Oakland County, Michigan
Healthy Home Assessments in Birmingham
Birmingham is an affluent city in Oakland County along the Woodward Avenue corridor, a northern suburb of Detroit. We look at the environment your family actually breathes.
Reading a Birmingham home
Affluent Woodward-corridor city with a dense walkable downtown centered on Shain Park, blending upscale retail with preserved 19th-century heritage. Worth knowing: Home of the oldest house in Oakland County, the 1822 John West Hunter House. About 8,733 households hold some 20,857 residents. Its proximity to Detroit made it a popular residential area for auto-industry executives as the automobile boom transformed it from a farming community into a suburban center.
The building stock
Census five-year estimates through 2023 put 70.5% of housing units in detached single-family homes and 76.2% of occupied units with their owners. Bachelor's attainment among adults is 76.9%. Building is recorded here from 1822. An older envelope handles air and moisture differently. Also on the ground: The John West Hunter House (1822), a Greek Revival dwelling that is among the oldest intact homes in Michigan's Lower Peninsula and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, part of the Birmingham Museum.
With Rouge River nearby, seasonal humidity behaves differently, and moisture is where the assessment starts.
What stands in Birmingham:
- John West Hunter House. 1822 Greek Revival home, the oldest house in Oakland County and one of the oldest intact dwellings in the Lower Peninsula; part of the Birmingham Museum campus and on the National Register.
- The Community House. Community gathering landmark established in 1923, hosting events for over a century.
- Birmingham Theatre. Historic downtown movie house opened in 1927.
- Shain Park. City-center park with a plaza fountain and performance areas hosting summer concerts, movie nights, art fairs, the Winter Markt, and the holiday tree lighting.
- Birmingham Museum grounds. Historical museum and park along the Rouge with the Hunter House and 1928 Allen House.
Where the addresses are
Birmingham also contains one named district, Downtown Birmingham. Downtown Birmingham: Central business district around Shain Park and Old Woodward Avenue. The 48009 and 48012 ZIP codes cover these addresses. Publisher and Cranbrook founder George Gough Booth, whose family launched the Birmingham Eccentric newspaper and Booth Newspapers, is buried in Birmingham's Greenwood Cemetery.