Michigan’s Aging Housing Stock Poses ‘Huge Problem’

When the typical Michigan home was built, Richard Nixon was president, US forces were withdrawing from Vietnam, and “The Exorcist” was the year’s highest-grossing film. While pop culture has changed dramatically since 1973, much of the state’s housing stock has stayed the same.

Roughly 60% of occupied Michigan homes — about 2.5 million units, owned or rented — were built in or before the 1970s, according to Bridge Michigan. The median home in the state is significantly older than the nation as a whole, with much of the aging housing stock clustered around major cities like Detroit and Grand Rapids, though older homes exist in pockets across the state.

As officials try to address an ongoing housing crisis, the age of existing Michigan homes will be “a huge problem” to contend with in the coming years, said Dawn Crandall of the Home Builders Association of Michigan.

“Do people want to walk in and then invest that kind of money to remodel a home?” Crandall said. “To buy an older home is not necessarily cheap.”

The Scope of the Problem

There is no technical definition of “old housing,” but many experts consider a house old after 30 years — the typical time it would take for a homeowner to need a new roof or other major repairs. The National Register of Historic Places sets the bar at 50 years. By either measure, Michigan qualifies as old, with a median housing age of 53 years — eight years older than the national median of 45 years.

National homebuilding statistics indicate housing is youngest around the Sun Belt region and oldest in the northeastern part of the country, with Michigan comparable to Midwest neighbors like Ohio and Illinois.

Aging water heaters, disintegrating shingles, and cracking foundations — to say nothing of even older homes with asbestos tile, lead-based paint, or knob-and-tube electrical wiring — can all be financial barriers to entry for first-time homebuyers, whose median age climbed to the highest it’s ever been: 40, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Aging housing stock is a “reasonably serious” issue that people “should probably have on their mind,” said David Allen, who manages the Office of Market Research at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA).

“It’s important to make sure that those homes are still available for use,” he added. “A lot of them aren’t anywhere near functionally obsolete.”

The Great Recession’s Lasting Impact

Experts say there’s no single reason why Michigan’s housing stock is older than the national median, but the state was disproportionately impacted by the Great Recession due to its ties to the auto industry, which caused homebuilding to effectively stall for years.

Data from the Home Builders Association of Michigan show developers secured permits to construct 54,000 single-family homes in 2005. By 2009, that number had dropped to just 6,900 — a decline Crandall attributed to both the recession and an explosion of homebuilding in the South after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“That kinda was like our personal Katrina” for the housing industry, Crandall said, noting that builders went south for work to rebuild in the aftermath of the storm “and none of them came back” due to Michigan’s stagnant recession economy.

Government in Action

Michigan first implemented a statewide housing plan in 2022 to address an ongoing shortage. At the time, officials estimated Michigan was short around 190,000 housing units to meet demand. Today that number sits closer to 97,000 homes, according to the state housing development authority.

As part of that building effort, the authority and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration have identified ways to speed up the process further, including repealing certain building regulations and adding a new state-level tax credit. While a few regulation repeals have been signed into law, as has the tax credit, the broader zoning reform effort has stalled amid resistance from some local governments.

The proposed zoning reform package would ban minimum lot sizes of more than 1,500 square feet for detached single-family homes, allow duplexes in any district where single-family residences are permitted, and bar zoning ordinances from excluding mobile homes in residential zones, among other measures. Local government groups remain strongly opposed, arguing the legislation would impose a “one-size-fits-all” mandate on communities across the state.

Michigan lawmakers have proposed bills to reform the state’s zoning laws in a bid to spur more and faster home building. But the measures have not passed, meaning the state’s next governor may inherit an ongoing debate.

The 2026 Gubernatorial Election Context

Democrat Jocelyn Benson and Republican John James both say they have ideas on how to make housing more affordable, though neither has laid out specific plans to address challenges that come with old homes.

James, in a statement to Bridge, said the state’s aging housing stock is proof that “we need to make it easier and more affordable to build new homes.” At the federal level, James has proposed legislation to reform what he called “costly green building codes” overseen by the Department of Energy, according to his congressional office.

“By cutting unnecessary regulations and lowering the cost of construction, we can increase housing supply and begin replacing aging homes and infrastructure across our state,” he said.

Benson, meanwhile, said she’d focus on trying to lower the cost of housing, “both by making it easier and faster to build more homes and by investing in the homes we already have.” In March, Benson unveiled a housing affordability plan that proposes tax breaks for down payments, a new tax on short-term rentals like Airbnbs, and a plan to block big investment firms from buying up Michigan homes.

Whoever wins Michigan’s next gubernatorial election will need to bring a “political will to work in a bipartisan fashion” if they actually hope to address Michigan’s housing shortage, Crandall said.

What’s Next

Michigan’s aging housing stock intersects with broader affordability challenges. The state’s median household income of $72,875 a year is less than the national average of $83,730, while home prices climbed 4.2% over the past year to a median price of $263,590.

With zoning reform stalled in the Legislature and both gubernatorial candidates offering different visions for addressing the housing crisis, the state’s next governor will face significant pressure to act. The debate over how to balance local control with the need for more housing — and how to address the financial burden of maintaining decades-old homes — will likely define Michigan’s housing policy for years to come.

As AP News reported through its partnership with Bridge Michigan, the story highlights a challenge facing not just Michigan but much of the industrial Midwest: how to modernize an aging housing stock while making homeownership attainable for the next generation.