Alma, Michigan.
Typical home $164,679 (+5.1% in a year). Alma, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$448 (+108%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,943 +5%
- $156,737$164,679 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $23,193 +16%
- $141,487$164,679 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Alma$864
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 23 years.
Typical home values in Alma, MI rose 5.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Alma, Gratiot County, Michigan
Alma is a city of 9,488 people in Gratiot County. Half its households earn more than $53,307 a year and half less, against $63,556 across Gratiot County; 22% of its people live below the poverty line. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Gratiot County was 5.3% in August 2026, and the county had 3.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Alma is a small city in Gratiot County, and its people are younger than in most American towns. Incomes run below the county's, and more households live under the poverty line than you might expect. Most homes are lived in by their owners. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are warm and July is the warmest.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, manufacturing, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment also employing a good number. Among the largest workplaces in Alma are Mymichigan Medical Center-gratiot, Alma College and Avalon & Tahoe Manufacturing. The typical commute is short, and a modest share of people work from home.
Things to do. The Wright Opera House, a theatre in or beside town, is the nearest place for an evening out. A short drive away is Bad River, and the Chippewa River and Maple River State Game Area are a longer drive away for time outdoors.
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- 3,545households
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 22%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Gratiot County had 12,739 jobs in 2025, 3.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 59°. About 39 inches of snow and 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Alma weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Alma
- Mymichigan Medical Center-gratiotGeneral hospital385FTE
- Alma CollegeUniversity or college365
- Avalon & Tahoe ManufacturingBoats manufacturing300
- Alma Public SchoolsSchool district284FTE
- MeijerRetail243
- Masonic PathwaysAssisted-living facilities with on-site nursing facilities208
- Keel - RepublicPlate work, fabricated metal, manufacturing204
- Consumers EnergyDistribution of electric power172
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 13 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,639 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Cold wavesrelatively high in parts of AlmaRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of AlmaRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Alma’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Gratiot County and the Alma, MI metro.
Alma home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Alma$164,679
- Michigan$263,760
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Alma listings — the market is cooling.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Alma29.04%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Alma50
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Alma17
Zip codes with a Alma address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Alma — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.