Pentwater, Michigan.
Typical home $392,614 (+4.9% in a year). Ludington, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,163 (+130%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,487 +5%
- $374,127$392,614 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $84,655 +27%
- $307,959$392,614 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.
- Pentwater$2,061
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Pentwater, MI rose 4.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Pentwater, Oceana County, Michigan
Pentwater is a village of 890 people in Oceana County. Half its households earn more than $80,750 a year and half less, against $62,417 across Oceana County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 85% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 15% are rented. 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Pentwater is a small village on the Lake Michigan side of the state, and nearly all of its homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run well above the county's, and a large share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and very snowy, with January highs staying around freezing, while July is warm without being extreme.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, and in shops, with some in farming and forestry. Across Oceana County, the largest workplaces include fruit and vegetable processors such as Peterson Farms and Michigan Freeze Pack, along with the Hart Public School District. Commutes are short, and quite a few people work from home.
Things to do. Pentwater Lake and the Pentwater River both lie in or beside town, as does Mears State Park, a protected area for walking and time by the water. A short drive away is Silver Lake State Park, another protected area. Lake Michigan itself is a longer drive away.
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- 430households
- 54%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 30%work from home
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, 7 miles 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; Pentwater has one 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
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Pentwater’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 Oceana County and the Ludington, MI metro.
Pentwater home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Pentwater$392,614
- Michigan$263,760
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Pentwater 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.
- Pentwater26.45%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Pentwater28
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Pentwater7
Zip codes with a Pentwater address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Pentwater — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.