Romulus, Michigan.
Typical home $203,563 (+1.5% in a year), asking rent $1,325 . Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$581 (+119%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,096 +2%
- $200,467$203,563 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $39,003 +24%
- $164,561$203,563 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.
- Romulus$1,068
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Romulus, MI rose 1.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Owning the typical home in Romulus runs $238/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $624 in May 2025.
That is $1,562 a month against $1,325 rent: a $1,068 mortgage payment, plus $276 property tax and $218 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Romulus
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$1,562
- Renting$1,325
- Mortgage only$1,068
Property tax · $276/mo 1.63% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Wayne County, MI
Insurance & upkeep · $218/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Romulus, Wayne County, Michigan
Romulus is a city of 25,178 people in Wayne County. Half its households earn more than $69,151 a year and half less, against $60,539 across Wayne County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 70% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 30% are rented. Unemployment in Romulus was 7.0% in August 2026, and Wayne County had 0.6% fewer 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. Romulus is a city in Wayne County, in the Detroit area, and most homes there are lived in by their owners. Incomes run higher than across the county, though a share of residents still live below the poverty line. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers turn warm by July, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, in shops, and in transport, warehouses and utilities. Some of the largest workplaces in Romulus are Amazon, General Motors and Kroger Fulfillment Network. Unemployment is higher than a year ago, and across Wayne County there are slightly fewer jobs than the year before.
Things to do. The Automotive Hall of Fame and The Henry Ford, both museums, are a short drive away. For a longer outing, the Detroit Institute of Arts is a museum a longer drive away, and Comerica Park is a stadium, also a longer drive away. The Detroit River, farther along the same way, is a good place for a walk by the water.
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- 9,452households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Wayne County had 721,389 jobs in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 19°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 64°. About 45 inches of snow and 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Detroit Metro Airport weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Romulus
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage3,256
- The Paradies ShopsSouvenir shops2,829
- General MotorsGasoline engine parts, mechanical, automotive and truck, manufacturing861
- Kroger Fulfillment NetworkGeneral warehouse and storage601
- Unifi Aviation Services DTW DetroitSupport activities for air transportation519
- YanfengMotor vehicle interior systems manufacturing490
- Prospect Airport ServicesAirport baggage handling services447
- Detroit Thermal Systems LLC NAAir-conditioners, motor vehicle, manufacturing421
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 97 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 16,251 people in all. 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
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Romulus’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 Wayne County and the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI metro.
Romulus home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Romulus$203,563
- Michigan$263,760
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Romulus listings, and the typical home goes pending in 14 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.
- Romulus29.21%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Romulus14
- United States21
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Romulus58
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Romulus20
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Romulus$209,327
- United States$371,553
Zip codes with a Romulus address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Romulus — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.