Rockford, Michigan.
Typical home $457,626 (+5.7% in a year), asking rent $1,890 . Grand Rapids-Kentwood, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,392 (+138%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $24,571 +6%
- $433,055$457,626 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $113,328 +33%
- $344,298$457,626 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.
- Rockford$2,402
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Rockford, MI rose 5.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Rockford, Kent County, Michigan
Rockford is a city of 6,142 people in Kent County. Half its households earn more than $107,121 a year and half less, against $82,631 across Kent County; 5% of its people live below the poverty line. 77% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 23% are rented. Unemployment in Kent County was 4.3% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Rockford is a small city in Kent County where most homes are lived in by their owners, and incomes run well above the county's. Few residents live below the poverty line, and a large share of adults hold a four-year degree. The population is of middle age, and winters are cold and snowy, with summers that turn warm in July.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, professional and business services, and shops close behind. Among the largest workplaces in Rockford are Rockford Public Schools, Grand Rapids Controls and SpartanNash. Commutes are fairly typical, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. For time on the water, Rogue River and Lamberton Lake are both a short drive away. A longer drive leads to Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, a botanical garden, and to the Grand Rapids Art Museum.
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- 2,542households
- 54%of adults have a degree
- 5%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 23%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Kent County had 417,408 jobs in 2025, 0.4% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 14°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 57°. About 48 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Kent City Southwest weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Rockford
- Rockford Public SchoolsSchool district1,335FTE
- Grand Rapids ControlsInjection molding machinery for plastics manufacturing160
- Integrated Packaging MachineryConveyors, farm-type, manufacturing115
- ITWChairs, office-type, manufacturing110
- SpartanNashSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores80
- Precision Jig and FixtureJigs manufacturing63
- RockfordMail and parcel delivery59
- Universal ProductsInjection molding machinery for plastics manufacturing46
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 11 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 754 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
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively 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 Rockford’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 Kent County and the Grand Rapids-Kentwood, MI metro.
Rockford home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Rockford$457,626
- 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 3 Rockford listings, and the typical home goes pending in 12 days — the market is cooling.
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.
- Rockford37.04%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Rockford12
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Rockford133
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Rockford57
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Rockford$404,482
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Rockford99.83%
Zip codes with a Rockford address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Rockford — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.