Check out my most recent blog at Activerain.com. It discusses how communication with your buyers and sellers is the #1 priority in the Grand Rapids Real Estate market today!!!!  Click here

If you are looking for the best golf course in Grand Rapids or want to join a very family oriented country club, then I have the place for you….Blythefield Country Club.

History:

In 1920, financier Joseph Brewer bought most of the land known as Plainfield Village to create a country estate.  Mr. Brewer built a country villa on the bluffs east of Northland Drive overlooking the river and built Blythefield Country Club across the road from his villa.  He also owned and operated a dairy farm in the Rockford area called “Blythefield Dairy Farms.”  The word “Blythefield” is derived from ”Olde English” and means quiet fields.

The formal opening of Blythefield on June 14, 1929, was highlighted by the attendance of many golf celebrities.  In the dedication foursome were Walter Hagen, Horton Smith, Morey Wells, and our first golf professional, Nick Webber.  One of the caddies that day, Marvin Stahl, went on to become a Blythefield Country Club Golf Professional, club member, a member of the Board of Directors, and the Club’s President.

Blythefield hosted the 1953 Western Amateur, the 1961 Western Open, which was won by Arnold Palmer, and the 2005 Western Junior.

Make sure that you take a minute to visit the website at: http://www.blythefieldcc.org/ ,  or, stop out at BCC and play a round of golf, you won’t be  disappointed.

According to Woodtv.com, Grand Rapids may be getting a year round farmer’s market in downtown Grand Rapids.  Grand Rapids continues to enhance their wonderful city with things like this. These are the types of things you find in a much larger city with more and more of these venues in Grand Rapids, this city is becoming the place to be in Michigan!!!! Click here to see the piece at Woodtv.com.

Check out our Keller Williams new website at www.kellerwilliamsgr.com.  This is very good site for information about Grand Rapids real estate, searches, agents, mortgages and so on.

If you want to be a part of the newest and best retirement facility in Grand Rapids, come out and visit Beacon Hill at Eastgate.

Here is their Mission Statement:

Beacon Hill at Eastgate provides housing alternatives and health care services for mature adults to meet their ongoing physical, social and spiritual needs in a Christian family environment.

Here is their Vision Statement:

The vision of Beacon Hill at Eastgate is to continue to improve and expand a broad, varied, continuum of quality ‘resident-centered’ housing and health services to older adults that met their changing and ongoing physical, spiritual and social needs in a homelike Christian atmosphere.

The lastest Fox news headline:

Thoughtfully designed apartment homes. A community center with multiple dining venues, health and wellness facilities, activity spaces, and chapel. Naturally landscaped grounds and walking paths, located in the tree-lined Eastgate neighborhood, with all that greater Grand Rapids has to offer right at your doorstep. Individually tailored service plans that provide for changing health care needs with assisted-care and skilled nursing facilities on the same campus.

In a recent article in the July issue of The Grand Rapids Magazine, East Grand Rapids ranked # 1 in both school rankings and community life.  Some of the criteria used for schools were: graduation rates, test scores, crime rate, teacher education, diversity, tax dollars, class size and so on. Some of the criteria used for community life were : housing prices, housing density, housing value change, crime rate, violent crime rate, park acreage, voter turnout as well as other facts. Please go to your nearest newstand and check out this article on my home town of East Grand Rapids. It is not available on line at the Grand Rapids Magazine site.

We just dropped the price to $99,900 on this cute home at 1430 Philadelphia in Grand Rapids.  This 3-4  bedroom home is a real estate deal and ready to move your family in before  the summer. Take a look at this home:

1. Grand Rapids was ranked as one of the 5 most affordable cities to buy a home in the United States.
2. One of the top Health Care communities in the midwest and will be “home” to Michigan State University Medical School in 2011.
3. Downtown Grand Rapids, unlike other cities, is continuing to grow and prosper with more hotels, restaurants and nightlife than ever before!
4. Our public and private schools are some of the finest in the State with many ranked nationally.
5. Our theater, arts and entertainment continues to grow; bring bigger and better venues to Grand Rapids such as Artprize.
6. Many universities and colleges are either based in the greater Grand Rapids area or have satelite campuses here giving you the opportunity to further your education.
7. This contines to be a giving city, as many of the Philanthropists give generously, making Grand Rapids an attractive place to live and raise a family.
8. We have the perfect size city to live…. Not too big and not too small.  Total population of the metropolitan area of Grand Rapids:  Approx.- 500,000.
9. Grand Rapids is only 30 minutes from the beaches of Lake Michigan, 2 hours from Detroit, 2 hours from Chicago and 2 hours from some of the most beautiful northern Michigan countryside you will find.
10. Grand Rapids is host to the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, a top cultural destination known internationally.

In a recent article in the July issue of The Grand Rapids Magazine there is a ranking of all of the Grand Rapids area school districts. They used many criteria in this ranking system: Head count, State funding, economic disadvantaged, graduation rate, dropout rate, Average ACT scores, MEAP scores, local source revenue, school tax, operation expenditures, instructional expenditures, taxable property value, diversity, “highly qualified” teachers, students per teacher, physical assaults by students, weapons possession, adults with high school diploma, adults with bachelors degree. Click here to see the results: Click here for more results: