When the typical Michigan home was built, Richard Nixon was president, US forces were withdrawing from Vietnam and \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d would become the year\u2019s highest-grossing film.<\/p>\n
While pop culture has changed dramatically since 1973, much of the state\u2019s housing stock has stayed the same.<\/p>\n
Roughly 60% of occupied Michigan homes \u2014 about 2.5 million units, owned or rented \u2014 were built in or before the 1970s, and the median home in the state is significantly older than the nation as a whole. Much of the aging housing stock is clustered around major cities like Detroit and Grand Rapids, though older homes exist in pockets all across the state.<\/p>\n
As officials try to address an ongoing housing crisis, the age of existing Michigan homes will be \u201ca huge problem\u201d to contend with in the coming years, said Dawn Crandall of the Home Builders Association of Michigan.<\/p>\n
With age comes issues, she noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo people want to walk in and then invest that kind of money to remodel a home?\u201d Crandall said. \u201cTo buy an older home is not necessarily cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aging water heaters, disintegrating shingles and cracking foundations \u2014 to say nothing of even older homes with asbestos tile, lead-based paint or knob-and-tube electrical wiring \u2014 can all be financial barriers to entry for first-time homebuyers, whose median age climbed to the highest it\u2019s ever been last year, 40, according to the National Association of Realtors<\/a>.<\/p>\n Michigan lawmakers have proposed bills to reform the state\u2019s zoning laws in a bid to spur more and faster home building. But the measures have not passed, meaning the state\u2019s next governor may inherit an ongoing debate.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Aging housing stock is a \u201creasonably serious\u201d issue that people \u201cshould probably have on their mind,\u201d said David Allen, who manages the Office of Market Research at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, or MSHDA. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important to make sure that those homes are still available for use,\u201d he added. \u201cA lot of them aren\u2019t anywhere near functionally obsolete.\u201d<\/p>\n The scope of the problem<\/p>\n There is no technical definition of \u201cold housing,\u201d but many experts consider a house old after 30 years \u2014 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<\/a> at 50 years. <\/p>\n By either measure, Michigan is old, with a median housing age of 53 years.<\/p>\n That\u2019s eight years older than the national median of 45 years, though Michigan is comparable to Midwest neighbors like Ohio and Illinois. National homebuilding statistics<\/a> indicate housing is youngest around the Sun Belt region and oldest in the northeastern part of the country.<\/p>\n Michigan offers tax credits to preserve historic homes<\/a> but many older homes don\u2019t qualify. The state also offers various first-time homebuyer and home-repair programs \u2014 including one aimed specifically at improving energy efficiency<\/a> by replacing old windows, furnaces and roofs.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Minnesota offers various home improvement loans<\/a> and forgives them for its lowest-income residents. Maryland\u2019s Housing Rehabilitation Program<\/a> offers grant funding, and Indiana helps local communities<\/a> establish their own home repair programs.<\/p>\n Experts say there\u2019s no single reason why Michigan\u2019s housing stock is older than the national median, but they note the state was disproportionately impacted by the Great Recession \u2014 due to its ties to the auto industry<\/a> \u2014 which caused homebuilding to effectively stall for years. <\/p>\n 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, which Crandall attributed to both the recession and an explosion of homebuilding in the South after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.<\/p>\n \u201cThat kinda was like our personal Katrina\u201d for the housing industry, Crandall said, noting that builders went south for work to rebuild in the aftermath of the storm \u201cand none of them came back\u201d due to Michigan\u2019s stagnant recession economy.<\/p>\n A recent report<\/a> from Harvard University\u2019s Joint Center for Housing Studies also highlighted a \u201cprolonged period of underbuilding during the Great Recession\u201d nationally, which meant that \u201cfar fewer new homes were added to the stock compared to previous decades.\u201d<\/p>\n That same report also found that one in four US homeowners lives in a home built before 1960 \u2014 and that many of those same homeowners are struggling to keep up<\/a> with maintenance and repair costs, relative to homeowners with houses built between 2010 and 2023.<\/p>\n Government in action <\/p>\n Michigan first implemented a statewide housing plan<\/a> 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<\/a>, according to the state housing development authority. <\/p>\n As part of that building effort, the authority and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer\u2019s administration have identified ways to speed up the process further. <\/p>\n Those include repealing certain building regulations<\/a> and adding a new state-level tax credit<\/a>. While a few regulation repeals<\/a> have been signed into law, as has the tax credit<\/a>, the broader zoning reform effort has stalled amid resistance<\/a> from some local governments.<\/p>\n Whoever wins Michigan\u2019s next gubernatorial election, James or Benson, they\u2019ll need to bring a \u201cpolitical will to work in a bipartisan fashion\u201d if they actually hope to address Michigan\u2019s housing shortage, Crandall said. <\/p>\n James, in a statement to Bridge, said the state\u2019s aging housing stock is proof that \u201cwe need to make it easier and more affordable to build new homes.\u201d At the federal level, James has also proposed legislation to reform what he called \u201c costly green building codes<\/a> \u201d overseen by the Department of Energy.<\/p>\n \u201cBy cutting unnecessary regulations and lowering the cost of construction, we can increase housing supply and begin replacing aging homes and infrastructure across our state,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n James also stressed the need to find a balance between \u201cthe need for workforce housing with property owners\u2019 rights to offer short-term rentals.\u201d<\/p>\n Benson, meanwhile, said she\u2019d focus on trying to lower the cost of housing, \u201cboth by making it easier and faster to build more homes and by investing in the homes we already have.\u201d<\/p>\n Investments, she added, would include streamlining permitting, modernizing aging water infrastructure \u201cto remove old and potentially dangerous pipes,\u201d and helping families with weatherization \u201cso that people can afford to stay in the homes they already have.\u201d <\/p>\n She didn\u2019t explicitly address the issue of aging housing, instead saying that housing costs have increased due to federal tariffs adding to the cost of lumber and building materials. <\/p>\n In March, Benson unveiled a housing affordability plan<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n