This is a little misleading. Was there a mass exodus? Absolutely, but it's turned / turning around.

You would be hard pressed to find any decent apartment within a mile of downtown for less than 1k/mo. Many nice apartments in downtown go for $2k - $3k. I personally would love to live downtown and many of my peers share the sentiment, there just needs to be a larger supply of apartments on the market.

Do I want to live four miles away from Detroit in a run down neighborhood? Not particularly- if I'm already getting into my car to drive to work, why not go a few more miles away into any one of the nice suburbs that surround Detroit?