Charlevoix — What matters more: house or location? It’s an old question. Each person’s answer reveals more than our opinions on real estate.
Would you rather live in a big house next to a strip mall, surrounded by concrete, trash, and light pollution from a smoldering city next door, or would you rather live in a trailer park right next to Lake Michigan? It’s an extreme example, but it’s not a false choice. These two kinds of homes exist in our state.
I drive on US-31 along Little Traverse Bay quite a bit. A few years ago, driving south to Charlevoix, I noticed Lake Michigan Heights, right across the road from the bay. It’s officially considered a “manufactured home community” but it looked like a trailer park—probably the nicest trailer park in the entire state.
Lots at Lake Michigan Heights start at $440 a month for a single wide. Driving through the community, the lots are pretty spacious, with nice yards, and many of the homes are well kept with flowers and gardens. There are big trees all around, and Lake Michigan is right across the road. In fact, the first home you pass as you enter from the east has a clear view of waves lapping against rocks on Little Traverse Bay.
The location of this community of double wides and manufactured homes is the location that thousands of tourists come to every single summer. The view from the top of Lakeview Road is perfectly suited to its name. Right along US-31, just a few minutes away in either direction, are roadside parks and nature preserves right on the big lake. It would take you about 10 minutes to pack a picnic and go have lunch right next to the lake if you lived at Lake Michigan Heights.
Just outside of downtown Charlevoix is Northern Cove Estates, with a view of Lake Charlevoix to the southeast. The lots are tighter here, but you’re no more than five minutes from downtown and the beach.
It’s funny that surrounding Northern Cove are big cottages with, what one can only assume are giant mortgages. The eight-bedroom estate and the double-wide share the same view.
I’ve lived in pretty nice spots, and I’ve also lived in pretty small, pretty cheap, pretty ragged, and pretty rugged apartments somewhere around the size of a large closet. It’s nice to have a lot of room in a nice house. It makes daily life indoors pretty comfortable. But it’s also nice to live in a place that makes you want to get outdoors and see what there is to see.
I was up in the Garden Peninsula this past spring and saw an incredible thing. It was a white double-wide right on the shores of Lake Michigan. You could see Little Summer Island through the haze in the near distance. The home was surrounded by green grass, there was a little swingset and slide for kids right outside. Imagine growing up playing right there next to the water. That’s a pretty great childhood.
It wasn’t part of a trailer park or a manufactured home community. It was a large, stand-alone lot they obviously owned. But still, the scene is connected to the same question: Does house or location matter more?
I don’t live in a big house next to the strip mall. I don’t live in a trailer park or a manufactured home either. I live in a small house built sometime around 1950. The kitchen is small, the bedrooms are small, the garage is small. It feels like we are bursting at the seams as a family. It’s got problems. The bathroom is dreadful, the water heater needs to be replaced, and the outlets might actually be older than my mother.
But our little house is in a great location. Up North, where it’s quiet and nature feels stronger, where the lake is just a few minutes away, and where you can breathe a little bit. Nature is good for the soul.
I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t live at Lake Michigan Heights. I’m not saying I would or wouldn’t live at Lake Michigan Heights. But, I know that I—in my small,1 problem-ridden house in a beautiful place—am closer to this trailer park than I am to the big house next to the Metro Detroit strip mall.
We’ve all got our own answer to the question about house or location, and that’s mine.
O.W. Root is a writer based in Northern Michigan, with a focus on nature, food, style, and culture. Follow him on X @OW_Root.
