Detroit-Ann Arbor, Michigan There are seven counties (Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, Washtenaw, and Wayne) that form the southeast Michigan area. The population of southeast Michigan declined 3 percent from 1970 to 1990, then increased 5 percent from 1990 to 2000 to reach 4.8 million. This represented 49 percent of the State’s population. During the same period, the city of Detroit’s share of the area’s population fell to 20 percent. Approximately 45 percent of southeast Michigan’s employed persons had manufacturing jobs in 1950. By 2001 the proportion had fallen to 20 percent. The city of Detroit remains the region’s leading employment center, but it lost nearly 390,000 jobs from 1970 to 2000 and its share of the region’s jobs fell from 38 to 13 percent. Although the city of Detroit has lost jobs, employment throughout the southeast Michigan region grew by 38 percent during the past three decades. The unemployment rate for the region rose from 3.1 percent in 2000 to 4.8 percent in 2001. Average employment levels through August 2002 were below the average for the same period in 2001. In Detroit in 2000 and 2001 permits for new homes averaged 270 units. The rest of Wayne County averaged 3,542 new units annually during these 2 years. The remainder of southeast Michigan grew by 15,765 housing units per year during 2000 and 2001. Approximately one-half of the permits issued during 2000 and 2001 in southeast Michigan were for units in Macomb and Oakland Counties. Sales for the first 9 months of 2002 are 4 percent higher than the same period last year. The median sales price of $162,911 is 2 percent above the median sales price of this period in 2001. January through July data compiled by the Michigan Association of REALTORS® indicate that sales declined between 2001 and 2002 in the offices that serve Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Livingston County, and northern Oakland County but increased in other offices in this region, especially Macomb County and the remainder of Oakland County. Sales prices in Ann Arbor averaged $255,314 for the first 7 months of 2002, according to the Ann Arbor Board of REALTORS®. According to Reis, Inc., the Detroit area’s apartment occupancy rate declined slightly over the last year to 94.3 percent as of the third quarter of 2002. Rents have not changed significantly over the last year. The city government is participating in efforts to attract more people to live and work in the city of Detroit. These efforts include the recent completion of Comerica Park for the Tigers and Ford Field for the Lions. Three casinos are expected to develop permanent locations at or near their current temporary locations in or close to the central business district. Each will include a hotel; an increase in the number of hotel rooms should help the Cobo Center attract larger conventions and help the city land major national events. General Motors moved its headquarters into the Renaissance Building located on the Detroit River. Campus Martius is a planned $2 billion, 5-block, 2.5 million-square-foot mixed-use development downtown that will include several class A office buildings, parking for more than 4,700 automobiles, more than 568,000 square feet of commercial space, and a 2-acre park. The first phase, which includes a new office building for Compuware’s headquarters, the park, and several parking garages, is under construction and scheduled to open in mid-2003. Renovations of several buildings along Woodward Avenue near the new sports facilities into loft residential units are under way. These new residential developments include a 400-unit condominium townhouse development. The city is designating several additional areas as renaissance zones, which means that some State and local taxes for businesses and residents are waived. A $50 million technology center that will focus on alternate energy sources for automobiles will be constructed within Wayne State University’s Woodward Technology Corridor.

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