Not a flip neighborhood.
This is a place to settle roots.
Sherwood Forest is one of Detroit's most distinctive neighborhoods — and one of its most protected. Inspired by Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, the developers designed it in 1917 to resemble an English village, complete with curved winding streets, English street names, and grand Tudor and Georgian Colonial homes built almost entirely in the late 1920s and 30s. The result is a neighborhood that looks unlike anything else in the city.
About 435 homes make up Sherwood Forest — both the main subdivision and Sherwood Forest Manor — and the Sherwood Forest Association has been guarding their character since 1929. Strict property guidelines are enforced to this day: no flat roofs, all exteriors must be brick, stone, or concrete over tile. These aren't bureaucratic nuisances — they're why every block still looks the way it does nearly a century later.
The Sherwood Forest Patrol has operated continuously since the 1960s, making it one of Detroit's oldest private neighborhood security programs. In 2002, the neighborhood was designated a Detroit Historic District. Homes here sell fast — averaging 34 days on the market — and at a median around $455,000, up 12% year over year. When a home in Sherwood Forest comes up, you move.
Heard from a longtime resident: "You can smell flowers because people are about their business when it comes to landscaping. You will look up and see a canopy of trees — like it really is like a forest." This is not a flip neighborhood. This is a place to settle roots.