Benefits of investing in emerging real estate markets, and the risk of being early

Written by Samantha SheltonNMLS 1647301Updated October 2026

This article is educational information about real estate markets, not investment, legal or tax advice. Align Lending is a Michigan mortgage broker, not a registered investment adviser, a broker-dealer or a financial planner, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any property or security. Talk to a licensed financial advisor about suitability, a CPA about tax treatment, and a Michigan real estate attorney about title and contracts.

An emerging real estate market, in the domestic sense that matters to most U.S. investors, is a smaller or secondary metro, county or neighborhood early in a growth cycle (employers adding payrolls, builders pulling permits, households forming) before pricing has caught up. The opportunity is measurable: in the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s House Price Index report for the second quarter of 2026, released August 25, 2026, annual appreciation across the 100 largest metro areas ran from a 7.7% gain in Elgin, Illinois to a 3.7% decline in Everett, Washington, an 11.4-percentage-point spread in one year, while the national index rose 2.1%.

That spread is the whole case for emerging submarkets, and the whole risk. Being right puts you near the top of the range; being early, or wrong, puts you near the bottom in a market where selling takes longer.

Learn how to identify an emerging submarket from economic and infrastructure indicators, what the yield premium compensates you for, where the public data runs out, and how investment property financing changes outside the big metros, or start with our Real Estate Investing guide.

Key takeaways:

• Dispersion is the opportunity, not the average: FHFA’s second-quarter 2026 House Price Index report shows annual changes across the 100 largest metros running from +7.7% to −3.7% around a 2.1% national figure. The market you pick matters more than the year.
• The data thins out where the opportunity is: FHFA publishes no index values for a period until at least 1,000 transactions accumulate and ranks a metro area only at 15,000-plus transactions over the prior 10 years, and the Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancy Survey details rental vacancy for only the 75 largest metropolitan statistical areas, of 387.
• Financing caps how fast you scale: Fannie Mae limits a borrower to 10 financed properties and steps required reserves from 2% of aggregate unpaid principal balance at 1 to 4 financed properties up to 6% at 7 to 10.

What makes a submarket emerging, and how is that different from simply cheap?

An emerging submarket shows movement in at least three independent economic indicators at once; a cheap submarket shows a low price and nothing else. Price is a lagging output, and plenty of places are inexpensive because employment left and never came back. Four public series carry most of the signal:

• Permits, the Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey: units authorized is the earliest hard evidence that capital believes in a place. Census collects from roughly 19,900 permit-issuing jurisdictions, surveying about 8,400 monthly and the rest annually.¹ A jurisdiction reporting only annually shows you movement a year late.
• Employment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics: the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages covers more than 95% of U.S. jobs at county, metro, state and national level by industry, the only way to see whether arriving jobs sit with one employer or several.
• Population and migration, the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program: Vintage 2025 estimates, released March 26, 2026, put metro-area growth at 0.6% between July 2024 and July 2025, down from 1.1% the year before, with 310 of 387 metropolitan statistical areas growing more slowly than they had.
• Vacancy, the Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancy Survey: the second-quarter 2026 release, published July 28, 2026, put national rental vacancy at 7.3% and homeowner vacancy at 1.2%. Rising vacancy alongside rising permits is a supply warning, not a growth signal.

Notice what is not on that list: who lives there. Growth is a function of jobs, household formation, infrastructure and supply. We cover the full indicator framework in how to evaluate a real estate market for investment, and where a submarket sits in the expansion-and-contraction pattern in real estate market cycles.

What are the benefits of investing in emerging markets?

Four benefits hold up under scrutiny. Take them in order.

The same capital buys more doors

This is the primary lever, and it is arithmetic rather than theory. A lower price per unit means more units per dollar of equity, and more total rent under your control. It also amplifies every price move in both directions, which is why lower entry cost is a benefit and a risk in one sentence.

Yield tends to be higher because price, not rent, is what fell

Rents in smaller markets are lower than in gateway metros, but prices are usually lower by more, and the ratio determines yield. Be careful with published figures: rent-to-price ratios circulate widely with no traceable source. Attribute any yield number to the body that produced it and the period it covers, or treat it as an assumption to test against signed leases.

