When Ariel Hurwitz-Greene of @properties REMI Christie's International Real Estate talks about Ann Arbor, she doesn’t start with housing trends or market forecasts. She starts with people. “Real estate is a big investment, but it’s also a big life choice,” she says. “I want people to feel rooted here.”
A lifelong Ann Arbor townie who grew up on Morton and later Cambridge, Hurwitz-Greene’s relationship to the city stretches back through generations. Her mother, Susan Hurwitz, was a beloved producer for the Burns Park Players and a pillar of the Burns Park PTO. “I was raised with ‘if you’re part of a community, you give back to it,’” Hurwitz-Greene says. “That’s how it works—you show up.”
That ethos informs every part of her work. Yes, she finds people homes, but more importantly, she guides them toward belonging.
Hurwitz-Greene believes Ann Arbor’s magic is both real and fragile. It’s walkable neighborhoods wrapped around elementary schools. It’s families meeting at drop-off and pickup. It’s kids sledding at Pattengill Field, post-preschool tea at Teahaus, and shared rituals passed down through decades of community involvement.
“I worry sometimes,” she says. “Ann Arbor is changing. Housing costs, new development, less connection between the city and the university. I don’t want us to lose the charm that makes people move here in the first place.”
Her answer isn’t nostalgia, though. It’s action.
“Join your PTO. Volunteer somewhere, even if it’s just two hours at the ice cream social. Go to your local shops, meet the owners. You keep this town alive by showing up,” she says.
She laughs that newcomers often tell her they want “walkability,” but what they’re really searching for is community. “When you walk your child to school, you meet your people. That’s Ann Arbor,” she says.
Ariel’s Ann Arbor
So many of Hurwitz-Greene’s touchstones begin in childhood with her mother’s baking. “We were at the Farmers Market every Wednesday,” she says. “Pitting cherries, picking apples, knowing the farmers by name.”
She still goes to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market weekly with her own children. “That’s what keeps a place real: ritual.”
Sparrow Market in the Kerrytown Market & Shops is another generational favorite. It’s her source for Thanksgiving turkeys, Prime Rib for New Year’s, and steady culinary inspiration. “The owners are amazing. You always end up in a conversation when you’re there,” she says. Also located in the Shops, Mudpuddles is her kids’ longtime haunt, a place “where my child runs right up and they know his name.”
At Today Clothing, she lights up talking about owner Adrian’s curatorial eye. “He features designers you don’t see everywhere. He has a real vision.” She loves Sandy’s Boutique for similar reasons. “Her personal touch,” she says of shop owner Jillian Bean Greco. “The way she shares her own story—it feels intimate.”
And then, of course, there’s YORK— “our coffee shop,” she calls it—where her family knows owner Tommy York and where neighborhood friendships are cemented.
These businesses aren’t just places she shops. They’re civic anchors. “When you walk in and someone says hi because they actually know you, that’s community,” Hurwitz-Greene says. “These owners work so hard. We lose them, we lose Ann Arbor.”
Real Estate as Stewardship
For Hurwitz-Greene, these beloved local spots and rituals aren’t separate from her work—they’re the reason she does it. Helping people find homes is, in her view, inseparable from helping them find community.
Hurwitz-Greene learned real estate during her decade living in Chicago. “If you can survive Chicago real estate, you can survive anything,” she says with a grin.
But Ann Arbor is where she discovered the heart of the work.
For her, clients aren’t transactions. They’re long-term relationships. She sends “hundreds of holiday cards,” keeps up with families years later, and often works with clients across five to 10 moves.
“Buying a home is daunting, especially now,” she says. “My job is to make it less stressful. To help people make good decisions, not just fast ones.”
That means being honest about the market and realistic about long-term planning. “It’s balanced now. Buyers finally have a fair shot,” she says. “People come in talking about a ‘forever home,’ but life throws curveballs. I always say, ‘Let’s make sure this is a smart investment even if life changes.’”
More than anything, she wants her clients to see Ann Arbor as a place worth investing in emotionally, not just financially. “I want families to stay here, to put down roots, to see this as home for the next generation—my kids, their kids,” she says.
“Please — shop local. Preserve this town.”
For Hurwitz-Greene, her personal and professional mission coalesce around a message she hopes rings out louder than anything else.
“Shop local. Support these businesses. Preserve what makes Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor,” she says. “Old isn’t bad. Change is healthy, but we have to protect the things that make people move here in the first place.”
It’s not a sales pitch. It’s a plea from someone who has lived every side of this community—as a child running through Burns Park, as a PTO mom, as a volunteer, as a neighbor, and now as the realtor who sees the heart of Ann Arbor from every angle and every neighborhood. Hurwitz-Greene isn’t just helping people find homes. She’s helping build connections that sustain our community.
To learn more visit arielhurwitzgreene.com.
“You don’t just move to Ann Arbor. You participate in Ann Arbor.”
“Join your PTO. Volunteer somewhere, even if it’s just two hours at the ice cream social. Go to your local shops, meet the owners. You keep this town alive by showing up.”