Frankfort, Michigan.
Typical home $525,391 (+7.6% in a year). Traverse City, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,707 (+163%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $37,120 +8%
- $488,272$525,391 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $131,601 +33%
- $393,790$525,391 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.
- Frankfort$2,758
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Frankfort, MI rose 7.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Frankfort, Benzie County, Michigan
Frankfort is a city of 1,252 people in Benzie County. Half its households earn more than $54,327 a year and half less, against $74,834 across Benzie County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 64% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 36% are rented. Unemployment in Benzie County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 3.0% more jobs in 2025 than 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 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Frankfort is a small city on the Lake Michigan shore in Benzie County, and its residents are older than in most American towns. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though incomes run well below the county's, and homes here are valued well above what the local incomes might suggest. Winters are cold and very snowy, with January highs staying below freezing, while July brings warm days.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and then shops. The largest workplaces in town include Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital, Frankfort-Elberta Area Schools and Graceland Fruit, which dries and processes fruit. Joblessness across Benzie County is a little lower than a year ago, and the county has gained jobs over the past year.
Things to do. The Betsie River runs in or beside town, and Crystal Lake and Upper Herring Lake are both a short drive away for time on the water. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a protected stretch of shoreline and dunes, is a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 569households
- 40%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 11%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Benzie County had 5,028 jobs in 2025, 3.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 77° and lows near 60°. About 93 inches of snow and 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Frankfort 2NE weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Frankfort
- Paul Oliver Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital87FTE
- Frankfort-Elberta Area SchoolsSchool district78FTE
- Graceland Fruit - Main StFruit and vegetables, dehydrating, manufacturing55
- SpartanNashSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores37
- Ross DeccoArmature relays manufacturing31
- Graceland Fruit - Collaboration CenterFruit and vegetables, dehydrating, manufacturing28
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 329 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Frankfort’s census tracts, 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 Benzie County and the Traverse City, MI metro.
Frankfort home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Frankfort$525,391
- Michigan$263,760
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Frankfort 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.
- Frankfort29.33%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Frankfort47
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Frankfort11
Zip codes with a Frankfort address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Frankfort — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.