Same here, pretty much.
25 miles north of Detroit, we bought a 4-br colonial on a hyarge corner lot (bleah, I have to mow it) for $155K 6 years ago. Current asking is probably around $250K or so, but we've completely gutted and replaced two rooms, one of which was the kitchen.
Great neighborhood, good schools (I think, we're homeschooling for other reasons).
About 10 minutes from work, 20 minutes to anything else we would need tops.
Suburb, but countryish. Cider mills, a few miles from farms, etc.
45 minutes to the Detroit Symphony or Art Museum.
Edit: Forgot to add, even when unemployment was around 20% around here last year, I was looking at jobs in the $100K+ range. Found one at $135K, took a different one for less to be a LOT closer to home (1 hour vs. 10 minutes). Caveat: I am highly skilled and talented. "Normal" computer jobs around here hit between $50K and $80K. Entry level is probably $30-35K, but I haven't looked at that recently for obvious reasons.
If you are willing to drive a half hour or more, you can live where the houses are fairly inexpensive, moreso even than mine.
2BR aparments are around $700/mo, 3BR probably about $900/mo. That's a luxury garden apartment, about 800-1000 sq ft.
Downsides here: almost all of the jobs are dependent upon the auto industry in some fashion; that's how I got laid off last year. My current job very carefully is not so dependent. ;-)
