A Quick Brief on the Housing Recovery in Michigan

Housing prices in Michigan have recovered from the Great Recession. The price of the average home sale in Michigan in the first six months of 2016 was $147,323. This is the highest since 2006, and approaching record levels.

Other state housing value indicators are up as well. The federal Housing Finance Authority’s house price index says that Michigan’s values increased 33.6 percent from the first quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2016. That’s the seventh-highest increase among the states.

The growth of housing values is a good thing for homeowners and landlords. But it also is driving a recovery in home and apartment construction. In June of this year, there were 2,853 units issued permits, a level not seen in a decade. This is especially encouraging since it had dropped to very low levels during the recession and stayed there for years.

So far this year, 290 structures with five or more units were issued permits. At the trough of the recession, there were only 22 of these structures that received permits.

The recovery of the housing market in Michigan is another sign of broad-based economic growth.