East English Village gets an A rating in national neighborhood report

Detroit Free Press Staff Reports | Detroit Free Press

East English Village in Detroit was one of 136 neighborhoods with median home prices under $100,000 to garner an A rating from property database curator ATTOM Data Solutions in its 2018 Neighborhood Housing Index, released Aug. 2.

ATTOM ranked 10,950 neighborhood housing markets nationwide based on six factors: affordability, home price appreciation, school scores, crime rates, unemployment rates and property taxes.

Rounding out the top five neighborhoods in the under-$100,000 category were the Devonshire neighborhood of Mobile, Ala., ($78,038); the Park Central neighborhood of Orlando, Fla., ($91,750); the Cypress Shores neighborhood of Mobile, Ala., ($85,000); and the Hathaway Manor neighborhood of St. Louis, Mo., ($69,190). East English Village, with a median home price of $66,750, is bordered by Cadieux, Harper, Outer Drive and Mack.

The overall top five U.S. neighborhood housing markets based on the 2018 index were the Pine Ridge neighborhood of Naples, Fla., ($632,871 median price); the Westlake neighborhood of Mobile, Ala., ($196,179); the Union neighborhood of San Jose, Calif., ($795,000); the Westmoreland neighborhood of the Charlotte, N.C., ($326,000); and the Hunters Hill neighborhood of Denver ($271,000).

“While home prices are typically higher in higher-ranked neighborhoods with better schools and lower crime, there are still many top-notch neighborhoods with more reasonably priced homes,” Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions, based in Irvine, Calif., said in a news release.

ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data "for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation’s population," according to its website. For more information, go to www.attomdata.com.

New development may come to old Kmart site

A developer has proposed new retail shops and drive-through businesses on the old Kmart site at Ann Arbor and Haggerty roads in Plymouth Township.

Grand Sakwa Properties of Farmington Hills submitted preliminary drawings to township officials to transform the site that became vacant after Kmart's parent company, Sears Holdings, formally announced a round of closings early last year.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," township Supervisor Kurt Heise said, adding later, "The plan they've put together sounds promising."

Grand Sakwa's plans involve demolishing one-third of the old Kmart building and renovating the rest to accommodate two national retailers, Heise said. The plans also call for several new businesses closer to Ann Arbor Road, some of which he said could potentially include a drive-through coffee shop, doughnut shop or other eateries.

No tenants have been confirmed.

The latest plans dovetail with earlier statements made by William Eisenberg, who works in development and leasing for Grand Sakwa, about the site dubbed Plymouth Marketplace.

“We just think it’s a great spot and we hope the redevelopment will be successful,” Eisenberg said in late 2016, when Grand Sakwa already had begun plans to buy the property.

By Darrell Clem, Hometownlife.com