper Peninsula is beautiful. Lakes and rivers. Pine trees. Forests.

But insular locals. No jobs. No mountains.

I live in Michigan. Really, the cost of living depends on where you're looking to live and how much you're used to paying to live. I think in my town rent for a crappy apartment starts at around $600 a month (rent is getting back to normal-ish after the covid cost hike, thankfully). My daughter who moved to the Detroit area a few years ago would be paying twice that to get the same crappy apartment in her town. I went with her when she was looking at houses/apartments to rent and was shocked by how expensive some of those places were...ones I thought were flat out dumpy/crappy. It was nuts to me and it costs a fortune to eat in some of those suburbs as well. But I have no idea what it is where you are, so maybe that would be cheap to you. I dunno.

Like has been mentioned, a lot of places here to live are cheap, but that is largely due to unemployment. In general, the cheaper it is to live in a town, the more likely the town is full of , poverty, urban blight, crime, and so on while lacking in jobs. My town is dirt cheap to live in, but a lot of people moved away and new people don't want to live here due to the high crime rate and lack of jobs. My town is slowly dying and it used to be a place people in nearby towns came to to do things like shop, go see a movie, so on. Now? It looks like some weird dystopian place playing out in the here and now with all the boarded up windows, empty store fronts, and burned out/abandoned houses, empty lots, so on. I have two burned out houses on my street alone. It's crazy. I think the mall in my town has maybe twenty stores left in it. It's a big, empty, creepy place now. But my town is an extreme example. A few towns over things are different. My parents live about 20 min from me and their town is growing and doing fine. People in that town are scared to come to my town. My town ranks in at least the top 25 for violent crime per capita in the country. It might even be in the top 15.

Really, do your homework. There are some cities that are awesome. There are some that are flat out scary. There are some that are both in the same city. In general, rural is better for scenery, but worse for job opportunities. Rural can also mean higher cost of living, but that still might be cheap to you, I dunno. And the farther north you go, the more likely you are to need things like a well stocked pantry, generator, and fuel, because you might just get stuck in your house for a while in the winter. But the farther north you go, the more beautiful the state becomes, imho.

If you like forest areas, finding a place near or in a state or national forest could be cool. If I could afford to move, I'd go over in the huron/manistee national forest. Around Baldwin gives you access to that city (though it is a small-ish one) and no shortage of nature. It's beautiful over there and the crime isn't nearly as bad over there as it is in parts of southern/central Michigan. It's pretty chill over there. But I'm not sure what job opportunities look like.

Then there's places like Midland. I have an aunt who lives there, and she loves it. It's central-ish Michigan and is mid range cost of living wise (as far as cheap towns go), but the town is nicely maintained, has a small university, a massive nature trail runs through it, there's no shortage of beautiful scenery and things to do. Apartments there would start around $800 a month. Cost of living is pretty low, especially compared to places like Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, Detroit areas, and so on. I'm pretty sure Midland has a decent amount of job opportunities and their crime rates have got to be low.

Yeah, short of it, yep. Some places are beautiful, some places are scary. Check the crime rate stats of anyplace you think looks nice/cheap/whatever. My two cents.

There might be some free housing in some parts of Detroit.

I don't know anything about Michigan (or Colorado!) but based on what Flea wrote it seems you have lots of options to consider. Colorado sounds so beautiful but I bet it's crazy expensive. I was shocked by the prices Flea mentioned for Michigan because they seem so low. Kind of makes me want to move to Michigan!

Good luck with your decision!

^ Michigan is cheap living. If you don't have to stress work due to retirement, being on disability, whatever, it's not a terrible option. I find the housing costs you mentioned to be insane. I can rent a decent 3 bedroom house in my town for about $800 a month. I was thinking that it would be laughable to have a $2000 apartment here, so I googled apartments in my town to see if we actually had any and I was oblivious. The most expensive one in my city proper, is $1650 and that's some weird luxury apartment that was part of a failed attempt to gentrify a part of my town. In that building, they start at $900 a month. I have no idea what makes that $1650 one so special. I tried to look, but it's apparently not currently available. Someone is actually paying that much to live here? The most expensive one they have listed in that place right now is $1160. But yeah, that building is an anomaly. Next to that, cost wise, is a house (not an apartment within a house, but an entire house) at $1000. The cheapest apartment is sittin' pretty $525 a month. Not too shabby, but I don't think I'd live in that part of town.

When I think of really expensive places to live in this state, I think of places like Traverse City. You can rent a place there for a few thousand a month. If you're feeling indulgent, you can spend up to 4k on a really stunning place and view. But that's a touristy place on a lake. Not a bad town though. It's small, but really progressive. The locals are cool. It's crazy busy in the summer, but mellow during off seasons. It's a nice place. But yeah, too expensive imho. You'd need a really good job to live there all year, but since it's a tourist place, they don't have many jobs beyond seasonal retail/food service jobs that cater to the summer out of town crowds. And those jobs will not cover your rent. It's kinda like you have to have money to live there. But if you have the cash, it's a great place to live. Really, any towns around there are great places to live if you can swing the housing costs. Old Mission, imho, is probably the most beautiful of the towns (though I doubt it has enough people to be considered an actual town) in the grand traverse area. There really are some gorgeous places in this state.

I'm a single mum on disability income. ^
It's insanity.
I have a house / mortgage, but I can't afford to downgrade to a rental.
How weird is that?

For 20 years I was legally forbidden from moving more than 12 miles from my home (custody thing).
I still can't move because I'm caring for my mum and brother.

Michigan sounds great.

Government programs like housing assistance would probably require people to already be residents of the specific state or to be homeless who wondered into the state & went to their homeless shelters.

Since you have disabilities Sweetleaf, I would recommend looking into the health care system of any area your considering moving to. For example if your currently on Medicaid, you could get on Michigan's Medicaid but if very few docs where you move to accept Medicaid or new Medicaid patients, you'll have to get private health insurance or get it through your employment & the cost of the insurance along with the coypays & deductibles might cost quite a lot. I was on Louisiana Medicaid when I was living with my parents after I got on SSI as an adult(I got on Medicare a year before I moved after my SSI switched to Social Security Disability) but no docs or psychs in my area would accept new Medicaid patients so most of my full SSI check went towards my health insurance & medical expenses. The health centers & hospital here in Vermont actually accept Medicaid so I didn't need to purse getting private health insurance here & I never had to pay a single cent to see a doc, psych, or go to the hospital. The hospital & health center here is kinda $hitty sometimes but it's alot better than having to pay for bad health care like I was.