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The City of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan: The Nation's 4th Wealthiest City

Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

December 26, 2006 11:31 AM

Small in size (only 5 square miles) the City of Bloomfield Hills is the wealthiest city outside of California or Florida, and the nation's 4th wealthiest city with a population over 1,000. In the last census, Bloomfield Hills had just under 4,000 residents and a median family income of $170,000.

The jewel of Bloomfield Hills is Cranbrook, the spectacular setting for Cranbrook Academy of Art, Cranbrook Art Museum, Cranbrook Science Center, Cranbrook Planetarium, and Cranbrook-Kingswood schools.

City of Bloomfield Hills Real Estate

The City of Bloomfield Hills features some of Metro Detroit's finest estates. The most expensive home currently on the market in Oakland County is located in Bloomfield Hills, and it is new construction being offered for $12,750,000. There are condominiums available in Bloomfield Hills for as low as $100,000, but the median single family home price hovers close to $1,000,000. For past Bloomfield Hills market analyses, look to our blog, MiOaklandCounty.com.

City of Bloomfield Hills Links

City of Bloomfield Hills
Cranbrook
Census information about the City of Bloomfield Hills
Bloomfield Hills Public Schools
Bloomfield Hills News (Observer Eccentric)

Famous people who have lived in Bloomfield Hills, MI

Bloomfield Hills is home to captains of industry, professional athletes and entertainers. A few of its notable past and present citizens include:

Aretha Franklin (Queen of Soul)
Lee Iacocca (former Chrysler CEO)
Isiah Thomas (former Detroit Piston)
Steve Yzerman (Detroit Red Wings)
Geoffrey Fieger (Attorney and former gubernatorial candidate)
William Davidson (owner of the Detroit Pistons, The Palace of Auburn Hills and Guardian Industries)
Roger Smith (former GM Chair)
Charles Lindbergh (pilot)
Joe Dumars (Detroit Pistons)

photo credits: Merlin Elsner and er.c st.mmel

Comments (20)
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Carole Cohen

Howard Hanna Cleveland City Office - Cleveland, OH

Realtor, ePRO

You do the best consumer blogs; what does Observer Eccentric mean? Lots of Pistons there to meet at the market! And it looks bucolic

Dec 26, 2006 11:57 AM

Maureen Francis

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel - Bloomfield Hills, MI

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

The Eccentric is just the local newspaper. It's VERY local, if you know what I mean. Most people here live on large estates (2 plus acres). It's a quiet but beautiful city. Thanks for reading this, Carole.

Dec 26, 2006 12:01 PM

Linda Davis

RE/MAX Home Team - Gales Ferry, CT

Very interesting! How many "households" are in Bloomfield Hills? Sounds like it would make a nice little farm area. I would imagine farming an area like that would take some creativity.

Dec 26, 2006 12:15 PM

Maureen Francis

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel - Bloomfield Hills, MI

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

Linda, there are about 7,000 households in Bloomfield Hills. We used to live there. I laughed one year at an out of area agent's attempt to break in to the neighborhood of multi-million dollar mansions with seed packets. I never saw her get a listing. IMHO, most of the business there is picked up through country club memberships, private schools, and the like. Our office has always done very well there.

Dec 26, 2006 12:28 PM

Linda Davis

RE/MAX Home Team - Gales Ferry, CT

LOL Nah, I don't think seeds would do it unless they were money plant seeds. I actually have a "money plant" in my office.

Dec 26, 2006 12:57 PM

Maureen Francis

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel - Bloomfield Hills, MI

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

I did not know you could grow money plants inside.

The seeds were forget me nots. I have forgotten her name. I actually felt bad because it seemed like a waste of money to me.

Dec 26, 2006 12:59 PM

Kristal Kraft

Novella Real Estate - Denver, CO

Selling Metro Denver Real Estate - 303-589-2022

Seeds will work for the gardners, she was just mailing to the wrong addy!

p.s. nice market report!

Dec 26, 2006 01:44 PM

Laurie Manny

Long Beach CA Real Estate - Long Beach, CA

Nice article.

I don't know about money seeds but my grandfather had a money tree in front of the house. Every night it grew enough money for the grandkids to buy candy when our grandmother took us into town to pickup the paper and supplies. We still joke around about it, nobody can tell us that money doesn't grow on trees, lol.

