Empire, Michigan.
Typical home $640,658 (+4.2% in a year). Traverse City, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,905 (+131%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $25,581 +4%
- $615,077$640,658 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $124,885 +24%
- $515,773$640,658 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.
- Empire$3,363
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Empire, MI rose 4.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Empire, Leelanau County, Michigan
Empire is a village of 362 people in Leelanau County. Unemployment in Leelanau County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 10.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Leelanau County work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Empire is a small village in Leelanau County, Michigan, on the shore of South Bar Lake. It is a very small community, and its residents are older than in most American towns. Homes here cost a good deal more than the typical home across the country, and household incomes across Leelanau County are comfortably high. Winters are cold and very snowy, while summers are mild and pleasantly warm, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in shops, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Leelanau County, some of the largest workplaces are the National Park Service, Glen Lake Community Schools and Oryana West. Unemployment across the county is a little lower than a year ago, and the county has more jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. South Bar Lake is in or beside town, and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a protected area, is a short drive away. Also a short drive away is Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, a tourist attraction, and Glen Lake, a lake that suits a day by the water. Crystal Lake is a longer drive away for those who want to go further.
Report a mistake
- 172households
What people in Leelanau County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Leelanau County had 7,359 jobs in 2025, 10.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 57°. About 143 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Maple City 1E weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Leelanau County
- Menards"home centers"219
- TargetDiscount department stores170
- Leelanau CountyGovernment130
- National Park ServiceFederal government · Department of the Interior128
- Glen Lake Community SchoolsSchool district125FTE
- Oryana WestGrocery stores105
- Thompson Surgical InstrumentsClamps, surgical, manufacturing100
- Power Logistics MI LLC WMI2Local letter and parcel delivery services as part of intercity courier network90
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 17 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,365 people in all across the county; Empire has two of its own. Federal offices come from OPM's federal workforce data (2026) 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 wavesVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Empire’s census tracts, 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 Leelanau County and the Traverse City, MI metro.
Empire home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Empire$640,658
- 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.
- Empire16
Zip codes with a Empire address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Empire — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Empire
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49630 | Empire | 1,390 | — | $621,751 |
| 49636 | Glen Arbor | 643 | — | $685,721 |