Grand Traverse County, MI
County Profile
96,166 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Grand Traverse County, MI.
Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.
How this area ranks
Data updated · 13 sourcesUnemployment is 3.5% and median household income $81,647, putting employment conditions in the middle range of counties measured.
In the public schools here, 48% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 17.7 students for every teacher.
Residential permitting has slowed: 588 units authorized over the past twelve months, 34% below the prior year.
These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 3.5%, lower than in 74% of the 1,467 measured US counties.
Employment fell 6.7% over the past year, to 51,528 employed residents.
41% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 92% of measured US counties.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income of new arrivalsfiling years 2022–2023 | $92,255 | 90th percentileof 1,417 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Income of those who leftfiling years 2022–2023 | $64,821 | 67th percentileof 1,417 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Median household income ±$3,0082024 ACS 5-Year | $81,647 | Top 16%of 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$1,4352024 ACS 5-Year | $45,034 | Top 13%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per-capita personal income2023 | $68,103 | Top 20%of 1,389 | 2023 |
| Poverty rate ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 9.6% | Top 25%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute ±0.6 min2024 ACS 5-Year | 22.0 min | Top 25%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 40.6% | Top 8%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Drove alone to work ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 70.7% | 16th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| EmploymentJuly 2026 | 51,528 | Top 38%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years)July 2026 | −5.1% | Bottom 6%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year)July 2026 | −6.7% | Bottom 1%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Labor forceJuly 2026 | 53,423 | 62nd percentileof 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Labor force participation ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 82.0% | Top 18%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Public transit to work ±0.2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.5% | 71st percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year)July 2026 | −0.5% | Top 27%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Unemployment rateJuly 2026 | 3.5% | Top 26%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Worked from home ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 15.2% | 87th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Unemployment rate
Median household income, successive ACS releases
Largest occupations — Traverse City, MI
| Occupation | People employed | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Retail Salespersons | 2,390 | $34,540 |
| Registered Nurses | 2,020 | $83,690 |
| Cashiers | 1,850 | $30,920 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 1,730 | $28,560 |
| Office Clerks, General | 1,650 | $44,470 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | 1,610 | $41,380 |
Searches the 40 largest occupations here that have a published wage.
Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
48% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 62% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 17.7 students for every full-time teacher across 27 public schools, more than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Senior High | Traverse City Area Public Schools | 1,384 | 24.7 | 54% | 67% |
| Central High School | Traverse City Area Public Schools | 1,326 | 23.7 | 51% | 71% |
| West Middle School | Traverse City Area Public Schools | 1,081 | 20.8 | 43% | 64% |
| East Middle School | Traverse City Area Public Schools | 829 | 20.2 | 49% | 62% |
| Grand Traverse Academy · charter | Grand Traverse Academy | 824 | 15.3 | 51% | 61% |
| Kingsley Area Elementary School | Kingsley Area Schools | 655 | 18.2 | 57% | 64% |
| Central Grade School | Traverse City Area Public Schools | 510 | 17.6 | 50% | 60% |
| Eastern Elementary School | Traverse City Area Public Schools | 475 | 19.0 | 57% | 72% |
| Willow Hill Elementary School | Traverse City Area Public Schools | 429 | 18.7 | 70% | 75% |
| Kingsley Area High School | Kingsley Area Schools | 401 | 16.0 | 47% | 57% |
| Kingsley Area Middle School | Kingsley Area Schools | 366 | 16.6 | 48% | 68% |
| Westwoods Elementary School | Traverse City Area Public Schools | 365 | 18.3 | 58% | 67% |
31.6% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with, not how the schools perform, so it is shown and not scored.
Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data, placed by ZIP code — which schools are in this place, not which one a particular address is zoned for. A dash in a proficiency column is a gap in the federal file, not a bad result. Proficiency is measured against Michigan’s own standard, so it is ranked within state. How to read school figures.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated — housing affordability →Prices for everything a household buys run about 9% below the national average — the Bureau of Economic Analysis index reads 90.6, against 100 for the nation. Nationally, housing drives most of the spread between places in this index; other goods vary far less.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index for the Traverse City, MI Metro Area is up 60% over five years, and up 3.3% over the last year. It follows repeat sales of the same homes, so it measures price change rather than which homes happened to sell.
