Dowagiac, Michigan.
Typical home $226,673 (+5.2% in a year), asking rent $1,290 . South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$640 (+117%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $11,215 +5%
- $215,458$226,673 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $40,279 +22%
- $186,393$226,673 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.
- Dowagiac$1,190
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Dowagiac, MI rose 5.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Dowagiac, Cass County, Michigan
Dowagiac is a city of 5,721 people in Cass County. Half its households earn more than $48,166 a year and half less, against $70,443 across Cass County; 21% of its people live below the poverty line. 58% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 42% are rented. Unemployment in Cass County was 4.8% in August 2026, and the county had 2.2% more 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Dowagiac is a small city in Cass County, Michigan, with winters that run cold and a summer that turns warm. Incomes in town sit well below the county's, and a good share of residents live below the poverty line. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though renters are more common here than in many places, and relatively few adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, professional and business services, and shops also employing many. Among the largest workplaces in Dowagiac are the Dowagiac Union School District, Ascension Borgess-Lee Hospital and Atrium Centers, which provides nursing care for the elderly. Very few people work from home, and a typical commute is a moderate one.
Things to do. Several lakes lie a short drive away, including Indian Lake and Brush Lake, and Newton Woods is a nearby protected area for walking among the trees. Farther afield, Warren Dunes State Park is a longer drive, and Notre Dame Stadium is also a longer drive for those who follow college football.
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- 2,565households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 21%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Cass County had 9,582 jobs in 2025, 2.2% 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 42 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Dowagiac West weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Dowagiac
- LaddGroup homes for the disabled without nursing care524
- Dowagiac Union School DistrictSchool district262FTE
- Atrium CentersHomes for the elderly with nursing care123
- SpartanNashSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores97
- Ascension Borgess-lee HospitalCritical access hospital56FTE
- JAC ManufacturingBags, textile, made from purchased woven or knitted materials55
- AzekPlastics resins compounding from recycled materials35
- DowagiacMail and parcel delivery24
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 957 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (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
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesrelatively high in parts of DowagiacRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively 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 Dowagiac’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 Cass County and the South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI metro.
Dowagiac home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Dowagiac$226,673
- Michigan$263,760
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Dowagiac listings — 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.
- Dowagiac37.13%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Dowagiac69
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Dowagiac22
Zip codes with a Dowagiac address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Dowagiac — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.