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How affordable is this community?
- ACS 5-year estimates · B19013, B25082, B25090 · 2010–2024
- Zillow ZHVI
- FRED 30-year fixed mortgage rate
- HUD Income Limits · FY 2025
- Insurance premium rates (CommunityScale)
- User-adjustable assumptions
This chart tracks whether housing prices are keeping pace with local incomes. The gap between what homes cost and what households can afford reveals affordability trends over time.
Enter your household income and adjust assumptions to see what you could afford to buy in this community, compared to typical local prices. The calculator defaults to the current local median income, mortgage rate, and other financial assumptions factored into the housing affordability chart above.
How is the population changing?
- Census Population Estimates Program (PEP) · 2010–2025
- ACS 5-year estimates · B01001 · 2010–2024
- CommunityScale population projection model
Population growth patterns reveal how communities are evolving. This chart shows historical population changes by age group and projects future trends based on demographic patterns.
Population change since a baseline year, broken out by age group. Each line shows the net gain or loss for one cohort, revealing which groups are driving growth or decline.
The share of households with children indicates family housing demand, while the share with people over 65 reflects the growing need for senior-friendly and accessible housing options.
Historical population comes from the U.S. Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program (PEP): counties directly from PEP's annual estimates by age, and municipalities from PEP sub-county totals with age detail from the American Community Survey (ACS). Projections use CommunityScale's PEP-anchored cohort-migration forecast model.
The model follows each five-year age cohort through the community's 2010–2024 population history and projects those cohort trends forward, launching from the most recent PEP estimate (2025). Group-quarters residents — college dorms, prisons, military barracks, nursing facilities — do not follow household demographics, so they are separated out, projected on their own trend, and added back. In small communities, where year-to-year cohort data is noisy, the model blends each cohort's trend toward the community's recent overall trend to keep projections stable.
How is the job market changing?
Total job counts over time show how employment opportunities are growing or shrinking in a community. Comparing across geographies reveals which areas are attracting the most new employment.
Jobs grouped into four broad sector categories show the economic composition of a community. Comparing across geographies reveals differences in local economic specialization.
The share of people aged 25-34 indicates the pipeline of workers entering the labor force, while the share aged 65+ shows the pace of retirement. Comparing these trends reveals whether communities face a tightening or expanding labor supply.
Job counts are derived from the LEHD LODES Workplace Area Characteristics (WAC) dataset published by the US Census Bureau.
How are households changing by income?
- ACS 5-year estimates · B25007, B01001, B19001, B19113 · 2010–2024
- HUD Income Limits · FY 2025
- BLS CPI-U · 2010–2024
- Census PUMS 5-year · 2019–2023
Understanding how households at different income levels are growing or declining helps identify which groups face the greatest housing pressure and where new housing is most needed.
| AMI Group | Income Range | Households |
|---|---|---|
| <30% AMI | <$34K | 7,168 |
| 30-50% AMI | $34K - $57K | 6,958 |
| 50-80% AMI | $57K - $91K | 8,921 |
| 80-100% AMI | $91K - $114K | 5,195 |
| 100-120% AMI | $114K - $137K | 3,936 |
| >120% AMI | >$137K | 8,918 |
Household change since a baseline year, broken out by income group. Each line shows the net gain or loss for one income bracket, revealing which groups are driving household growth or decline.
Who lives here today?
- ACS 5-year estimates · B19001, B19037, B19113, B19131 · 2020–2024
- HUD Income Limits · FY 2025
Households may have different structure type preferences depending on characteristics such as household size, income, employment, presence of children, age of individuals, and lifestyle choices. Understanding the housing stock in corresponding terms helps assess how well existing units align with existing households' ideals.
This chart shows how household composition has changed over time, comparing the distribution of household types between 2015 and 2023. Changes in household types can indicate shifting demographics and evolving housing needs in a community.
Cost burdened households pay 30% or more of their income on housing. Severely cost burdened households pay 50% or more. Tracking these rates over time shows whether affordability is improving or worsening. Toggle between combined (Total), Homeowners, and Renters to see how burden differs by tenure.
What does the housing stock look like?
The mix of housing types and ownership patterns shapes a community's character. This chart breaks down housing units by structure type and whether they're owner-occupied or rented.
The housing stock as a stacked area by the decade each unit was built. Switch the breakdown between bedroom count and structure type, and toggle between unit counts (#) and share (%). It shows how the mix of what's been built has shifted over time — e.g. toward larger homes or more multifamily.
