The median age of homes in Michigan has reached 53 years, eight years older than the national median of 45 years. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
Roughly 60% of occupied Michigan homes — about 2.5 million units, owned or rented — were built in or before the 1970s. 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.
According to Dawn Crandall of the Home Builders Association of Michigan, the age of existing homes will be "a huge problem" in addressing the housing crisis. "Do people want to walk in and then invest that kind of money to remodel a home? To buy an older home is not necessarily cheap," she said.
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 last year, 40, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Michigan lawmakers have proposed bills to reform the state's zoning laws to spur more and faster home building, but the measures have not passed, meaning the state's next governor may inherit an ongoing debate. Democrat Jocelyn Benson and Republican John James, who will face off in November's general election, 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.
David Allen, who manages the Office of Market Research at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), called aging housing stock a "reasonably serious" issue. "It's important to make sure that those homes are still available for use. A lot of them aren't anywhere near functionally obsolete," he added.
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 is old, with a median housing age of 53 years.
Michigan offers tax credits to preserve historic homes, but many older homes don't qualify. The state also offers various first-time homebuyer and home-repair programs — including one aimed specifically at improving energy efficiency by replacing old windows, furnaces and roofs.
Experts say there's no single reason why Michigan's housing stock is older than the national median, but they note 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, which Crandall attributed to both the recession and an explosion of homebuilding in the South after Hurricane Katrina.