Detroit Apartments and Houses for Rent

Detroit- City Information

Detroit is the largest city in the state of Michigan. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded on July 24, 1701, by the Frenchman Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. Its name originates from the French word detroit for strait, characterizing its location on the river connecting the Great Lakes. Known as the world's traditional automotive center, Detroit is synonymous with the American automobile industry and an important source of popular music legacies celebrated by the city's two familiar nicknames, the Motor City and Motown. In 2008, Detroit ranked as the United States' eleventh most populous city, with 912,062 residents. At its peak in 1950, the city was the fourth largest in the USA, but has since seen a major shift in its population to the suburbs. The name Detroit sometimes refers to the Metro Detroit area, with a population of nearly 4.5 million people. Detroit has a humid climate which is heavily influenced by the Great Lakes. Winters are usually cold, with moderate snowfall and temperatures at night sometimes dropping below 0 degrees. Summers are warm to hot with temperatures sometimes exceeding 90 degrees. Precipitation, though significant in winter, is greatest during the summer months. Snowfall, which typically occurs from November to early April, averages 43.3 inches per season.

Economy

Detroit and the surrounding region constitute a major manufacturing center, most notably as home to the Big Three automobile companies, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. The city is an important center for global trade with large international law firms having their offices in both Detroit and Windsor. About 80,500 people work in downtown Detroit, comprising 21 percent of the City's employment. The domestic auto industry is primarily headquartered in Metro Detroit. New vehicle production, sales, and jobs related to automobile use account for one of every ten jobs in the United States. The area is also an important source of engineering job opportunities. A 2004 Border Transportation Partnership study showed that 150,000 jobs in the Windsor-Detroit region and $13 billion in annual production depend on the City of Detroit's international border crossing.

Detroit Neighborhoods

Detroit has a variety of unique and diverse neighborhoods that make up the character of the city. Some unique neighborhoods where you can find apartments to rent in Detroit and townhomes to rent in Detroit include: Bricktown Historic District, Broadway Avenue Historic District, Campus Martius Park, Capitol Park Historic District, Detroit Financial District, Grand Circus Park Historic District, Greektown Historic District, Jefferson Avenue, Lower Woodward Avenue Historic District, Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings, Park Avenue Historic District, Randolph Street Commercial Buildings Historic District, Washington Boulevard Historic District, Brush Park Historic District Woodward East, Cass Corridor, Cass Park Historic District, Cass-Davenport Historic District, Cultural Center Historic District, East Ferry Avenue Historic District, Midtown Woodward Historic District, Sugar Hill Historic District, University-Cultural Center, Warren Prentis Historic District, Wayne State University, West Canfield Historic District, Willis Selden Historic District, Woodbridge Historic District, Arden Park East Boston Historic District, Atkinson Avenue Historic District, Boston Edison Historic District, New Amsterdam Historic District, New Center, Piquette Avenue Industrial Historic District, Virginia Park Historic District, Chaldean Town, Grixdale Farms, Highland Park, Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District, Palmer Woods Historic District, Sherwood Forest Historic District, University District, University of Detroit Mercy, Chandler Park, East English Village, Hamtramck, Highland Heights Stevens' Subdivision Historic District, Krainz Woods, Milwaukee Junction, Van Steuban Osborne, Eastern Market Historic District, Poletown, Belle Isle, St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Parish Complex, Eastside Historic Cemetery District, East Grand Boulevard Historic District, East Jefferson Avenue Residential District, Indian Village Historic District, Island View, Jefferson Chalmers Historic Business District, Lafayette Park Mies van der Rohe Residential District, Rivertown, West Village Historic District, Bagley, Old Redford, Rosedale Park Historic District, Parkland, Warrendale, Corktown Historic District, Delray, North Corktown, Mexicantown, Springwells Village, West Vernor Junction Historic District, West Vernor Lawndale Historic District and West Vernor Springwells Historic District. 

Detroit Culture and Living

Downtown Detroit is growing in its population of young professionals and retail is expanding. A number of luxury high rises have been built. The east river development plans include more luxury condominium developments. A desire to be closer to the urban scene has attracted young professionals to take up residence among the mansions of Grosse Pointe just outside the city. Detroit's proximity to Windsor, Ontario, provides for views and nightlife, along with Ontario's minimum drinking age of 19.

Detroit is home to many professional sports teams, including: the Detroit Pistons (National Basketball Association), Detroit Lions (National Football League), the Detroit Tigers (National League Baseball) and the Detroit Red Wings (National Hockey League).

The city of Detroit has a rich musical heritage and has contributed to a number of different genres over the decades leading into the new millennium. In the 1940s, blues artist John Lee Hooker became a long-term resident in the city's southwest Delray neighborhood. Hooker, among other important blues musicians migrated from his home in Mississippi bringing the Delta Blues to northern cities like Detroit. During the 1950s, the city became a center for jazz, with stars performing in the Black Bottom neighborhood. The Graystone International Jazz Museum documents jazz in Detroit. Berry Gordy, Jr. founded Motown Records which rose to prominence during the 1960s and early 1970s with acts such as Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Diana Ross and The Supremes, the Jackson 5, Martha and the Vandellas and Marvin Gaye. The Motown Sound played an important role in the crossover appeal with popular music, since it was the first African American owned record label to primarily feature African-American artists. During the 1960-70s, popular rock bands performed regularly at venues such as the Grande Ballroom and the Eastown Theater. Local artists and bands rose to prominence including the MC5, The Stooges, Bob Seger, Amboy Dukes featuring Ted Nugent, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, Rare Earth, Alice Cooper, and Suzi Quatro. In 1990s and the new millenium, the city has produced a number of influential artists, for example Eminem, the hip-hop artist with the highest cumulative sales. Detroit is cited as the birthplace of techno music. Prominent Detroit Techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson. The band Sponge toured and produced music, with artists such as Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker. The city has an active garage rock genre that has generated national attention with acts such as: The White Stripes, The Von Bondies, The Dirtbombs, Electric Six, and The Hard Lessons. Live music has been a prominent feature of Detroit's nightlife.

Detroit Colleges and Universities

Detroit is home to several institutions of higher learning, including Wayne State University, a national research university with medical and law schools in the Midtown area. Other institutions in the city include the University of Detroit Mercy with its schools of Law and Dentistry, the College for Creative Studies, Lewis College of Business, Marygrove College and Wayne County Community College. In June 2009 the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine will be opening a satellite campus located at the Detroit Medical Center. The Detroit College of Law, now affiliated with Michigan State University, was founded in the city in 1891 and remained there until 1997, when it relocated to East Lansing. The University of Michigan was established in 1817 in Detroit and later moved to Ann Arbor in 1837. In 1959, University of Michigan Dearborn was established in neighboring Dearborn.

Public Transportation

With its proximity to Canada, Detroit is an important transportation hub. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, the area's principal airport, is located in nearby Romulus and is a primary hub for Delta Air Lines and a secondary hub for Spirit Airlines. Mass transit in the region is provided by bus services. Ridership on the region's mass transit systems increased by 8.4 percent in 2006. An elevated rail system known as the People Mover, completed in 1987, provides daily service around a 2.9 miles loop downtown. The Woodward Avenue Light Rail, beginning in 2013, will serve as a link between the Detroit People Mover and SEMCOG Commuter Rail which extends from Detroit's New Center area to The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Ypsilanti, and Ann Arbor. Amtrak provides service to Detroit, operating its Wolverine service between Chicago and Pontiac.