Michigan by the numbers
In Michigan, the median worker earns $48,300 a year, the typical home is worth $217,600 and carries $2,795 of property tax, and the average household pays $131 a month for electricity at 22.01¢ per kilowatt-hour.
Midwest MISO Retail choice limited
Energy
Michigan's wholesale energy costs are unremarkable for MISO. Its rate is high for the region because of what it costs to deliver.
The state has an old distribution network covering a very large area, much of it heavily wooded, and it has some of the worst reliability statistics in the country: long outages and frequent interruptions. The regulator has responded by approving substantial capital spending on tree trimming, pole replacement and circuit automation. That spending recovers through rates, so the reliability problem and the rate problem are two views of the same thing.
Michigan is also mid-transition. Both large utilities have committed to retiring coal earlier than originally planned and replacing it with wind, solar and storage. The retired plants still carry undepreciated book value that regulators generally allow utilities to recover, so ratepayers can end up paying for a closed plant and its replacement at the same time.
Averaged across the twelve months to May 2026, Michigan households used 635 kilowatt-hours a month and paid $131. At the state median wage that is about 5.6 hours of work a month to keep the lights on. For heating, gas is still cheaper to run than a heat pump here, by about $9.97 per million BTU.
Work and pay
The median Michigan worker earned $48,300 in 2024, 2.4% below the national median. What distinguishes a state's labour market is rarely its biggest occupations, which are retail and food service everywhere, but what it has disproportionately.
| Occupation | Concentration | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Tool and Die Makers | 5.86× | $64,030 |
| Statistical Assistants | 5.52× | $48,210 |
| Mechanical Engineering Technologists and Technicians | 5.13× | $63,130 |
| Engine and Other Machine Assemblers | 4.85× | $50,040 |
| Foundry Mold and Coremakers | 4.68× | $44,520 |
Property tax
The median Michigan homeowner pays $2,795 a year on a home worth $217,600, an effective rate of 1.28% against a national 0.98%. Nobody sets that rate. It is what falls out of county, city, school district and special district levies applied to an assessed value, so the state figure is a weighted average of 82 counties rather than a posted number.
Cost of living
Prices in Michigan run at 96.2 where the national average is 100, ranking it #28 of 51. Goods sit at 96.0, which is close to national almost everywhere because most goods are shipped and priced nationally. Rents sit at 82.3, and that is where states actually separate from one another. A median wage of $48,300 therefore buys what $50,208 buys nationally.
Metro areas priced separately: Ann Arbor (100.9) , Detroit-Warren-Dearborn (100.3) , Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood (95.5) , Lansing-East Lansing (95.0) , Kalamazoo-Portage (94.8) .
Housing
House prices in Michigan rose 3.7% over the year to 2026 Q2, against a median across all states of +2.7%. Over ten years the index is +109.7%. Prices are at or near their record level.
Metro areas tracked here: Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood (+3.1%) .
Who supplies the power
28 utilities report residential service in Michigan, together serving 4.4 million customers. Retail choice limited.
Michigan: common questions
What does it cost to live in Michigan?
Prices overall run at 96.2 against a national average of 100, with rents at 82.3. The typical home is worth $217,600 and carries $2,795 a year in property tax, an effective rate of 1.28% against a national 0.98%. Electricity averages $131 a month at 22.01¢ per kilowatt-hour. Against that, the median wage is $48,300.
What is the property tax rate in Michigan?
The effective rate is 1.28% of home value, from a median bill of $2,795. It is set locally rather than by the state, so the figure is a weighted outcome across 82 counties. County by county rates.
Does a salary go further in Michigan?
The median wage of $48,300 buys what $50,208 buys nationally, once local prices are taken out. A state paying above the national median while charging above it for housing can leave a household no better off, and this is the arithmetic that shows which side of that line Michigan falls on.
Is Michigan expensive for electricity?
It ranks #14 of 51 jurisdictions on price at 22.01¢ per kilowatt-hour, +19.4% against the U.S. average. On the actual bill it ranks 37 of 51, because households there use 635 kWh a month against a national 871.
What is the median salary in Michigan?
$48,300 across all occupations, about $23.22 an hour, covering 4,390,620 wage and salary workers as of 2024.
Who supplies electricity in Michigan?
28 utilities report residential service, the largest being DTE Electric Company with 2.1 million customers. Retail choice limited.
Electricity May 2026, gas 2024, utilities 2024, wages 2024. All figures from federal statistical agencies. Methodology · Sources