Detroit, Michigan.
Typical home $74,742 (-5.9% in a year), asking rent $1,328 (+5.1%). Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$207 (+111%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $4,725 -6%
- $79,467$74,742 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $1,774 +2%
- $72,968$74,742 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.
- Detroit$392
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Detroit, MI fell 5.9% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Detroit, MI rose 5.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Detroit runs $754/mo less than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $574 a month against $1,328 rent: a $392 mortgage payment, plus $101 property tax and $80 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Detroit
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$574
- Renting$1,328
- Mortgage only$392
Property tax · $101/mo 1.63% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Wayne County, MI
Insurance & upkeep · $80/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan
Detroit is a city of 639,111 people in Wayne County. Half its households earn more than $39,938 a year and half less, against $60,539 across Wayne County; 33% of its people live below the poverty line. 50% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 50% are rented. Unemployment in Detroit was 11.4% in August 2026, and Wayne County had 0.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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. Detroit is a large city on the Detroit River, and it has long been tied to the American auto industry. Household incomes here are well below the county's, and a larger share of people live below the poverty line than is typical. Homes are split evenly between owners and renters, and the typical home costs far less to buy than in many cities, though rents are still a real expense. Winters are cold, with January highs only just above freezing, and summers are warm, with rain and melted snow spread through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and manufacturing remains a major part of the local economy, alongside professional and business services and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Among the largest workplaces in the city are Detroit Public Schools Community District, Wayne State University and General Motors. Unemployment has risen over the past year, and the county has lost a small number of jobs. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in many cities, and most people commute to work rather than working from home.
Things to do. The Detroit Institute of Arts is a museum in or beside town and one of the best known places to visit. Ford Field and Comerica Park are stadiums a short drive away, and Belle Isle Park, a botanical garden, is also a short drive away. For time by the water, the Detroit River and Lake Saint Clair are a longer drive away.
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- 257,998households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 33%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Wayne County had 721,389 jobs in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 33° and lows near 19°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 63°. About 35 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Dearborn #2 weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Detroit
- Detroit CampusGeneral medical and surgical hospitals9,365
- Detroit Public Schools Community DistrictSchool district6,492FTE
- Wayne State UniversityUniversity or college6,166
- General MotorsAssembly plants, light trucks on chassis of own manufacture4,627
- StellantisManufacturing4,500
- StellantisManufacturing4,004
- Charter County of Wayne MichiganExecutive and legislative office combinations3,976
- Ascension St John HospitalGeneral hospital3,315FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 326 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 91,009 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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 moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Detroit’s census tracts, 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 Wayne County and the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI metro.
Detroit home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Detroit$74,742
- Michigan$263,760
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Detroit listings, and the typical home goes pending in 35 days — the market is cooling.
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.
- Detroit24.48%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Detroit35
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Detroit3,573
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Detroit743
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Detroit$87,499
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Detroit94.72%
Zip codes with a Detroit address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Detroit — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Detroit
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48228 | Detroit | 50,117 | $1,174 | $66,264 |
| 48219 | Detroit | 47,208 | $1,363 | $86,511 |
| 48235 | Detroit | 45,600 | $1,366 | $92,152 |
| 48221 | Detroit | 41,392 | $1,302 | $134,161 |
| 48227 | Detroit | 40,302 | $1,376 | $67,593 |
| 48224 | Detroit | 39,668 | $1,305 | $79,229 |
| 48205 | Detroit | 34,187 | $1,276 | $50,037 |
| 48234 | Detroit | 32,760 | $1,274 | $52,022 |
| 48209 | Detroit | 27,184 | $934 | $89,192 |
| 48210 | Detroit | 26,722 | — | $71,227 |
| 48238 | Detroit | 24,731 | $1,247 | $54,502 |
| 48223 | Detroit | 22,622 | $1,023 | $84,419 |
| 48207 | Detroit | 20,848 | $1,439 | $146,835 |
| 48204 | Detroit | 20,696 | $1,128 | $56,559 |
| 48213 | Detroit | 20,075 | $1,356 | $43,447 |
| 48203 | Highland Park | 20,049 | $1,313 | $60,415 |
| 48214 | Detroit | 18,595 | $1,114 | $91,894 |
| 48202 | Detroit | 15,780 | $1,411 | $184,429 |
| 48206 | Detroit | 15,227 | $1,227 | $90,915 |
| 48201 | Detroit | 15,091 | $1,568 | $420,528 |
| 48215 | Detroit | 10,322 | — | $91,043 |
| 48208 | Detroit | 8,037 | $1,306 | $136,858 |
| 48226 | Detroit | 6,831 | $2,042 | $319,011 |
| 48217 | Detroit | 6,564 | — | $55,466 |
| 48216 | Detroit | 5,865 | $1,686 | $190,997 |
| 48211 | Detroit | 5,419 | — | $56,890 |