Thirty-four lakes in one township: Oakland's lake country

The glaciers were generous with northwest Oakland County. Waterford Township alone contains 34 named lakes — locals like to say you could swim a different one every day for a month — and the chain continues through West Bloomfield, Commerce, and White Lake until the map looks more shoreline than land. The crown jewel is Cass Lake, 1,280 acres and 123 feet deep, the largest inland lake in southeast Michigan, shared by Waterford and West Bloomfield and ringed by the little lake towns of Keego Harbor, Sylvan Lake, and Orchard Lake.

What makes it livable rather than just scenic is the public access: Dodge #4 State Park puts a sandy swimming beach on Cass Lake, launches dot the all-sports lakes, and Pontiac Lake Recreation Area adds thousands of acres of trails and mountain biking on the area’s northern edge. This is metro Detroit’s cottage country that people stopped commuting from and simply moved to — half an hour from downtown offices, with a pontoon in the backyard. For lake-loving homebuyers who can’t swing Up North prices, this is the local secret that isn’t really a secret.