>>1250230Chicagoland is 10X better than Michigan if you like urban living. Chicagoland shits on the failed experiment known as Metro Detroit, except Metro Detroit has reasonable real estate because only immigrants are willing to move there.
The Grand Rapids area is OK if you like living in a mid-tier city. Lake Michigan is comfy.
Northern Lower Peninsula is a hellhole, I'm sorry. Dead economy, flat woods, cold, snowy... if you want to live in desolation there are so much more prettier places to do it.
The Upper Peninsula is half economically depressed hellhole, half beautiful if very harsh by Porcupine Mountains and Pictured Rocks.
OP you traded one extreme (hot and arid/muggy depending on your part of Texas) for another (cold and wet). You will have to learn to love winter activities like skiing, hunting, snowmobiling or ice fishing or you will go crazy. The scenery is decent up there and Marquette is a nice small town in the middle of nowhere. If that sounds appealing to you, you're set. That said even if the best parts of the UP, if you were making a list of top places by economy and natural beauty, it still wouldn't crack the top 10, though it would do decent.