This chart shows rental and homeowner vacancy rates over time. A healthy rental vacancy rate is around 7.5%, and a healthy homeowner vacancy rate is around 1.5%. Rates well below these thresholds suggest a tight housing market with limited options for people looking to move.
Comparing housing stock composition across geographies reveals how communities differ in their mix of structure types, unit sizes, and ownership patterns. Toggle between views and switch between raw counts and percentages to explore the data.
Annual building permits reflect the pipeline of new housing construction. Single family permits show detached home building activity, while multifamily permits (units in buildings with 2+ units) indicate apartment and townhome development.
Explore the characteristics of recent for-sale listings in this project area. Use the controls to filter by bedrooms, unit size, lot size, year built, and price.
Explore the characteristics of recent rental listings in this project area. Use the controls to filter by bedrooms, unit size, year built, and monthly rent.
What share of the housing stock is seasonal or short-term rental?
Three county-wide lenses on who owns Grand Traverse County's housing and how it's used. "Occupancy mix" splits the stock into owner-occupied, long-term rental, second-home/seasonal, and other vacant (ACS 2020-2024). "Owner location" shows how much is owned from out of the area — on-site, local, elsewhere in Michigan, or out-of-state — for all, primary, and non-primary residences. "STRs by unit type" breaks confirmed short-term rentals out by structure type and owner location. Toggle between share (%) and counts (#).
Grand Traverse County's housing stock by tenure, 2017–2026, blending each bucket's best source: owner-occupied (remainder), long-term rental (ACS renter-occupied), STR / second home (parcel PRE flag), and new construction (issued permits, 2025–26). Where the PRE flag is blank — common in the early years — STR/2nd is filled with that year's ACS seasonal share and drawn hatched. Toggle between unit counts (#) and share (%).
Three county-wide views. In the % view each bar is normalized to its own total; in the # view bars share a common count scale. Held at the county level — township-level ACS counts carry margins of error too wide to compare reliably.
Occupancy mix
US Census ACS 2020–2024 5-year, Grand Traverse County. The four categories are mutually exclusive and sum to total housing units (B25001).
- Owner-occupied (B25003_002).
- Long-term rental — renter-occupied (B25003_003).
- Second home / seasonal — vacant “for seasonal, recreational, or occasional use” (B25004_006). A lower bound — excludes second homes/STRs that were occupied when surveyed.
- Other vacant — residual (total − owner − rental − seasonal): for sale/rent, sold/rented-not-occupied, and other vacant.
Owner location
County parcel roll — improved residential parcels (41,163), classified by the owner's mailing address. Primary vs. non-primary is the PRE homestead exemption (PRE=100 is owner-occupied primary; PRE<100 is a second home, rental, or STR).
- On-site (owner-occupant) — mailing matches the site address.
- Local (GT-area) — mailing ZIP is one of the 18 Grand-Traverse-area ZIPs.
- Elsewhere in MI — in-state, but out of the area.
- Out-of-state — most absentee.
STRs by unit type
Parcels carrying the county parcel roll's “Converted STR” flag (n=1,971), broken out by structure type (single-family detached vs. attached/mobile) and segmented by the same owner-location categories above. A lower bound — the flag is not coded in Peninsula and Long Lake, so STR counts there are missing, not zero.
How much new housing supply is needed?
- ACS 5-year estimates · B25001, B25004, B25016, B25024, B25042, B25053 · 2020–2024
- HUD Income Limits · FY 2025
- Census PUMS 5-year · 2020–2024
To keep up with growth and fill current housing shortages, Grand Traverse County, MI needs 2,691 new units over the next 5 years.
| 2,062 |
Units needed to keep up with expected growth
Projected total household growth from 2026 to 2031.
|
| 5.0% |
Projected household growth rate
Expected increase in total households from 41,096 in 2026 to 43,158 in 2031.
|
| 629 |
Units to address shortages in existing housing stock
Production needs to address vacancy rates and other factors.
|
| 327 |
Replacement housing
Effective annual loss rate is 1.4 per 1,000 units.
|
| 302 |
Ownership vacancy adjustment
Owner-occupied vacancy is 0.5%. This is below the minimum stable target of 1.5%.
|
| 2,691 |
Total 5-year housing production need (2026-2031)
|
| 538 |
Annual production pace
Average units needed per year to meet 5-year need
|
| 5.7% |
Total housing unit growth
Percent increase in housing stock over 5 years
|
| 1.1% |
Annual housing unit growth
Average percent increase in housing stock per year
|