Plainwell, Michigan.
Typical home $236,925 (+1.3% in a year). Holland, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$688 (+124%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,097 +1%
- $233,828$236,925 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $52,408 +28%
- $184,518$236,925 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.
- Plainwell$1,244
- 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 Plainwell, MI rose 1.3% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Plainwell, Allegan County, Michigan
Plainwell is a city of 3,788 people in Allegan County. Half its households earn more than $66,525 a year and half less, against $83,283 across Allegan County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 69% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 31% are rented. Unemployment in Allegan County was 3.9% in August 2026, and the county had 5.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Plainwell is a small city in Allegan County, with a median age that sits close to the middle of the range for American towns. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though incomes run below the county's, and a four-year degree is held by fewer adults than you might expect for a place this size. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and highs near freezing at best, while July brings warm summer days.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, shops and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Among the largest workplaces in town are Life Care Center Of Plainwell, a nursing home, Tokusen Hytech, which makes coiled springs and heavy gauge metal parts, and Preferred Plastics, a maker of plastic profile shapes. Unemployment across Allegan County has eased a little over the past year, and the county has added jobs.
Things to do. The Gun River runs in or beside town, a natural spot for a walk along the water. Timber Ridge Ski Area is a short drive away, handy given the snowy, cold winters. A longer drive brings you to the Gilmore Car Museum, and to Gull Lake for a day by the water.
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- 1,570households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Allegan County had 43,686 jobs in 2025, 5.6% 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 82° and lows near 58°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Allegan 5NE weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Plainwell
- Life Care Center Of PlainwellNursing homes140
- Tokusen HytechCoiled springs, heavy gauge metal, manufacturing115
- Preferred PlasticsProfile shapes, nonrigid plastics, manufacturing73
- Borgess-pipp Health CenterLong-term care hospital65FTE
- Modernistic II - PlainwellRug cleaning services59
- Drug & Laboratory Disposal49
- Metal Components Plant 4Pipe, fabricated metal plate, manufacturing32
- PlainwellMail and parcel delivery22
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 510 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- HailRelatively moderate
- Tornadoesrelatively high in parts of PlainwellRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Plainwell’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 Allegan County and the Holland, MI metro.
Plainwell home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Plainwell$236,925
- Michigan$263,760
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
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.
- Plainwell6
Zip codes with a Plainwell address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Plainwell — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.