In popular culture, a common illustration of Detroit is the way it is compared to Beverly Hills in the movie Beverly Hills Cop.
Detroit is shown to be very blue-collar, industrial, and a bit on the dirty side as Glenn Frey’s “The Heat is On” plays in the background. The Beverly Hills montage shows a vibrant, clean city with large houses sporting manicured lawns and Rolls Royce dealerships just around the corner. There’s no confusion about the difference between the hard working, rough around the edges city and highfalutin' Beverly Hills.
But as The Wall Street Journal reports, a montage of today’s Detroit might look a little bit different, as the sales of luxury homes have risen 107 percent since 2008. The city has seen thousands of jobs created in the downtown area since 2010 as Quicken Loans, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and a variety of new tech startups have made Detroit their home. Almost 8,000 rundown buildings have been removed and many empty lots have been turned into micro farms that supply food to some of the trendiest restaurants around town.
Prices for luxury homes in Detroit have more than doubled and new luxury developments are being constructed for the first time in decades. Luxury apartments are seeing competition that has been missing for years and some buildings have waiting lists almost 200 people long.
But even as a young, professional crowd and empty nesters are combining to create this boom for luxury real estate, all is not yet well in the city. Detroit still has an unemployment rate of 6.4 percent, which is the highest rate among any comparable metro region in the country and those who can afford to do so tend to send their children to private schools as opposed to the city’s public school offerings.
However, the progress Detroit has made is in the right direction, and some of it has been so significant it might even cause Axel Foley to do a double take.
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