Homeowners here who pay a tax bill pay a median of $3,010 a year in real estate taxes, about 0.89% of the median home value.
HUD’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom, set near the 40th percentile of recent new leases, is $1,357, close to the $1,288 tenants already here pay.
At HUD’s Fair Market Rent of $1,357 a month for a two-bedroom, keeping rent to 30% of income takes a household income of about $54,300 a year, about 67% of the median household income here of $81,647.
The typical renter household here spends 30% of its income on rent, at the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened. Median gross rent runs $1,288 a month.
A median home at $339,400 costs 3.7 times the median income of its owner-occupied households, $92,691, above the historic benchmark of about 3 times income.
Prices here run about 9% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.
Published for the Traverse City, MI Metro Area as a whole. Prices are regional — people shop, commute and rent across a metropolitan area rather than within a city boundary — so this describes the cost of living around this place better than a figure drawn to its own limits would.
The figures above are measured against Grand Traverse County’s median household income of $81,647, which describes the place rather than you. Enter your own and the ratio is recomputed against it. It stays in this browser.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost of living indexthe Traverse City, MI Metro Area’s figure2023 | 90.6 | Top 23%of 887 | 2023 |
| Home price change (1 year)the Traverse City, MI Metro Area’s figure2026 Q2 | +3.3% | 42nd percentileof 1,431 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (5 years)the Traverse City, MI Metro Area’s figure2026 Q2 | +59.5% | 96th percentileof 1,431 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (10 years)the Traverse City, MI Metro Area’s figure2026 Q2 | +130.9% | 97th percentileof 1,431 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price to income ±0.22024 ACS 5-Year | 3.7 | Bottom 15%of 3,217 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 77.2% | 65th percentileof 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±842024 ACS 5-Year | 47,003 | 82nd percentileof 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Market rent, one bedroomFY2026 | $1,143 | Bottom 31%of 1,423 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, three bedroomFY2026 | $1,747 | Bottom 33%of 1,423 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, two bedroomFY2026 | $1,357 | Bottom 32%of 1,423 | FY2026 |
| Median gross rent ±$652024 ACS 5-Year | $1,288 | Bottom 13%of 3,215 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$8,6512024 ACS 5-Year | $339,400 | 86th percentileof 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median property taxes ±$1122024 ACS 5-Year | $3,010 | 85th percentileof 3,172 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Owner household income ±$3,3572024 ACS 5-Year | $92,691 | Top 20%of 3,218 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Property tax rate ±0.04%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.89% | 57th percentileof 3,126 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 30.1% | Bottom 27%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Seasonal and second homes ±5062024 ACS 5-Year | 4,129 | 92nd percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Second homes2024 ACS 5-Year | 8.8% | 78th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate2024 ACS 5-Year | 5.5% | 21st percentileof 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacant housing units ±6322024 ACS 5-Year | 6,716 | 85th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
These measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with. They compare housing cost with local earnings only: transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not in them. How to read affordability, the two rent figures and the cost-of-living index.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated — growth →Development Momentum
An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.
Population has grown 1% since 2020, reaching 96,625 in 2024.
Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before: 526 units authorized in 2025, 40% below the prior year.
New construction is predominantly single-family: of 588 units permitted over the past twelve months, only 16% are in buildings of five or more homes.
Federal tax returns show Grand Traverse County gained about 0.4% of its residents through moves within the US in the most recent year, counting those who arrived against those who left. Households that moved in reported an average income of $92,255, above the $64,821 of households that moved out.
At 6.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US counties.
Population, annual estimates
People moving in and out
Where newcomers came from
- Leelanau County, MI 425 people · 8.9% of arrivals
- Benzie County, MI 235 people · 4.9% of arrivals
- Oakland County, MI 210 people · 4.4% of arrivals
- Wexford County, MI 205 people · 4.3% of arrivals
- Kalkaska County, MI 193 people · 4.1% of arrivals
Where people who left went
- Leelanau County, MI 386 people · 8.8% of departures
- Benzie County, MI 337 people · 7.6% of departures
- Kalkaska County, MI 304 people · 6.9% of departures
- Wexford County, MI 299 people · 6.8% of departures
- Kent County, MI 200 people · 4.5% of departures
Based on the address on federal tax returns, compared with the same filers a year earlier. It counts people who file, and sees a move only when the address on a return changes. Domestic moves only: people arriving from abroad are left out. IRS Statistics of Income, filing years 2022–2023.
