To be fair, there are also a lot of rural areas not far outside Ann Arbor that are still fairly cheap, although obviously not as cheap as more rural areas farther north.
Ann Arbor has always been a pretty unique place that pushes pricing up above normal. UofM is a large college that has lots of international draw, it holds the best medical facilities in the entire state, and have uniquely liberal laws within the city and the city itself puts an effort towards keeping out state cops. In I believe 1972 they made marijuana possession a mere $5 fine within the city, while the rest of the state would bring the hammer down on people for it, and so it was de facto legal there and the city held Hash Bash ever year since with people all smoking up in public while the rest of the state had people worried about cops finding a single seed or roach in their vehicle.
It looks like the big issue with Ann Arbor is supply. I just pulled up Chicago Zillow for this criteria (1-1.25k sqft, 2 bed exact, 1+ bath, condos only, for sale not rent) and am having trouble finding one for more than $700k. Lots in the $350-400k range. Overall there are hundreds, with almost every block having at least one in the "nice" downtown area.
Leaving criteria the same and switching to Ann Arbor, I see four, with only one of them actually being downtown, for $725k (but the other three are all under $300k). I would consider Ann Arbor more expensive than Chicago, at least for this type of unit, but not necessarily because there's more demand.
A2 has surprisingly high demand for small condos. Many affluent parents like to buy them for their children while they attend UofM, or as alumni to attend college sports events (since UofM is a big sports Mecca), or as retirees to be close to campus/city activities and amenities.
Anyone concerned with cost of living should not be considering a condo downtown. Overall the COL in detroit is around 45% lower for real estate and over 25% cheaper groceries versus new york. There will always be overpriced condos available.
Isn't everyone concerned with cost of living? Isn't there a whole game of life where we all find some comfortable CoL and salary balance?
That's why salary via CoL never made any sense to me. It should be based on how hard people want to work.
These "it's cheaper in Michigan" ideas -- yeah you can come up with a boring lifestyle that is dirt cheap. I'm just in Michigan already. It's hard to leave. I'm a global dude. I travel domestically. I invest. These things don't have Michigan prices.
2 bed 1k sqft condo downtown will costs you $800k-1mil