Dafter, Michigan.
Typical home $226,457 (+9.2% in a year). Sault Ste. Marie, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$694 (+140%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $19,012 +9%
- $207,446$226,457 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $52,258 +30%
- $174,200$226,457 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.
- Dafter$1,189
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Dafter, MI rose 9.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Dafter, Chippewa County, Michigan
Dafter is a township of 1,327 people in Chippewa County. Half its households earn more than $65,588 a year and half less, against $62,217 across Chippewa County. 91% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 9% 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 residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Dafter is a township in Chippewa County, in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is a small place where nearly everyone owns their home, a far greater share than is usual across the country. Household incomes run a little above the county's, and the typical commute is short. Winters are long and cold, with January the coldest month and a great deal of snow, while July is pleasantly warm and the year brings a fair amount of rain.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, government and other services. Among the largest workplaces in Dafter are Ken Graham Trucking, Cloverland Electric Cooperative and GFL Environmental Brimley Transfer and Hauling. Unemployment across Chippewa County is lower than it was a year earlier, though the number of jobs there has not grown over the past year.
Things to do. The Charlotte River and Brimley State Park, a protected area, are both a short drive away, which makes them easy choices for time outdoors. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to Lake George, and the SS Valley Camp, a museum, is also a longer drive away.
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- 504households
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 15 mintypical commute
What residents 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 Dafter
- Ken Graham TruckingGeneral freight trucking120
- Cloverland Electric CooperativeDistribution of electric power50
- GFL Environmental Brimley Transfer and HaulingSolid waste collection and transfer station28
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 198 people in all. 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
FEMA rates every natural hazard here relatively low or very low.
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Chippewa County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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.
Dafter home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Dafter$226,457
- 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.
- Dafter7
Zip codes with a Dafter address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Dafter — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.