Wellston, Michigan.
Typical home $173,064 (+8.9% in a year). Cadillac, MI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$508 (+127%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,189 +9%
- $158,874$173,064 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $22,528 +15%
- $150,536$173,064 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.
- Wellston$908
- Michigan$1,384
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 25 years.
Typical home values in Wellston, MI rose 8.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wellston, Manistee County, Michigan
Wellston, in Manistee County, had 254 people in the 2020 census. 89% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 11% are rented. Unemployment in Manistee County was 5.0% in August 2026, and the county had 2.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Manistee County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Wellston is a very small community in Manistee County, and almost everyone who lives there owns their home. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree here than is typical across the country, and the winters are cold and long, with January the coldest month and a great deal of snow through the season. Summers are pleasantly warm, and rain and melted snow fall steadily across the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in manufacturing, shops, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Manistee County, some of the largest workplaces are Packaging Corporation of America, Munson Healthcare Manistee Hospital and Manistee Area Public Schools. The county has added jobs over the past year, and its unemployment rate has eased a little compared with a year earlier.
Things to do. Udell Lookout Tower is a tourist attraction a short drive away, and the Pine River is also a short drive from town. A longer drive brings you to Orchard Beach State Park, a protected area, and to the Ramsdell Theatre. With so much snow each winter, Caberfae Peaks Ski & Golf Resort, also a longer drive away, draws people who like to ski.
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- 3%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
What people in Manistee County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Manistee County had 7,448 jobs in 2025, 2.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 12°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 54°. About 120 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Wellston 1N weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Manistee County
- Packaging Corporation of America340
- Michigan Great Lakes Virtual AcademySchool district328FTE
- MeijerRetail232
- Martin MariettaSpecialty171
- Munson Healthcare Manistee HospitalGeneral hospital171FTE
- Manistee Area Public SchoolsSchool district149FTE
- Morton Salt, Inc ManisteeSeasoning salt manufacturing92
- Kaleva Norman Dickson School DistrictSchool district79FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,265 people in all across the county; Wellston has one of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively 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 Wellston’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 Manistee County and the Cadillac, MI metro.
Wellston home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wellston$173,064
- 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 Wellston 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.
- Wellston30.79%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Wellston20
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Wellston5
Zip codes with a Wellston address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wellston — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.