Bentley, Michigan.
Typical home $200,839 (+9.3% in a year). Bay City, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$617 (+141%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $17,088 +9%
- $183,751$200,839 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $55,481 +38%
- $145,358$200,839 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.
- Bentley$1,054
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Bentley, MI rose 9.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Bentley, Bay County, Michigan
Bentley is a township of 829 people in Bay County. Half its households earn more than $63,523 a year and half less, against $61,763 across Bay County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 98% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 2% are rented. Unemployment in Bay County was 5.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Bentley is a small township in Bay County, Michigan, where nearly everyone owns the home they live in. Household incomes run a little above the county's, and fewer adults hold a four-year degree than is typical. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm, with July the warmest. The year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow as well.
Work. People in Bentley work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Bay County, some of the largest workplaces are BAY Regional Medical Center, Bay City School District and Michigan Sugar Company. Commutes tend to be long, and some residents work from home. Unemployment across the county has eased slightly over the past year, while the number of jobs has barely changed.
Things to do. For time outdoors, the Molasses River and Wixom Lake are both a short drive away, the lake being a reservoir with room for a day by the water. Farther afield, the Au Sable State Forest is a protected area a longer drive away, suited to a full day or a weekend. The USS Edson, a museum ship, is also a longer drive away.
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- 349households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 37 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Bay County had 34,153 jobs in 2025, 0.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 57°. About 48 inches of snow and 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Gladwin weather station, 15 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Bay County
- Bay Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,360FTE
- Bay City School DistrictSchool district791FTE
- Delta CollegeTwo-year college748
- Michigan Sugar CompanyRaw beet sugar manufacturing632
- Bay CountyGeneral services departments, government565
- General MotorsAluminum castings, unfinished, manufacturing432
- Bay-Arenac ISDSchool district403FTE
- SC Johnson Home Storage LLC - Wilder RdFood storage bags, plastics film, single wall or multiwall, manufacturing402
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 106 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 11,666 people in all across the county; Bentley has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (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 weatherRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Bay County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Bay County and the Bay City, MI metro.
Bentley home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bentley$200,839
- Michigan$263,760
- United States$366,157
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.
Zip codes with a Bentley address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bentley — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.