She circles every listing in Ferndale and Berkley. After church, she, her husband, two children and a dog drive the streets of those cities, searching for new For Sale signs and an old way of life. There's a sense of everyone knowing neighbors and wanting to interact. The family moved from an old home in Ferndale to a modern subdivision in Sterling Heights five years ago. Soon, they felt something was missing.
People keep to themselves more.
I'm used to being able to go to the neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar. Everything is very convenient in your car, within eight minutes you can be anywhere you want. There are no corner mailboxes, no corner stores. It's a major trek to walk to 7-Eleven. They decided to move back but found that in the five years since they left Ferndale, property values there had skyrocketed.