More people discovering New Haven, New Baltimore

In four years, county has gained 34,511 residents.

PUBLISHED: June 30, 2005

By Dan Heaton
Macomb Daily Business Editor

On Sunday morning, the Rev. John L. Mack will be looking for new faces at the Greater New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in New Haven.  As often as not, over the last couple of years, he's been seeing some.

"Every month, we get new families moving in," said Mack, a New Haven native who has been the pastor at Greater New Hope for 21 years.

"New Haven has been one of the best kept secrets for a good place to raise a family. I'd say that secret is getting out," he said.

New Haven is one of the fastest growing communities in the state in the first half of this decade, according to a new report issued by the U.S. Census Bureau. In fact, the two "new" Macomb County communities -- New Baltimore and New Haven -- occupied two of the top three spots in the state's top 10 list, in terms of percentage population growth.

South Rockwood, a village in Monroe County, grew from 1,284 people in 2000 to 2,220 people in 2004, an increase of 72.9 percent. New Baltimore went from 7,405 to 10,857, a 46.6 percent increase. New Haven jumped from 3,071 in 2000 to 4,421, a 44.0 percent increase. The 2000 figures are taken from the census conducted that year, the 2004 figures are an estimate made by the Census Bureau of how many people lived in each community on July 1 of that year.

The influx of people is changing the perception about New Haven, Mack said.

"I think in the past, people had a negative image of New Haven," he said. "Once Lombardo Co. started building new homes here, people started taking a second look. They found out that in terms of having a nice place to live, crime, getting an education for your kids, New Haven is a good place to be," he said.

Greater New Hope is just one of three churches that have built new, larger sanctuaries in New Haven in the past year and a half or so, to accommodate new families.

The Census Bureau reported that Macomb County has gained 34,511 residents from 2000 to 2004, an increase of 4.4 percent. In addition to New Baltimore and New Haven, two other Macomb communities also made state-wide "top 10" lists -- one for growth and one for population loss.

Sterling Heights had the third largest gain in the state in numerical growth of residents, adding 3,005 people to 127,476, a 2.4 percent increase.

Warren was among the leaders in population loss, losing 2,129 people between 2000 and 2004, to finish with a population of 136,118, a 1.5 percent loss.

With the changes, Warren now ranks as the nation's 168th largest city; Sterling Heights is 182nd.

The state rankings only include cities and villages, otherwise Macomb and Lenox townships would have made the fastest-growers list.

While communities in central and northern Macomb County were growing, every community south of 14 Mile Road lost at least some population during the 4-year period.

Detroit was among the biggest population losers in the country and, for the first time since 1900, is no longer one of the 10 largest cities in the nation. Detroit has lost 51,072 people between 2000 and 2004 -- an average of almost 35 people per day. With the loss, Detroit slipped below San Jose, Calif., to rank as the 11th largest city in the nation with 900,198 residents. New York is the largest city by population in the country with a 2004 population of 8.1 million, up 1.2 percent from 2000.

Economic reasons are in part behind the increase in Macomb County's population, said Jim Jacobs, an economist and vice president at Macomb Community College.

"As the Detroit metro area has lost jobs, people then begin to think 'hmmm, I better save money on housing,'" Jacobs said.

"This then is viewed as a lower-cost market. That's why you see the growth in areas like New Haven," he said. "For working people this becomes a more affordable county than some of the alternatives."

Jacobs said the growth in Macomb County's housing market hasn't slowed significantly, in part, because of savvy changes made by the area's home builders over the past few years.

"The developers noticed that trend three years ago and adjusted their product accordingly. They stopped building the $500,000 homes and focused on a different segment of the market," he said. "They hit the market right on the head."