Brethren, Michigan.
Typical home $211,757 (+9.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$641 (+136%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $17,752 +9%
- $194,004$211,757 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $32,558 +18%
- $179,199$211,757 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.
- Brethren$1,111
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 21 years.
Typical home values in Brethren, MI rose 9.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Brethren, Manistee County, Michigan
Brethren, in Manistee County, had 331 people in the 2020 census. 93% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 7% are rented. Unemployment in Manistee County was 5.0% in August 2026, and the county had 2.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Manistee County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Brethren is a very small community in Manistee County, where nearly everyone lives in a home they own. Incomes here run below the county's, and a larger share of residents live below the poverty line than most would expect to find, while a four-year degree is less common among adults. Winters are long, cold and very snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are pleasantly warm, with July the warmest. Rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in manufacturing, in shops, and in restaurants and hotels. Across Manistee County, some of the largest workplaces are Packaging Corporation of America, Munson Healthcare Manistee Hospital and Manistee Area Public Schools. Commutes are on the long side, and relatively few people work from home.
Things to do. The Manistee River, a river a longer drive away, is the best known of the nearby places, and Udell Lookout Tower, a tourist attraction, is only a short drive away. Bear Creek, also a short drive off, is another river to visit. A longer drive brings you to Crystal Lake, a lake that draws people for time on the water.
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- 14%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 33 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What people in Manistee County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Manistee County had 7,448 jobs in 2025, 2.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 12°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 54°. About 120 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Wellston 1N weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Manistee County
- Packaging Corporation of America340
- Michigan Great Lakes Virtual AcademySchool district328FTE
- MeijerRetail232
- Martin MariettaSpecialty171
- Munson Healthcare Manistee HospitalGeneral hospital171FTE
- Manistee Area Public SchoolsSchool district149FTE
- Morton Salt, Inc ManisteeSeasoning salt manufacturing92
- Kaleva Norman Dickson School DistrictSchool district79FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,265 people in all across the county; Brethren 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
- LightningVery high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Brethren’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 Manistee County.
Brethren home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Brethren$211,757
- 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.
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.
- Brethren9
Zip codes with a Brethren address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Brethren — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.