Laurie

Dec 26, 2006 03:25 PM

Sharon Simms

Coastal Properties Group International - Christie's International - Saint Petersburg, FL

St. Petersburg FL - CRS CIPS CLHMS RSPS

Maureen - with a population of over 1,000 and just under 4,000 residents, how can there be 7,000 households??

Dec 26, 2006 10:17 PM

Rich Jacobson

Fathom Realty West Sound - Poulsbo, WA

Your Kitsap County WA Real Estate Broker

Seed packets???....what was she thinking??? "Oh, Reginald Darling, look what Jeeves just brought in with the mail. Seeds! From some real estate agent. How wonderfully thoughtful and generous! Maybe we should just send back the tickets we got for the Pistons game from that other realtor?"

A well-crafted local content post!

Dec 27, 2006 06:03 AM

Elaine Reese, REALTOR® in central Ohio

Real Living HER, Powell Ohio - Powell, OH

Guess it's obvious the sports figures earn a ton of money. Might also explain why GM & Chrysler have had problems over the years. Now where does the Ford family live?

Dec 27, 2006 07:31 AM

Maureen Francis

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel - Bloomfield Hills, MI

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

Ford family lives in Grosse Pointe Shores mostly. Bill Ford Jr lives outside of Ann Arbor, I think, in Barton Hills.

Dec 27, 2006 07:36 AM

Rich Jacobson

Fathom Realty West Sound - Poulsbo, WA

Your Kitsap County WA Real Estate Broker

Maureen, I just remembered, when I used to travel to Detroit on business, I had dinner one night at the Zukey Lake Tavern, and then later went out on the lake on my client's pontoon boat. It was a beautiful summer night. Good Times! What this has to do with Bloomfield Hills, I have no idea!

Dec 27, 2006 07:57 AM

Maureen Francis

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel - Bloomfield Hills, MI

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

Rich, I have never heard of Zukey Lake Tavern! You scooped me.

Dec 27, 2006 08:12 AM

Dmitry Koublitsky

SKBK Sotheby's International Realty - Troy, MI

Suprisingly, in this loaded area the property taxes are the LOWEST if you compare the neighboring cities and township. I guess, it's good to be rich!

Dec 28, 2006 02:00 AM

Maureen Francis

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel - Bloomfield Hills, MI

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

OK, Dmitry has just corrected me. There are 1500 households in Bloomfield Hills. That makes more sense. Thanks, honey. I was confused by the postal address.

Dec 28, 2006 02:04 AM

Dmitry Koublitsky

SKBK Sotheby's International Realty - Troy, MI

A correction we need to make: the city of Bloomfield Hills only has about 1,500 households or even less, I don't remember. The "7,000" number appears if you look into the Public Records for houses whose postal address says "Bloomfield Hills" - yet most of them are in surrounding Bloomfield Township.

Dec 28, 2006 02:06 AM

Anonymous

Native Marylander living in Michigan

Michigan does not contain the high levels of wealth and education compared to the big 3 cities: DC, NY, and LA. I personally was born in Bethesda, Maryland (a very affluent suburb of DC) and Bethesda is now ranked as the "most educated city in America", not to mention the fact that Maryland has the highest wealth per capita of any state in America.

Be careful with your boasts because Michigan cannot compare with the powerhouse cities of DC, NY, and LA. Those cities have very busy real estate markets, a huge job pool, and very high levels of literacy compared to blue collar michigan.

Nov 06, 2007 10:09 AM

#18

Stefan Scholl

Buyer's Broker of Northern Michigan, LLC - Petoskey, MI

Northern Michigan Real Estate

Maureen,

You haven't heard of Zukey Lake Tavern? :o That's where they grow the money trees! :-)

- former Bloomfield Hills Attorney

Nov 06, 2007 02:22 PM

Maureen Francis

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel - Bloomfield Hills, MI

Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel

Stefan, I imagine if I had gone to U of M I might have heard of it, but I went to Kalamazoo College. I will have to check out the tavern some day. Have you been there?

Native Marylander, I don't think I was boasting about Michigan. It sounds like you are unhappy here. Sorry to hear that. You are comparing a whole state to a city. I never detracted from any other place's accomplishments, but simply made a statement of fact about Bloomfield Hills. Certainly you have been here during a rather dark time in Michigan's economic history. I hope you can look around you and see that there still are lots of nice things about living here.

Nov 06, 2007 11:15 PM

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