A Look at the Data: Housing Types and Home Ownership Rates Across Oakland County pt 3:  Populations up to 9,999

(Kurt Metzger, Aug. 9, 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.

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).

I have chosen to look at the share of “single family, detached” (the typical single-family residence) housing units in each community.  The first article looked at communities with populations greater than 50,000 population, and communities between 20,000 and 49,999 population.  The second looked at communities with populations between 10,000 and 19,999.  This final article looks at the 26 communities with populations less than 10,000[1].

Twelve Oakland County communities – 6 cities, 1 township and 5 villages – have populations less than 4,000 as of July 1, 2021. (Figure 1) They range in population from a low of 916 in Clarkston city to a high of 3,462 in Oxford village.  Four communities – Franklin, Pleasant Ridge, Orchard Lake and Sylvan Lake – have shares of single-family housing exceeding 90 percent (actually 93.4 to 99.2 percent).  On the low end are Bingham Farms (52.4 percent) and Royal Oak township (58.9 percent).  Home ownership rates, which usually track well with single-family housing, range from a low of 27.8 percent in Royal Oak township to a high of 97.6 percent in Orchard Lake.

The structure-tenure relationship breaks down entirely on each end of the spectrum.  On the ‘overachieving’ end is Bingham Farms, where the ownership rate of 94.4 percent is 42 percentage points higher than single-unit structure share (large numbers of apartments/townhomes/condos for sale).  On the underachieving end is Royal Oak township (58.9 percent single unit and only 27.8 percent owners) where high foreclosure numbers (mortgage and tax-related…although recent County Treasurers have worked to eliminate tax foreclosures) resulted in absentee landlords who have turned these houses into rentals.

Eleven Oakland County communities – 4 cities, 4 townships and 3 villages – have populations between 4,000 and 9,999 as of July 1, 2021. (Figure 2) They range in population from a low of 4,048 in Lathrup Village city to a high of 7,240 in Walled Lake.  Four communities – Huntington Woods, Addison township, Rose township and Lathrup Village – have shares of single-family housing exceeding 90 percent (actually 92.9 to 99.8 percent).  On the low end are Walled Lake (32.5 percent) and Holly village (53.7 percent).  Home ownership rates, which usually track well with single-family housing, range from a low of 55.9 percent in Walled Lake to a high of 96.1 percent in Huntington Woods.  Joining Huntington Woods with ownership rates above 90 percent are Addison township, Lathrup Village city and Rose township.  In addition, Bloomfield Hills and Groveland township came in at 89 percent.

While the home ownership/single family structure relationship held for the majority of communities in this group, four communities had ownership rates more than 10 percentage points higher than their single-family share.  Leading the differential was Walled Lake (23.4 percentage point difference), followed by Holly township, Bloomfield Hills and Holly village.

[1] Due to chart space issues, three communities with populations under 500 (Novi township at 161; Lake Angelus at 287; and Leonard village at 357) are not included in the chart.  All three had shares of single-family detached units and ownership rates between 90 and 100 percent.

For more stories about the Census and other interesting numbers, visit the Data-Base Stories Archives on Oakland County Times. Thanks to Data Expert Kurt Metzger for this work!

Check out the previous stories in this series: