Squirewood

The lots here run surprisingly deep—nearly an acre on average, which means you're not stacking elbows with your neighbors even though you're only about 17 minutes from downtown Grand Rapids. Each condo sits on enough land that you actually get space without having to maintain five acres, and homes have appreciated roughly 50 percent since the last recession, with units now landing around $324K. Elk Lake is 1.8 miles away for water recreation, and there are a dozen restaurants within walking distance—the closest one's about a nine-minute walk—plus a grocery store less than a mile down the road. The community itself is small and quiet, which sounds like code for "nothing happens here," but really it just means no through traffic, reasonable HOA fees hovering around $928 a year, and the kind of place where you're not dodging other people's drama every time you check the mail.