Crime and cost of living in your area.

SE Michigan's suburbs around Detroit. Not Detroit, that place is a festering sewer. Everyone who could get out, got out a long time ago and moved to the suburbs. But outside of Detroit the living is good, the cost of living is very reasonable compared to the rest of the country. A 3 bedroom ranch house in a subdivision will cost you less than 150K. The farther out from Detroit you go, the more land space is available. 30 or 40 miles out from Detroit, a reasonable commute distance, you can pick up a house with 10 acres or more property. $500K will get you a F#*k!ng 4000 ft^2 mansion on significant acreage. Renting a 2000 ft^2 house will cost you between $1K to 2K/month (depending on location, cost decreases with proximity to Detroit).

Jobs are OK. A lot of automotive engineering firms. Factory work is available (again in the suburbs, not much in Detroit proper). A lot of trucking firms in Romulus near the airport, just west of Detroit. Schools are OK, better the farther away from Detroit you get.

The majority of Michigan outside of the SE corner is mostly rural, farms, & small towns. Lost of parks for recreation, state land for hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, and off-roading. A lot of regular joe's can afford a home near work and property to play on or a cottage on a lake up north.

In general the cost of living is about 1/2 of the rest of the country, especially compared to the cost of living on the west or east coast. Water is plentiful. Climate is generally mild. Tornado's are rare events. Earthquakes, flooding, severe storms, and wild fires never happen. But we do get snow in the winter.