Mears, Michigan.
Typical home $322,877 (+4.1% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$986 (+139%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,781 +4%
- $310,096$322,877 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $58,353 +22%
- $264,523$322,877 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.
- Mears$1,695
- 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 Mears, MI rose 4.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Mears, Oceana County, Michigan
Mears, in Oceana County, had 332 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Oceana County was 5.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Oceana County work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Mears is a very small community in Oceana County, Michigan, where the winters are cold and long and the summers are warm. January is the coldest month, with highs just below freezing, and July is the warmest. Snowfall is heavy across the year, well above what much of the country sees, and the precipitation in total is steady rather than extreme. Typical home values here sit above the county's median household income by a wide margin, which is worth knowing for anyone weighing a purchase.
Work. People who live in Mears work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in farming, forestry and mining. Across Oceana County, the largest workplaces include Peterson Farms and OPC Arbre Farms, both frozen fruit and vegetable processors, along with Hart Public School District. Unemployment across the county is a little lower than it was a year earlier, and the number of jobs has edged up slightly.
Things to do. Several protected areas are a short drive away, including Silver Lake State Park and Mears State Park, and Pentwater Lake and the Pentwater River are close by as well. For a longer outing, Lake Michigan is a longer drive away, as is the Pere Marquette River, which suits anyone who likes time on the water.
Report a mistake
What people in Oceana County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Oceana County had 6,510 jobs in 2025, 0.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 58°. About 78 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Hart Wsw weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Oceana County
- Peterson FarmsFrozen fruit and vegetable processing452
- Michigan Freeze PackVegetables, frozen, manufacturing417
- OPC Arbre FarmsFrozen fruit and vegetable processing410
- Hart Public School DistrictSchool district270FTE
- Gray & CompanyCanning fruits and vegetables248
- Oceana County Medical Care FacilityNursing homes240
- Peterson Farms FreshFruits, fresh, merchant wholesalers239
- Shelby Public SchoolsSchool district196FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 24 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,416 people in all across the county; Mears has none of its own. 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 windVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Mears’ 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 Oceana County.
Mears home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Mears$322,877
- Michigan$263,760
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Mears 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.
- Mears33.38%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Mears21
Zip codes with a Mears address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Mears — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.