Housing units permitted per year
Weather & climate
5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 81°F and January a low of 17°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 29.1 inches.
Precipitation
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation1991-2020 Normals | 29.1" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low1991-2020 Normals | 17°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high1991-2020 Normals | 81°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months1991-2020 Normals | 5 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing1991-2020 Normals | 47°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. How to read climate and air quality.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are cold wave, inland flooding and winter weather, with cold wave alone responsible for 51% of it. Inland flooding and winter weather are independently rated low or minimal nationally, so this describes how the loss is composed, not how large those hazards are.
Overall hazard risk is lower than 99% of measured US counties.
Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, landslide, lightning, inland flooding, hail, tornado, heat wave, coastal flooding, wildfire, hurricane, earthquake, ice storm, drought, tsunami, avalanche, volcanic activity.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). These are FEMA’s own figures for this county rather than a value derived from surrounding geographies. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
These are deaths, not offenses — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.
Grand Traverse County has a modeled homicide rate of about 3.0 per 100,000 residents a year, because the CDC suppresses counts this small, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.
Firearm deaths of all intents run at about 11.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, since the figure counts suicides and accidents as well as homicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 14.5 per 100,000 residents in Grand Traverse County.
Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides, so the firearm figure and the homicide figure above it count some of the same deaths twice over. They overlap and should not be added together.
Death rates are crude rates — deaths divided by population, not adjusted for age — except where a count was too small for the CDC to publish and it modeled the rate, which the card marks. They come from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC by county and not below it. So they describe Grand Traverse County as a whole. They are shown and not scored. How to read death rates.
What this profile does not cover
Each of these is absent for a reason, not by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them; the weighting is on the methodology page.
- Reported crime
- Offenses reported to police are published by department rather than by town, so AreaProfile shows a rate only on city profiles, and only where that city’s department submitted every month of a year. City profiles inside this area carry their own figure where their department reported a full year. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
- Air quality
- The EPA publishes an air-quality index only where a monitor sits. There is none in this county, and a modeled value would be a different kind of number from the measured ones everywhere else on this page.
- Taxes
- Income and sales taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Property taxes are shown in the housing section but are not part of the score. The cost-of-living index above is a price level for all consumption, not a household budget, and it excludes taxes. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house.
Access
No airport meeting the AreaProfile major-airport definition lies within 100 miles; the nearest is 101 miles away.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadband access ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 91.9% | Top 14%of 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Distance to major airportNASR current cycle | 101 mi | Bottom 3%of 1,463 | NASR current cycle |
| Major airports within 100 milesNASR current cycle | 0 | Bottom 1%of 1,463 | NASR current cycle |
| No internet access ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 5.8% | Top 15%of 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpena County Rgnl | APN | 101 mi | 9,001 ft |
| Oscoda/Wurtsmith | OSC | 108 mi | 11,801 ft |
| Mbs Intl | MBS | 110 mi | 8,002 ft |
Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.
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Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyData & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) |
| Demographics, Income | Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division U.S. Population Migration Data (county to county) | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Housing, Income | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional price parities and county personal income | 2023 |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | July 2026 |
| Access, Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate |
| Safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | March 2025 to February 2026; May 2025 to April 2026 |
| Schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2018-19 school year; 2024-25 school year |
| Housing | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research Fair Market Rents | FY2026 |
| Housing | U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (traditional, all-transactions) | 2026 Q2 |
| Current conditions | NOAA National Weather Service National Weather Service current conditions | Live observation, read when the page opens |
Profile recalculated October 8, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology, or every source with how often each updates.
Cities in Grand Traverse County, MI
ZIP areas
Only ZIP areas whose income or home value differ from their city’s by at least ten percent get a profile of their own, so this is a selection rather than every ZIP code in the county.