Chatham, Michigan.
Typical home $221,521 (+13.8% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$699 (+151%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $26,862 +14%
- $194,658$221,521 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $56,383 +34%
- $165,138$221,521 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.
- Chatham$1,163
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Chatham, MI rose 13.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Chatham, Alger County, Michigan
Chatham is a village of 193 people in Alger County. Unemployment in Alger County was 5.3% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Alger County work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Chatham is a very small village in Alger County, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where people tend to know one another. Winters are long, cold and snowy, with far more snow than most of the country sees, and summers are mild and warm. Typical homes here cost less than the national picture would suggest, and fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in many places.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and manufacturing. Across Alger County, some of the largest workplaces are Neenah Paper, the State of Michigan's correctional institutions, and Timber Products Company Michigan, which makes hardwood veneer. Very few people work from home, and the county has seen a small gain in jobs over the past year.
Things to do. The Au Train River and the Rock River are both a short drive away, and Laughing Whitefish Falls Scenic Site, a waterfall, is close by as well. For a longer outing, Hiawatha National Forest, a large protected area, is a longer drive away.
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- 20%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 2%work from home
What people in Alger County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Alger County had 2,678 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 24° and lows near 8°; warmest in July, with highs near 78° and lows near 54°. About 164 inches of snow and 35 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Chatham Experiment Farm weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Alger County
- Neenah PaperPaper, coated, laminated or treated, made in paper mills220
- State of MichiganCorrectional institutions198
- Timber Products Company MichiganHardwood veneer116
- Munising Public SchoolsSchool district94FTE
- Cross General ContractingBuilding, residential, addition, alteration and renovation72
- MediLodge of MunisingNursing homes68
- Munising Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital60FTE
- National Park ServiceFederal government · Department of the Interior47
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 9 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 767 people in all across the county; Chatham has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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
- LightningVery high
- HailRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively 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 Chatham’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 Alger County.
Chatham home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Chatham$221,521
- 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.
- Chatham12
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Chatham address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Chatham — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.