Deford, Michigan.
Typical home $189,870 (+5.0% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$495 (+99%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,034 +5%
- $180,836$189,870 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $11,833 +7%
- $178,036$189,870 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.
- Deford$997
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 54 years.
Typical home values in Deford, MI rose 5.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Deford, Tuscola County, Michigan
The Census does not count Deford on its own, so the figures here are Tuscola County's. Half the county's households earn more than $63,811 a year and half less; 13% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 86% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 14% are rented. Unemployment in Tuscola County was 5.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Tuscola County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Deford sits in Tuscola County, in the Thumb region of Michigan. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are warm. Rain and melted snow fall through much of the year, so the seasons are clearly felt. Across Tuscola County, residents tend to be older than in much of the country, and most homes are lived in by their owners.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in factories, in shops, or in the building trades. Unemployment in the county has eased over the past year, and jobs have edged up slightly. Few people work from home, so most residents commute to a workplace. Fewer adults hold a university degree than in most of the country.
Things to do. The Flint River is the best known of the nearby waterways, a river a longer drive away. Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park, also a longer drive away, is an archaeological site where ancient rock carvings can be seen. Murphy Lake, a lake a longer drive away, offers a quieter place to spend time outdoors.
Report a mistake
- 21,498households
- 44.8median age
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 30 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What people in Tuscola County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Tuscola County had 12,153 jobs in 2025, 0.4% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 57°. About 42 inches of snow and 33 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cass City Ssw weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Tuscola County
- Caro CenterPsychiatric hospital424FTE
- Kappen Tree Service,LLCArborist services381
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters318
- Hills & Dales General HospitalCritical access hospital304FTE
- Tuscola County Medical Care FacilitySkilled nursing facilities286
- Caro Community SchoolsSchool district275FTE
- Tuscola ISDSchool district256FTE
- Walbro Cass CityMotor vehicle moldings and extrusions, plastics, manufacturing252
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 29 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,963 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
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Tuscola County, 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 Tuscola County.
Deford home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Deford$189,870
- 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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Deford address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Deford — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.