State of Michigan
Housing Data Portal
The Michigan Housing Data Portal provides easily accessible housing, demographic and economic data to help community members and housing stakeholders across the state understand key local trends, compare these trends to other geographies, and create detailed reports.
Monitor markets and specific geographies to advance equitable housing access and promote data-informed conversations about critical trends.
Serve as a centralized repository of critical housing and community data to help developers and communities understand local housing needs and opportunities.
Visualize Michigan’s progress towards the Statewide Housing Plan goals.
Meeting Statewide Housing Goals
Housing is the foundation of thriving communities, and everyone deserves safe, affordable, and quality housing. Yet according to the Michigan Statewide Housing Needs Assessment, about 50% of Michigan’s renters, and 25% of its homeowners, pay too much for housing.
To work to address these complex, intersecting challenges, Michigan’s Statewide Housing Plan established five statewide housing targets. The following charts and figures highlight important measures related to meeting these targets.
To learn more about these targets, please visit: Michigan Statewide Housing Plan Webpage
Image Source: Michigan State Housing Development Authority
Is Michigan Meeting Its Housing Supply Goals?
An “adequate” housing supply provides enough new homes to accommodate the formation of new households as existing residents form new households together or new households move into the community, and to support the workforce that drives the local economy.
New housing supply has not kept up with job growth in Michigan. In 2024, Michigan employed 317K more workers than in 2014; but from 2015 through 2024, jurisdictions across the state only permitted 190K new homes—meaning Michigan added 1.67 new jobs per new home over the past decade. By comparison, healthy housing markets typically add no more than 1.5 new jobs per new home, and nationally over the same period, the US added 1.41 new jobs per new home.
When home production falls behind demand, it becomes harder for people to find homes that fit their needs. Michigan’s housing availability rate fell to just 1.8% in 2024—while a healthy availability rate typically falls around 5% for most markets, providing enough flexibility without signaling oversupply. This indicates that as the economy grows in parts of the state, new workers and existing residents are competing for an increasingly limited supply of homes.
Allowing the number of homes to grow to match demand for homes is the foundation, and a prerequisite, for creating an affordable housing market and an equitable local economy. A healthy housing market - one in which the market meets the vast majority of existing and new households' needs for safe, quality homes - will include an increase in the number of homes that is responsive to demand across different housing types and price points. If not enough homes are added to accommodate growth, then both rents and home prices will face upward bidding pressure as households compete for an insufficient supply of housing.
Constrained housing supply leads to competition for existing homes which drives the increase in the cost of rental and for-sale homes and can displace low- and moderate-income residents from their communities.
The following indicators can help you understand key housing supply trends in Michigan.
Ratio of Jobs Added per New Home Permitted
From 2015 through 2024, Michigan added 1.67 new jobs per new home.
Comparing job growth to the number of homes permitted can help you assess the responsiveness of housing supply to economic growth. When the number of jobs created significantly exceeds the number of homes permitted (i.e., if the ratio of new jobs per new home exceeds 1.5), the demand for homes will put pressure on the supply, driving prices up.
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Housing Availability
Only 1.8% of all homes in Michigan were vacant and available for rent or for sale in 2024.
Not all “vacant” homes are available to occupy because some are in need of repair, are in foreclosure or are used as seasonal homes. The rate of homes that are vacant and available for sale or for rent tracks the share of homes that are truly available to occupy and helps indicate how constrained the housing market is. A healthy availability rate typically falls around 5% for most markets, providing enough flexibility without signaling oversupply.
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Change in Inventory by Building Typology
Single family homes made up the largest share of homes in Michigan in 2024: 3.2 million homes (72%), compared to 1.1 million homes (23%) in multifamily buildings with 2 or more housing units.
The change in typology provides insight into how many homes are built and of which types. Housing supply changes should be compared with the number of jobs being added and the demographics (age, size, etc.) of households being added to understand if new housing types align with demand.
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Single-Family Home Supply Changes
From 2014 to 2024, there was a 9.5% increase in the total number of owner-occupied single-family homes but an 11.3% decrease in renter-occupied single-family homes.
The respective share of renter- and owner-occupied homes that are single-family can help you understand if single-family homes are shifting from homeownership to rental or even vacancy. Further, when compared to data on new construction, this data can help you understand how the housing market is creating homes to support homeownership. If the single-family rental rate is rising, it can be an indicator that barriers to homeownership access are rising, that there is a lack of new multifamily homes, or that single-family homes are more attractive to renters because of the size, location or price point of those homes.
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Rental Home Affordability
As of 2023, 62% of rental homes in Michigan were affordable to households earning at or below 60% of their home region's Area Median Income (AMI). This was higher than the 47% share across the US.
Some rental homes are affordable to households making 60% or less of AMI because they receive public subsidy and are income-restricted, while other homes are called naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) because factors like their age, size and quality contribute to their affordable rents without subsidies or income restrictions. Together, these homes make up the affordable home inventory in a community.
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Affordable Home Composition
Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) makes up a larger share of Michigan's rental homes than in the US overall. As of 2023, 47% of Michigan's rental homes were NOAH, compared to 33% across the US.
The majority of rental homes in Michigan that are affordable to households earning up to 60% of Area Median Income are NOAH. Because they are not income-restricted, NOAH homes are at risk of becoming unaffordable to if rents are rising in the community, indicating an opportunity for preservation.
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