Rapid City, Michigan.
Typical home $361,305 (-0.3% in a year). Traverse City, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,092 (+136%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $970 -0%
- $362,275$361,305 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $62,499 +21%
- $298,806$361,305 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.
- Rapid City$1,896
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Rapid City, MI fell 0.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Rapid City, Kalkaska County, Michigan
Rapid City, in Kalkaska County, had 1,357 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $73,021 a year and half less, against $68,578 across Kalkaska County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Kalkaska County was 4.8% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in restaurants and hotels, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Rapid City is a small community in Kalkaska County, with a population older than in most of the country. Household incomes run above the county's, though a noticeable number of residents still live below the poverty line. Homes here are valued well above what many people expect for northern Michigan, and few adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Residents work mostly in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in the building trades, in schools, hospitals and social care, and in manufacturing. Across Kalkaska County, the largest workplaces include Kalkaska Memorial Health Center, Kalkaska Public Schools and Wayne Wire Cloth Products. Commutes are long, which suggests many people travel some distance to their jobs, and only a few work from home. Unemployment is a little lower than a year ago, and the county has added jobs.
Things to do. The Rapid River runs in or beside town, as does the Torch River, so water is close at hand. A short drive away are Torch Lake and Elk Lake, along with the Elk River, and the Skegemog Point Site, an archaeological site, is also a short drive away. Winters are long and cold with a great deal of snow, and summers are pleasantly warm.
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- 632households
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 35 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Kalkaska County had 4,924 jobs in 2025, 1.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 26° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 79° and lows near 55°. About 132 inches of snow and 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Kalkaska weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Kalkaska County
- Kalkaska Memorial Health CenterCritical access hospital418FTE
- Kalkaska Public SchoolsSchool district194FTE
- C.C. PowerSubstation and switching station, power transmission line, construction165
- P.J. SteelOil pipeline construction119
- Wayne Wire Cloth ProductsMesh made from purchased wire114
- MacAllister Caterpillar KalkaskaAgricultural machinery and equipment repair and maintenance services92
- Northland Food and Family CenterFood stores70
- Forest Area Community SchoolsSchool district69FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 16 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,024 people in all across the county; Rapid City has none of its own. 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
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Rapid 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 Kalkaska County and the Traverse City, MI metro.
Rapid City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Rapid City$361,305
- 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.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Rapid 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.
- Rapid City25.45%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Rapid City39
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Rapid City9
Zip codes with a Rapid City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Rapid City — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.