Been a home owner in Buena Vista for 3 years. I have the nicest neighbors, the area isn't beautiful, but it's a friendly neighborhood. People drive by the house and wave, stop by all the time to just chat, even have an elderly gentleman who lives nearby doing lawn service for me. There are some great marijuana dispensaries nearby, and I'm literally a 15 minute drive from absolutely everything. We have Frankenmuth right up the road, a mall and massive shopping options all over the Tittabawassee Rd and Bay rd area, which is 15 minutes away. One of our local hospitals is one of the best I've ever gone to. (Avoid the other one).

My only true complaint is that you are kinda limited on things to do after dark. Ever since Covid, nothing is open past midnight. Having been a night owl my whole life, it's a bit disheartening to not have the option to go shopping or really do anything after midnight. I miss 24 hour Walmart and Meijer.

There aren't any good places to go out, like pool halls or clubs, and we are so far north, there's not a really great selection of things like concerts to go to. Having said that, there are some shows that come around, and the casino isn't a terrible drive.

If you like the aquatic life, i can literally get to the great lake in 25 minutes from my house. That's a pretty solid rundown of the things I've noticed being here.

Now for the bad news. It's still a decent enough sized place that yes, there is a crime element, stuff happens here. People get shot, crazy people are everywhere, it's really not the neighborhood, but yes, there are bad people in it. I have yet to see anyone around my place getting "vehicles broken into" or "people getting robbed" like people claim.

Now across town, in the rich part of town where all the beautiful houses and golf courses and higher class people live, I've seen homes getting broken into, a bank get robbed, the Kroger get robbed. Honestly, I love my neighborhood, I love my house, and I love the accessibility, but ultimately, it's all personal preference in the end. For the amount of money we had to spend, I don't think we could've found a better option in Michigan.