Brimley, Michigan.
Typical home $227,581 (+13.9% in a year). Sault Ste. Marie, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$686 (+135%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $27,834 +14%
- $199,747$227,581 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $59,332 +35%
- $168,249$227,581 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.
- Brimley$1,195
- 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 Brimley, MI rose 13.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Brimley, Chippewa County, Michigan
Brimley, in Chippewa County, had 501 people in the 2020 census. 98% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 2% are rented. Unemployment in Chippewa County was 5.3% in August 2026, and the county had about as many jobs in 2025 as the year before. The most people in Chippewa County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Brimley is a very small community, and nearly everyone who lives here owns their home. Incomes run below the county's, and typical home values are modest. Winters are long, cold and very snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are mild and warm, with July the warmest. Rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount through the year, and a four-year degree is held by a smaller share of adults than in many places.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in shops, and in government. Among the largest workplaces across Chippewa County are Mymichigan Medical Center Sault, the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians and Lake Superior State University. Unemployment across the county is lower than a year ago, and the number of jobs has held about steady. A typical commute is fairly short.
Things to do. Brimley State Park, a protected area, sits in or beside town, and the Waiska River runs there too, so walking and time by the water are close at hand. A short drive away is the Delirium Wilderness, a protected area of forest. For a longer outing, the SS Valley Camp is a museum, reached by a longer drive.
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- 30%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
What people in Chippewa County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Chippewa County had 12,796 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 25° and lows near 8°; warmest in July, with highs near 79° and lows near 53°. About 94 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Rudyard 4N weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Chippewa County
- Mymichigan Medical Center SaultGeneral hospital610FTE
- Sault Tribe of Chippewa IndiansHotels, resort, with casinos541
- Lake Superior State UniversityUniversity or college362
- Michigan Department of CorrectionsCorrectional institutions362
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters337
- Sault Ste. Marie Area SchoolsSchool district248FTE
- Michigan Department of CorrectionsCorrectional institutions229
- MeijerRetail222
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 25 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,794 people in all across the county; Brimley has one of its own. 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
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively 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 Brimley’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 Chippewa County and the Sault Ste. Marie, MI metro.
Brimley home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Brimley$227,581
- 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.
- Brimley13
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Brimley6
Zip codes with a Brimley address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Brimley — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.