Coldwater, Michigan.
Typical home $218,123 (+5.6% in a year), asking rent $1,282 . Coldwater, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$571 (+99%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $11,661 +6%
- $206,462$218,123 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $33,741 +18%
- $184,382$218,123 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.
- Coldwater$1,145
- 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 Coldwater, MI rose 5.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Coldwater, Branch County, Michigan
Coldwater is a city of 13,822 people in Branch County. Half its households earn more than $50,781 a year and half less, against $63,724 across Branch County; 21% of its people live below the poverty line. 64% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 36% are rented. Unemployment in Branch County was 3.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Coldwater is a small city and the seat of Branch County, in southern Michigan. Incomes here run below the county's as a whole, and more households live below the poverty line than most people would expect in a place this size. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and relatively few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with a good deal of snow, and summers are warm.
Work. Many residents work in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in shops. Among the largest workplaces in town are Community Health Center Branch, Branch ISD and the Coldwater plant that processes pork. Most people have a short trip to work, and few work from home.
Things to do. In or beside town there is the Tibbits Opera House, a theatre, and the Wing House Museum, along with the Sauk River. A short drive away, Coldwater Lake State Park is a protected area beside Coldwater Lake, good for time on the water or a walk. For a longer drive, Pokagon State Park is another protected area.
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- 4,458households
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 21%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Branch County had 15,400 jobs in 2025, 1.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 31° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 60°. About 43 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Coldwater St. School weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Coldwater
- CFG - Coldwater FacilityPork carcasses, half carcasses, and primal and sub-primal cuts produced in slaughtering plants1,785
- WalmartGeneral warehousing and storage1,188
- Community Health Center BranchGeneral hospital345FTE
- Branch ISDSchool district332FTE
- Michigan Department of CorrectionsCorrectional institutions300
- ACMGray iron foundries293
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters289
- Maroa FarmsTomato farming, grown under cover265
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 29 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 6,033 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Hailrelatively high in parts of ColdwaterRelatively moderate
- Lightningrelatively high in parts of ColdwaterRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesrelatively high in parts of ColdwaterRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Coldwater’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 Branch County and the Coldwater, MI metro.
Coldwater home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Coldwater$218,123
- 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.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Coldwater listings, and the typical home goes pending in 29 days — 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.
- Coldwater35.78%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Coldwater29
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Coldwater88
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Coldwater20
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Coldwater$212,625
- United States$371,407
Zip codes with a Coldwater address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Coldwater — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.