[israelyc]

Probably Detroit or its peripheral cities (there are some nice ones, Birmingham, Royal Oak and more). Dan Gilbert (Quicken Loans) is trying to revive downtown and investing in new startups. Also it's only 45min away from Ann Arbor which is an awesome city.

You can rent an apartment for the cost of monthly parking in SF :)

[npguy]

Thanks for the data point. Are these neighborhoods good school districts as well?

[smartwater]

You have a 1 in 43 chance of becoming a victim of a crime in Detroit: http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/mi/detroit/crime/

I recommend Boston.

[israelyc]

Thats Detroit proper (do not move to downtown Detroit or Flint :) but the cities around Detroit are good, and I don't know much about the schools there but it's worth looking into.

Oakland County has some of the richest cities in the US (a lot of old money) so you can easily find a nice city around Detroit that will be cheap and still very protected.

[logn]

I've lived in extremely high crime areas before. One study of my neighborhood predicted I had a good chance to be dead within 5-10 years because of crime.

The truth is that unless you're part of the drug trade or other nefarious dealings, you're usually pretty safe. I can't speak for Detroit, but I'm always suspect of these stats.

[johnrgrace]

Rochester/Birmingham and other cities have some of the best schools in the state. The northern burbs are on par with any good suburban area in the country.