Columbus, Michigan.
Typical home $351,906 (+3.2% in a year). Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$954 (+107%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $10,924 +3%
- $340,982$351,906 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $51,224 +17%
- $300,682$351,906 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.
- Columbus$1,847
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 22 years.
Typical home values in Columbus, MI rose 3.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Columbus, St. Clair County, Michigan
Columbus is a township of 4,112 people in St. Clair County. Half its households earn more than $93,844 a year and half less, against $71,270 across St. Clair County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 87% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 13% are rented. Unemployment in St. Clair County was 5.3% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% fewer 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Columbus is a township in St. Clair County, home to a small community in which most families own the houses they live in. Incomes run well above the county's, and fewer households live in poverty than you might expect. The typical resident is middle-aged, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days, and the year is fairly wet overall.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in professional and business services. Across St. Clair County, some of the largest workplaces are McLaren Port Huron, the Port Huron Area School District and US Farathane. The county has lost a few jobs over the past year and unemployment has risen, and the typical commute is a fair drive, with some people working from home.
Things to do. The St. Clair River is a longer drive away, as is Lake Saint Clair, both good for time on the water. Algonac State Park, a protected area, is also a longer drive away and suits a day outdoors. The Thomas Edison Depot Museum, a longer drive away, offers a look at local history.
Report a mistake
- 1,609households
- 30%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 30 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. St. Clair County had 41,734 jobs in 2025, 1.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 62°. About 47 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Richmond Nnw weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in St. Clair County
- Mclaren Port HuronGeneral hospital956FTE
- Port Huron Area School DistrictSchool district884FTE
- Anchor Bay School DistrictSchool district641FTE
- US FarathaneDoors and door frames, plastics, manufacturing549
- East China School DistrictSchool district518FTE
- St. Clair County RESA SchoolsSchool district515FTE
- Magna Electric Vehicle StructuresFuel pumps, electric, automotive, truck, and bus, manufacturing465
- Alta Gas SEMCO EnergyDistribution of natural gas424
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 119 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 13,477 people in all across the county; Columbus has none of its own. 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across St. Clair County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 St. Clair County and the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI metro.
Columbus home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Columbus$351,906
- 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.
- Columbus15
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Columbus6
Zip codes with a Columbus address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Columbus — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.