Imlay City, Michigan.
Typical home $282,865 (+4.7% in a year). Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$829 (+126%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,719 +5%
- $270,146$282,865 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $51,572 +22%
- $231,293$282,865 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.
- Imlay City$1,485
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Imlay City, MI rose 4.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Imlay City, Lapeer County, Michigan
Imlay City is a city of 3,703 people in Lapeer County. 55% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 45% are rented. Unemployment in Lapeer County was 5.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then construction.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Imlay City is a small city in Lapeer County, Michigan, with a population that has stayed modest in size. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and a good deal of snow, while summers are warm, with July the warmest. Fewer homes are lived in by their owners than in many nearby places, and a good many residents live below the poverty line, with household incomes below the county's. Typical home values sit well above what that income picture might suggest.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, the building trades, restaurants and hotels, and shops. Among the largest workplaces in Imlay City are Conagra Brands, a fruit and vegetable canning operation, Vintech Industries, which makes awnings and plastic and fiberglass products, and Imlay City Community Schools. Commutes tend to be fairly long, few people work from home, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Unemployment across Lapeer County is higher than a year earlier, though the county has added a few more jobs.
Things to do. General Squier Memorial Park is a park a short drive away, and the Younge Site, an archaeological site, is also close by. For a longer drive, Stony Creek Metropark offers a large park setting, and the Metamora-Hadley Recreation Area is a protected area with open ground to explore.
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- 1,634households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 24%below the poverty line
- 31 mintypical commute
- 2%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lapeer County had 22,229 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 59°. About 34 inches of snow and 32 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Lapeer Wwtp weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Imlay City
- Conagra BrandsFruit and vegetable canning619
- Vintech IndustriesAwnings, rigid plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing315
- Imlay City Community SchoolsSchool district226FTE
- Kroger Michigan KMASupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores141
- Toyo Seat USAMotor vehicle seats, metal framed, manufacturing99
- Pavement Maintenance SystemResurfacing, highway, road, street, bridge or airport runway63
- Springfield IndustriesEpoxy adhesives manufacturing40
- Tractor Supply Company StoreGeneral merchandise stores27
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 9 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,353 people in all. School districts come 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Imlay City’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 Lapeer County and the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI metro.
Imlay City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Imlay City$282,865
- Michigan$263,760
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Imlay City 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.
- Imlay City26.97%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Imlay City31
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Imlay City12
Zip codes with a Imlay City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Imlay City — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.