A Look at the Data: Housing Types and Home Ownership Rates Across Oakland County pt 1
(Kurt Metzger, June 29, 2022)
Oakland County, MI – Housing is an essential element of community development. It impacts residents and governments, property values, local revenues, public services, and community stability.
According to Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), “A region’s housing market is one of the main indicators of economic stability and, therefore, the condition, quality, and availability of diverse housing types create stronger markets and desirable communities.
“Housing is the single largest land use, comprising 45 percent of the land in Southeast Michigan’s seven counties. Since the vast majority of this housing is immobile (fixed in a specific geographic location), durable (most of our housing stock, when maintained at a decent level, can last 100 years or more), and expensive (by and large the greatest expense for a family), it must be a community and a region’s priority to ensure that this housing stock is well maintained, as well as located and constructed to meet the needs of its residents.”
An examination of housing types, by community, in Oakland County illustrates the wide range of structure types available, while a look at tenure (owner vs renter occupancy) illustrates the concept of housing “permanence” (owner) vs. “transiency” (renter). Recently released US Census data gives us the numbers based on the 2020 five year estimates.
I have chosen to look at the share of “single family, detached” (the typical single-family residence) housing units in each community. In an effort to compare apples to apples, I have grouped communities by population size. In this article I look at two groupings: communities with populations greater than 50,000 population, and communities between 20,000 and 49,999 population.
Overall, the three counties in southeast Michigan are quite similar in their single-family shares – Macomb and Oakland at 68.4 percent and Wayne at 69.8 percent.
Nine Oakland County communities – 7 cities and 2 townships – have populations above 50,000 as of July 1, 2021. (Figure 1) They range in population from a low of 57,953 in Royal Oak to a high of 86,836 in Troy. The two townships – Waterford and West Bloomfield – have the highest shares of single-family housing – 74.4 and 74.1 percent, respectively. On the low end are Southfield (49.6 percent) and Novi (49.9 percent).
Home ownership rates, which usually track well with single-family housing, ranges from a low of 43.4 percent in Pontiac to a high of 87.1 percent in West Bloomfield Township. Several communities don’t follow the close relationship of structure and ownership. On one end we have Novi and Rochester Hills with ownership rates exceeding single-family rates by 16.6 and 10.7 percent, respectively. The best explanation for this relationship is the existence of multi-unit structures that contain for sale condos. On the other end is Pontiac, where the ownership rate trails the single-family rate by 17.7 percent (43.4 vs. 61.1 percent). This relationship is found in low-income communities where foreclosures have resulted in absentee landlords buying up housing stock and turning it into rental units.
Eleven communities – 4 cities and 7 townships – fall within the 20,000 – 49,999 population range. (Figure 2)
While ten of these communities have single-family shares of 70 percent or more, Oakland township being highest at 87.8 percent, there is one major outlier – Auburn Hills with just 38.1 percent.
Ownership rates range from a low of 45.7 percent in Auburn Hills, to a high of 96.0 percent in Oakland township.
There are 3 outliers in terms of structure – ownership rates. On the high end we have Commerce and Bloomfield townships with ownership rates 12.7 and 10.0 percent higher, respectively. On the other end, mirroring the Pontiac example are Oak Park (16.7 percent lower) and, to a lesser degree, Madison Heights (9.0 percent lower).
Our next article will look at communities between 10,000 and 19,999, of which there are 14, and those less than 10,000 population, of which there are 26.
