Top Michigan Cities
Adrian | Ann Arbor | Bay City | Big Rapids | Cadillac | Crystal Falls | Dearborn | Detroit | Grand Rapids | Kalamazoo | Lansing | Pontiac | Port Huron

2006 Housing Trends

Job losses across many of the state’s higher paying sectors coupled with relatively slow population growth in the 25- to 64-year age group contributed to a decline in household income during the past five years.

During 2004, Michigan’s median household income dipped below the national level for the first time since 1990. Since 1999, median income in the state has declined 8.2 percent, compared with a 9.1 percent increase for the nation.

A negative effect on the real estate market will be the rate of personal bankruptcy filings and mortgage foreclosures that continued to increase.

Fourth quarter 2005 annualized personal bankruptcy filings per 1,000 people totaled 11.4 for the state compared with 8.8 for the nation. The state’s mortgage foreclosure rate reached 2.5 percent during 2005, compared to 1.6 percent for the nation.

Michigan Economy

Manufacturing accounts for 30% of Michigan's economic production, more than twice as much as any other sector. The manufacture of automobiles and transportation equipment is by far the state's chief industry, and Detroit, Dearborn, Flint, Pontiac, and Lansing are historic centers of automobile production, although the industry is now in dramatic decline throughout the state. The automobile industry's mass-production methods, developed here, were the core of the early-20th-century industrial revolution.

Other Michigan manufactures include nonelectrical machinery, fabricated metal products, primary metals, chemicals, and food products. Among Michigan's most important industrial centers are Saginaw, Bay City, Muskegon, and Jackson. The chemical industry in Midland is one of the nation's largest; Kalamazoo is an important paper-manufacturing and pharmaceuticals center; Grand Rapids is noted for its furniture, and Battle Creek for its breakfast foods.

Although mining contributes less to income in the state than either agriculture or manufacturing, Michigan still has important nonfuel mineral production, chiefly of iron ore, cement, sand, and gravel, and is a leading producer of peat, bromine, calcium-magnesium chloride, gypsum, and magnesium compounds.

Abundant natural beauty and excellent fishing help to make tourism a major Michigan industry. Michigan's historic lack of manufacturing diversity has made it particularly susceptible to the fluctuations of the national economy, and in recent years it has tried to diversify, attracting high-technology industry and developing the service sector.

Top Michigan Attractions
Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Dearborn
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
Motown Historical Museum, Detroit
Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History, Detroit
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Detroit Historical Museum, Detroit
Fair Lane, Dearborn
Mackinac Bridge, Cross Village
Fort Mackinac, Mackinac Island
Automotive Hall of Fame, Dearborn