Counties / Michigan / Lapeer County

Lapeer County, MI

FIPS 26087 · population 88,837 · part of Detroit, MI

$300k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$300k
▲ 4.6% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$1,355
n/a year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
5.4%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,411
market rent is 0.96x the standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+49.0%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+4.6%FHFA HPI2025+5.6%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$239k
Surveyed gross rent$988
Rent burden 30%+51.4%
Median year built1978
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
6.2%vacant
37,147estimated housing units
Occupied tenure14.0% renter
owner 86.0%renter 14.0%
Structure mix83.8% single-family
Single-family 83.8%20+ units 1.2%Mobile home 7.3%Other 7.8%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs22,229▲ 1.1% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments1,778annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,028▲ 3.2% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorManufacturing24.7% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+1.1%WEEKLY WAGE+3.2%Manufacturing24.7%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Lapeer County presents a tension between appreciation signals and a published gross yield, while carrying costs and resale liquidity need scrutiny. Rental investors who can verify a property’s operating costs and flood exposure should investigate; buyers dependent on a quick resale should be cautious. Zillow’s 2026-06 county median home value was $300,333, up 4.61% year over year; the annual 2025 FHFA repeat-transaction HPI rose 5.61%. FHFA HPI is not a home value, and its separate vintage and method cannot be averaged with Zillow’s change.

02Housing economics

In that Zillow observation, the $1,355 monthly median asking rent supports the reported 5.41% gross yield before costs. The $1,411 two-bedroom HUD Fair Market Rent is a payment standard, not an estimate of county asking rent, so it cannot substitute for market rent in yield work. An effective property-tax rate of 0.92% is a material carrying cost; vacancy, insurance, utilities, maintenance, and financing data are not published, preventing net-yield calculation.

03Demand & competition

Realtor.com’s 2026-06 MLS listing evidence shows fewer active listings, but median marketing time was 42 days and 19.84% of listings had price reductions. Reduced visible supply alongside longer marketing and concessions makes seller conditions mixed, not proof of buyer demand or a closed-sale price. More tax-return households moved out than in, although incoming movers reported higher average AGI; that composition does not establish renter demand. The investor measure is based on non-occupant purchase mortgages; it records 16 of 897 total purchases, a 1.78% investor share, indicating limited measured non-owner mortgage competition. QCEW describes annual covered employment at county workplaces and identifies Manufacturing as the largest disclosed private supersector; it is neither resident employment nor an unemployment series.

04Risk & next checks

Inland flood is the designated dominant hazard, and the modeled annual building-value loss ratio is 0.10%; it is a county-level model, not a parcel loss estimate. Flood-zone status, elevation, prior claims, insurance terms, and drainage are not published, preventing property-specific hazard and carrying-cost underwriting. Unit mix, vacancy, concessions, operating expenses, sales comparables, and all-cash buyer activity are also not published; their absence prevents a net-income conclusion and a verified resale-liquidity conclusion.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Lapeer County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Lapeer city9.1KImlay City city3.7KAlmont village2.8KDryden village1.2KNorth Branch village1.2KBrown City city*1.1KBarnes Lake CDP952Columbiaville village754
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

13 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Lapeer cityIncorporated place
    9,082
  2. 02
    Imlay City cityIncorporated place
    3,721
  3. 03
    Almont villageIncorporated place
    2,838
  4. 04
    Dryden villageIncorporated place
    1,182
  5. 05
    North Branch villageIncorporated place
    1,166
  6. 06
    Brown City cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    1,139
  7. 07
    Barnes Lake CDPCensus-designated place
    952
  8. 08
    Columbiaville villageIncorporated place
    754
  9. 09
    Metamora villageIncorporated place
    693
  10. 10
    Attica CDPCensus-designated place
    627
  11. 11
    Millers Lake CDPCensus-designated place
    554
  12. 12
    Otter Lake villageIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    379
Show 1 more places
  1. 13
    Clifford villageIncorporated place
    277

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.096% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.92%

$2,202 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-8

2,280 in · 2,288 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$9,120

$62,696 arriving · $53,576 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors1.8%

16 of 897 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings172▼ 21.1% year over year
Median days on market42▲ 27.7% year over year
Listings price-reduced19.8%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▲ 2.0% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

Same metro

The other counties in Detroit, MI

A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.

CountyPopulationPriceRentYieldHazard
Lapeer County88,837$300k$1,3555.4%inland flooding
Wayne County1,772,259$181k$1,4239.4%inland flooding
Oakland County1,279,825$376k$1,7335.5%inland flooding
Macomb County879,853$275k$1,4126.2%inland flooding
Livingston County195,833$407k$2,0326.0%inland flooding
St. Clair County160,221$264k$1,0544.8%inland flooding
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Property-level flood exposure, insurance terms, and prior claims could materially differ from the county model.
  2. Unpublished vacancy and operating expenses could reduce or eliminate the reported gross-yield advantage.
  3. MLS listing conditions may not translate into closed-sale liquidity or pricing for the target property.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can net rental income be underwritten from this record?

No. The record publishes market asking rent and gross yield, but not vacancy, operating expenses, insurance, utilities, maintenance, or financing costs.

Is HUD Fair Market Rent a substitute for county asking rent?

No. The record identifies HUD Fair Market Rent as a two-bedroom payment standard, while the published rent measure is county median asking rent.

What is the county's designated dominant hazard?

Inland flood; the record also supplies a county-level modeled annual building-value loss ratio.