Center Line, Michigan.
Typical home $167,320 (-1.3% in a year), asking rent $1,400 . Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$482 (+121%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $2,184 -1%
- $169,505$167,320 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $30,272 +22%
- $137,048$167,320 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.
- Center Line$878
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Center Line, MI fell 1.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Center Line, Macomb County, Michigan
Center Line is a city of 8,552 people in Macomb County. Half its households earn more than $54,703 a year and half less, against $77,837 across Macomb County; 17% of its people live below the poverty line. 52% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 48% are rented. Unemployment in Macomb County was 5.7% in August 2026, and the county had 1.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Center Line is a small city in Macomb County, a compact place where most streets are close together and the people living there are around the middle of the age range. Incomes run below the county's, and more households sit below the poverty line than you might expect for the area, while owners and renters share the homes in the city fairly evenly. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, summers turn warm in July, and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, professional and business services, and the building trades also common. Among the larger workplaces in Center Line are Stellantis, Center Line Public Schools and Center Line Electric. Unemployment across Macomb County is higher than a year ago, and the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before. The trip to work is a fairly typical one, and only a small share of people work from home.
Things to do. A short drive away are the Detroit Institute of Arts, a museum, and the Detroit Zoo. Comerica Park, a stadium, is also a short drive away. For a day on the water, Lake Saint Clair is a longer drive.
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- 3,713households
- 17%of adults have a degree
- 17%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Macomb County had 331,515 jobs in 2025, 1.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 20°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 65°. About 30 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Detroit City Airport weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Center Line
- StellantisMotor vehicle supplies and new parts merchant wholesalers667
- Binson's Hospital SuppliesMedical equipment and supplies stores530
- Center Line Public SchoolsSchool district367FTE
- Center Line ElectricElectrical contractors214
- Sodecia Automotive Detroit200
- StellantisMotor vehicle supplies and new parts merchant wholesalers190
- Father Murray, a Villa Center: Father Murray Nursing and Rehabilitation CenterSkilled nursing facilities188
- Whitlam GroupLabels, commercial printing, on a job-order basis120
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,218 people in all. School districts come 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
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively 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 Center Line’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 Macomb County and the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI metro.
Center Line home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Center Line$167,320
- Michigan$263,760
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Center Line listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Center Line30.19%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Center Line33
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Center Line11
Zip codes with a Center Line address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Center Line — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.