Benzonia, Michigan.
Typical home $328,905 (+6.0% in a year). Traverse City, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,022 (+145%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,488 +6%
- $310,417$328,905 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $58,346 +22%
- $270,560$328,905 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.
- Benzonia$1,726
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Benzonia, MI rose 6.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Benzonia, Benzie County, Michigan
Benzonia is a village of 551 people in Benzie County. Half its households earn more than $61,875 a year and half less, against $74,834 across Benzie County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 86% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 14% are rented. Unemployment in Benzie County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 3.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Benzonia is a very small village in Benzie County, with a population that is tiny even by village standards. Nearly all homes are lived in by their owners, and incomes run below the county's, though the typical home value is high for a village of this size. Winters are cold and very snowy, with January the coldest month, while July is the warmest and stays mild rather than hot.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, shops, and professional and business services. Across Benzie County, the largest workplaces include Crystal Enterprises, which runs a ski facility with accommodations, Benzie County Central Schools, and Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital. Jobs across the county grew over the past year, and a fair number of residents work from home.
Things to do. Crystal Lake is a short drive away, as are the Betsie River and Platte River for time on the water. Crystal Mountain, a ski area, is also a short drive away, which suits the snowy winters. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a protected area, is a longer drive away.
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- 283households
- 31%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 15%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Benzie County had 5,028 jobs in 2025, 3.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 77° and lows near 60°. About 93 inches of snow and 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Frankfort 2NE weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Benzie County
- Crystal EnterprisesAlpine skiing facilities with accommodations534
- Benzie County Central SchoolsSchool district137FTE
- Graceland Fruit - Forrester RdFruit and vegetables, dehydrating, manufacturing102
- SpartanNashSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores94
- Paul Oliver Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital87FTE
- Frankfort-Elberta Area SchoolsSchool district78FTE
- Graceland Fruit - Main StFruit and vegetables, dehydrating, manufacturing55
- AJ's ExcavatingExcavation contractors39
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,123 people in all across the county; Benzonia has one of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Benzonia’s census tracts, 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 Benzie County and the Traverse City, MI metro.
Benzonia home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Benzonia$328,905
- 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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Benzonia12
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Benzonia5
Zip codes with a Benzonia address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Benzonia — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.