Metro-level averages hide the submarket, which is where growth shows up first

The Census Bureau’s analysis of Vintage 2025 estimates, published in May 2026 and covering April 1, 2020 through July 1, 2025, makes this concrete. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington grew 11.0% as a metro, but the city of Dallas grew 1.9%, Fort Worth grew 11.9%, and exurban Celina grew 276.8%. In New York-Newark-Jersey City the metro grew 0.1% while New York City declined 2.5%. One metro number can hold both a shrinking core and a submarket that nearly quadrupled. Census called exurban growth dominant but not universal; Seattle ran the other way, its city center up 6.5%.

Different local economies move on different schedules

A portfolio concentrated in one metro is a bet on one employment base. The FHFA’s second-quarter 2026 report shows the East North Central division appreciating 4.5% over the year while the Pacific division came in slightly above 0.0%. That is the mechanism behind real estate market diversification, and it works only if the markets you add have genuinely different economic drivers, not just different ZIP codes.

What is the yield premium actually compensating you for?

Five exposures, and thin data is the one investors underestimate most. A higher expected return in a smaller market is a price paid for uncertainty, not a discount someone forgot to close.

• The indexes stop where the transactions stop: FHFA releases 410 metro-level purchase-only indexes (373 for metropolitan statistical areas without metropolitan divisions, plus 37 division indexes) but publishes no index values for a period until at least 1,000 transactions accumulate, and ranks a metro area only at 15,000-plus transactions over the prior 10 years. Below that ranking threshold you get one-year and five-year rates of change, not a ranked series.
• Survey detail runs out fast: the Housing Vacancy Survey breaks out rental vacancy for the 75 largest metropolitan statistical areas. There are 387. The submarkets with the widest range of outcomes have the least published detail about them.
• Short-run construction data is noisy: in the Census Bureau and HUD joint New Residential Construction release for July 2026, published August 18, 2026, privately-owned housing starts came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,239,000, reported as 12.4% (±9.5%) below the revised June estimate. Those margins are printed for a reason. One month of local data is not a trend.
• Employment concentration is a single point of failure: a submarket whose growth traces to one plant, hospital system or distribution center inherits that employer’s risk. County-level QCEW industry detail is how you check.
• Exit liquidity is the risk that shows up last: less institutional capital means fewer competing bidders going in, and the same thinness means fewer buyers coming out. Fewest in the conditions that would make you want to sell. We treat this in depth in real estate market risk.

A sixth exposure deserves naming plainly: being right about direction and wrong about timing produces the same result as being wrong. A project slips three years, a rezoning stalls, an employer delays a build-out. The thesis survives, the holding period does not, and carrying costs run the whole time.

Which public data still reaches a county, a ZIP code or a small metro?

More than the ranked tables suggest. According to the FHFA House Price Index FAQ (last updated March 2024), FHFA also builds annual indexes from its all-transactions data “for very small geographic areas like counties, ZIP codes, and census tracts.” Its ZIP code indexes are annual only, with no quarterly values, and FHFA says data constraints keep it from producing every index type for every area.

The Census Bureau’s metro and micro area summary counts 387 metropolitan and 538 micropolitan statistical areas in the United States as of July 2023; a micropolitan area is built around an urban area of at least 10,000 but fewer than 50,000 people. FHFA’s 410 metro-level indexes cover metropolitan statistical areas and metropolitan divisions, so a micropolitan market has no metro index of its own.

Economic output is now a county series only. In its February 5, 2026 release of 2024 GDP by county, BEA reported that real GDP rose in 2,273 counties, fell in 809 and was unchanged in 24, and said it has discontinued publication of statistics for metropolitan statistical areas.

For rents, HUD’s Fair Market Rent dataset publishes estimates of 40th percentile gross rents for standard quality units, as defined in 24 CFR 888.113, for each metropolitan area and nonmetropolitan county; by statute they take effect at the start of the federal fiscal year, generally October 1. A 40th percentile figure sits below the middle of the market by definition, so treat it as a floor check on a seller’s rent roll. Our guide to analyzing a property’s rental potential covers the lease-level work.

Are rental vacancies higher in core cities, suburbs or outlying areas?

In the second quarter of 2026, they were highest in core cities. The Census Bureau’s Quarterly Residential Vacancies and Homeownership release (CB26-116, July 28, 2026) put rental vacancy at 8.0% in principal cities, 6.9% in suburbs and 5.8% outside metropolitan statistical areas, and none of the three was statistically different from the second quarter of 2025.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Residential Vacancies and Homeownership, Second Quarter 2026, July 28, 2026.

The same Census release put the median asking rent for vacant units for rent at $1,531 and the median asking sales price for vacant units for sale at $343,800. Those are national asks on empty units, not what a lease in one county signs for. How rents and prices vary by region is covered in regional housing market differences.

How do you underwrite an emerging submarket when the data is thin?

You substitute primary-source detail for index coverage, and you write down the disproving condition before you buy. Six steps, in order.

1. Pull permit history for the jurisdiction, not the metro. Census BPS reports by permit-issuing place. Confirm whether yours reports monthly or annually, so you know how current your picture is.
2. Check employment composition, not just employment growth. County-level QCEW industry detail shows whether the jobs are diversified. Add the local unemployment series.
3. Separate announced infrastructure from funded infrastructure. An appropriation, a contract award and a groundbreaking are three different things, and only one is a date you can underwrite to.
4. Verify rents against signed leases, not listings. Zillow and Realtor.com publish metro-level research useful for direction, but a listing price is an ask. Get executed rents from a local property manager.
5. Underwrite the exit before the entry. Ask a local broker how long a comparable property took to sell in the last soft stretch, and who bought it. If nobody can answer, the exit is your largest unpriced risk.
6. Write the falsifier down. One sentence: what would have to be true for this to be wrong, and by when. Then check it on a calendar rather than a feeling.

Two guardrails belong inside that process. First, keep the analysis to economic and infrastructure variables. The federal Fair Housing Act at 42 U.S.C. 3604 and Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act prohibit steering and blockbusting, and they reach how property is marketed, financed, rented and described. Aggregate household formation, income and employment are the correct inputs; the characteristics of the people who currently live somewhere are not an input, and treating displacement of existing residents as upside is both a legal exposure and a bad analysis. Second, keep the framework identical across markets so the comparison means something, the discipline in investor market analysis. On a first investment property, start with tips for new real estate investors.

Do Opportunity Zones change the case for an emerging submarket?

They change the tax treatment of some investments, not the market underneath. The IRS describes Opportunity Zones as an economic development tool created under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, entered through Qualified Opportunity Funds, that lets taxpayers temporarily defer tax on eligible gains. The same IRS page, updated October 20, 2026, lists Revenue Procedure 2026-14, the procedure for nominating census tracts as qualified opportunity zones.

Michigan is in that nomination round. According to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the new designations take effect January 1, 2027, last 10 years and cannot be revised, and the Governor’s office sends Michigan’s nominations to the U.S. Department of Treasury. MEDC’s August 4, 2026 stakeholder presentation says the federal list published in April 2026 named 856 eligible census tracts in Michigan, of which the state can nominate 214, or 25%. It describes a 10% step-up in basis in non-rural zones, 30% in rural zones, and no tax on appreciation when a qualifying investment is sold after a 10-year hold.

A designation reflects a census tract’s income test, not its job, permit or vacancy trend, so it belongs after the indicator screen, not in place of it. A Qualified Opportunity Fund is a question for a CPA and a securities attorney; the ordinary rules are in tax benefits of real estate investing.

How does financing change when you leave the big metros?

Three ways, and reserves decide how many properties you can actually hold. Agency guidelines do not care that a submarket is emerging; they care about occupancy, unit count and how many financed properties you already have.²

• Reserves scale with your portfolio: Fannie Mae requires six months of reserves on investment property transactions and, where you hold other financed properties, adds reserves on their aggregate unpaid principal balance, 2% at 1 to 4 financed properties, 4% at 5 to 6, and 6% at 7 to 10. The cap is 10 financed properties, through Desktop Underwriter.
• Appraisals are harder where comparables are thin: the same scarcity that limits index coverage limits appraisal support. Expect longer timelines and a real chance the value lands under contract price.
• Non-agency products exist for files agency guidelines will not fit: DSCR and other non-QM investor loans underwrite primarily to the property’s income rather than yours. Terms and reserves vary widely by wholesale lender, exactly the file a broker shops rather than a single bank quotes.

On rates, we publish none, because any number here would be wrong within days. Look up the current national average in the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, and expect investment property pricing to run above owner-occupied pricing on the same credit profile.

What Michigan investors should know

Michigan sits in the census division that led the country on annual appreciation in the FHFA’s House Price Index report for the second quarter of 2026, a reason to look closely, not a reason to assume anything about a specific county.

• The division led, at 4.5%: East North Central (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin) recorded the strongest appreciation of the nine census divisions in FHFA’s second-quarter 2026 report. A division result is not a Kalamazoo result. Pull the county.
• Statewide growth is slow: Michigan’s Center for Data and Analytics, in its January 27, 2026 analysis of the Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 estimates, put the state at 10,127,884 people as of July 1, 2025, up 27,922 or 0.3% over the year, 18th among states in numeric growth and 35th in percent growth. At that pace, submarket selection carries almost all of the outcome.
• Growth here comes from migration, not births: the same analysis reported a natural decrease of 4,998 from July 2024 to June 2025, Michigan’s fifth consecutive year of more deaths than births, against net international migration of 30,706 and net domestic migration of 1,796, the state’s first net domestic gain since at least 1990. Household formation in a state like that follows employers, so check the payrolls.
• Long-run county projections are projections: Michigan’s county population projections through 2050 show a majority of counties with smaller populations by 2050; only 5 counties are projected to grow more than 10%, and 4 of those are part of or adjacent to the Grand Rapids metropolitan statistical area.³

Align Lending is a Waterford-based mortgage broker. We do not pick your markets and we do not give investment advice. We shop financing on the property you chose across competing wholesale lenders, including investor and DSCR products many retail banks do not offer.

Where did Michigan’s population and price growth land in 2025 and 2026?

In a handful of large counties, and not where the percentages were highest. The Michigan Center for Data and Analytics’ March 31, 2026 county analysis of the Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 estimates found that 56.6% of Michigan’s 83 counties grew from July 2024 to July 2025, at an average county growth rate of 0.1%, and that about 72.1% of the state’s growth was concentrated in five counties.

Source: Michigan Center for Data and Analytics, “About Half of Michigan’s Counties Grew from July 2024 to July 2025,” March 31, 2026.

The same MCDA analysis named Lake, Mackinac, Oscoda, Antrim and Keweenaw as the five counties with the highest growth rates, yet together they gained 3,372 people over the five years from July 2020 to 2025. A high rate on a small base can still be few people, so check the count before the percentage.

In FHFA’s second-quarter 2026 House Price Index report, Michigan ranked 14th among states on one-year appreciation, and Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia ranked 14th of the 100 largest metro areas.

Source: Federal Housing Finance Agency, House Price Index report, second quarter 2026, released August 25, 2026.

In that FHFA report, Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood had the largest five-year gain of the three Michigan metro areas in the table and the smallest one-year gain. The order changes with the window you pick, which is the timing risk described above; real estate appreciation explains how those windows are measured. Looking further out, MCDA’s March 6, 2025 county projections show the state population decreasing by about 206,000 people (2%) from 2025 to 2050, with 25 counties projected to grow, 12 of them by less than 5%.

Which Michigan rules change the numbers on a rental property?

Four state rules reach a Michigan rental the day you close.

• School operating millage: under MCL 380.1211(1), a school district levies not more than 18 mills for school operating purposes, or its 1993 levy if lower, and a principal residence is exempt from those mills. A rental is not your principal residence, so plan its tax bill at the non-homestead rate. Who qualifies for the exemption is in our principal residence exemption guide, and the Michigan property tax calculator can run an address at its district’s non-homestead rate.
• Uncapping after the sale: the year after a Michigan home sells, its taxable value resets to half of the assessor’s market value, so the seller’s tax bill is not your tax bill. Michigan Treasury’s changes in ownership guidance says a transfer of ownership causes taxable value to uncap in the calendar year following the transfer; the mechanics are in Align’s Michigan property tax uncapping study.
• Security deposits: the Landlord-Tenant Act, MCL 554.602, says a security deposit shall not exceed 1 1/2 months’ rent for each rental unit. The rest of the landlord side is in becoming a landlord.
• Fair housing under state law: Section 502 of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (MCL 37.2502) bars a person engaging in a real estate transaction from discriminating on the basis of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, familial status or marital status, including through a statement or advertisement that indicates a preference. HUD’s rule at 24 CFR 100.70 names steering directly, including assigning any person to a particular section of a community because of a protected characteristic. Both are why the screen in this guide uses jobs, permits, vacancy and prices only.

FAQ: Emerging real estate submarkets

Here are answers to common questions about investing in emerging markets.

What makes a real estate market emerging?

An emerging market shows movement in several independent indicators at once (permit activity, payroll employment, household formation and funded infrastructure) while pricing still reflects the prior period. Growth signal plus incomplete price discovery is the defining combination. Low price by itself is evidence of nothing. See how to evaluate a real estate market for investment.

Are returns in emerging markets actually higher?

Sometimes, never automatically. FHFA’s second-quarter 2026 House Price Index report shows the top 100 metros spanning +7.7% to −3.7% in one year, so the same category of market produced both the best and worst results. Higher expected return is compensation for a wider range of outcomes, not a premium the market forgot to remove. See real estate market risk.

What are the biggest risks of investing in an emerging submarket?

Thin data, concentrated employment and exit liquidity, in that order of underestimation. Public series cover the largest metros best. FHFA ranks metros with at least 15,000 transactions over 10 years, and the Housing Vacancy Survey details only the 75 largest, so you underwrite with less information exactly where variance is highest.

Can I invest in an emerging submarket that is not near me?

Yes, and the added risk is operational rather than analytical. You rely on a property manager, contractor and broker you cannot drop in on, so verify rents against signed leases rather than listings. Publicly traded REITs and fractional or tokenized real estate interests are securities regulated by the SEC; suitability is a question for a licensed investment adviser and, where an offering is involved, a securities attorney. See real estate investment strategies for beginners.

What is the rental vacancy rate in the Midwest?

It was 6.9% in the second quarter of 2026, according to the Census Bureau’s vacancy release of July 28, 2026, and not statistically different from a year earlier. The South ran 9.5%, the Northeast 5.9% and the West 5.3%. The Midwest also had the highest homeownership rate of the four regions that quarter, 69.0%. A regional rate is background; pull county permits and signed leases for the submarket itself.

How long do you have to find a replacement property in a 1031 exchange?

45 days to identify it and 180 days to receive it. The IRS Instructions for Form 8824 (2025) say the replacement must be identified within 45 days after you transfer the property you give up, and received within 180 days or by your return’s due date including extensions, whichever is earlier. The IRS like-kind exchange tax tips add that property held primarily for sale does not qualify. See our 1031 exchange guide.

Does a duplex count as one financed property or two?

One. Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide B2-2-03 counts financed properties, not mortgages, and counts a multiple-unit property such as a two-unit as one property. Your principal residence counts if it is financed, and the total is cumulative for all borrowers. Commercial real estate, multifamily properties over four units, timeshares, vacant lots and chattel-lien manufactured homes are excluded. More in investing in multi-family properties.

Can you sell a non-traded REIT whenever you want?

Usually not. The SEC’s Investor.gov page on REITs says non-traded REITs are illiquid and generally cannot be sold readily on the open market, typically give no estimate of value per share until 18 months after their offering closes, and may pay distributions from offering proceeds and borrowings. Publicly traded REITs trade on a stock exchange. Suitability is a question for a licensed investment adviser; our REIT guide covers the basics.

The bottom line on emerging real estate submarkets

An emerging submarket is a smaller or secondary market early in a growth cycle, identified by permits, payrolls, migration and vacancy rather than by price alone or by who lives there. The benefit is dispersion: FHFA’s second-quarter 2026 House Price Index report put annual appreciation across the 100 largest metros between +7.7% and −3.7% around a 2.1% national figure. The cost is thin data, thin comparables, thin exit liquidity and a real chance of being early. Underwrite from primary sources, write down what would prove you wrong, and size the position so a slipped timeline is survivable.

If you’re ready to finance an investment property in a market you have chosen, talk to Align Lending. We’ll shop your scenario across our lender network, including investor and DSCR products, and show you reserve requirements and pricing side by side. Call 248-506-5727 or start online. Take suitability questions to a licensed financial advisor, tax questions to a CPA, and title and contract questions to a Michigan real estate attorney.

Footnotes:

1. Every market statistic in this article is reported with its issuing body and the period it covers, and each is current as of publication only. Federal statistical series are revised: population estimates are re-benchmarked with each vintage, construction and vacancy figures carry sampling error and are revised in later releases, and house price indexes are restated as additional transactions are recorded. Nothing in this article is a forecast or projection of house prices, rents, interest rates or investment returns, and no description of what an indicator has preceded in the past should be read as a prediction of what it will precede next. Confirm any figure against the current release from the issuing agency before relying on it. Return to text.

2. Reserve requirements, financed-property limits and eligibility terms described here reflect Fannie Mae Selling Guide requirements as published at the time of writing and are summarized, not quoted in full. Agency guidelines change, Freddie Mac requirements differ in places, and individual wholesale lenders apply their own overlays that can be more restrictive than the agency minimum. Non-QM and DSCR programs are not agency products and their terms vary by lender. Example figures are for education only; they are not an advertisement of credit terms, a rate quote or a commitment to lend under federal or state lending law. Your actual terms depend on your application, the property and market conditions. Confirm current requirements with your loan officer. Return to text.

3. Population projections are modeled estimates of a possible future under stated assumptions, not forecasts and not guarantees. They are produced against a specific base year and vintage, are revised as new estimates arrive, and become less reliable the smaller the geography and the longer the horizon. A county-level projection says nothing about the performance of any individual property, neighborhood or investment in that county. Return to text.

Sources: Annual and quarterly national house price change, strongest and weakest census divisions, and highest and lowest annual appreciation among the 100 largest metropolitan areas, Federal Housing Finance Agency, House Price Index report for the second quarter of 2026, released August 25, 2026. The release of 410 metro-level purchase-only indexes, 373 for metropolitan statistical areas without metropolitan divisions and 37 metropolitan division indexes, the 1,000-transaction minimum before index values are published for a period, and the 15,000-transactions-over-10-years threshold for ranking a metro area, FHFA House Price Index Frequently Asked Questions. Building Permits Survey universe of approximately 19,900 permit-issuing places, with about 8,400 surveyed monthly and the remainder surveyed annually, U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey methodology. Housing starts at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,239,000 in July 2026, reported as 12.4 percent (±9.5 percent) below the revised June estimate, with building permits at 1,443,000, U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Monthly New Residential Construction, July 2026, Release Number CB26-127, August 18, 2026. National rental vacancy rate of 7.3 percent, homeowner vacancy rate of 1.2 percent and homeownership rate of 65.0 percent for the second quarter of 2026, and metropolitan detail published for the 75 largest metropolitan statistical areas, U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Residential Vacancies and Homeownership, Second Quarter 2026, Release Number CB26-116, July 28, 2026. Metro-area growth of 0.6 percent between July 2024 and July 2025, down from 1.1 percent the prior year, with 310 of 387 metropolitan statistical areas growing more slowly than the year before, U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates for counties and metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas, released March 26, 2026. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro growth of 11.0 percent, Dallas 1.9 percent, Fort Worth 11.9 percent, Celina 276.8 percent, New York-Newark-Jersey City metro 0.1 percent, New York City −2.5 percent and Seattle 6.5 percent, for April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025, U.S. Census Bureau, America Counts analysis of Vintage 2025 estimates, May 2026. Coverage of more than 95 percent of U.S. jobs published at county, MSA, state and national level by industry, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. Recognition of 387 metropolitan statistical areas, Office of Management and Budget Bulletin No. 23-01, July 2023. Six months of reserves on investment property transactions, additional reserves of 2 percent of aggregate unpaid principal balance at 1 to 4 financed properties, 4 percent at 5 to 6 and 6 percent at 7 to 10, and a maximum of 10 financed properties through Desktop Underwriter, Fannie Mae Selling Guide, B3-4.1-01 Minimum Reserve Requirements and B2-2-03 Multiple Financed Properties for the Same Borrower. Michigan population of 10,127,884 as of July 1, 2025, an increase of 27,922 or 0.3 percent over the year, ranking 18th among states in numeric growth and 35th in percent growth; natural decrease of 4,998, net international migration of 30,706 and net domestic migration of 1,796 from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, the state’s first net domestic gain since at least 1990 and its fifth consecutive year of natural decrease, Michigan Center for Data and Analytics, “Michigan Shows Population Growth and Slight Domestic Gains in 2025,” analysis of U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 population estimates, January 27, 2026. County population projections through 2050 showing a majority of Michigan counties with smaller populations, only five counties projected to grow more than 10 percent, and four of those five part of or adjacent to the Grand Rapids metropolitan statistical area, Michigan Center for Data and Analytics, Michigan county population projections through 2050, published March 6, 2025. Prohibition of discriminatory practices including steering and blockbusting in the sale, rental, financing and advertising of housing, federal Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3604, and Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. Metro-level listing and market research attributed in plain text: Zillow research and Realtor.com research. Further reading: the FHFA House Price Index and the Census Bureau Building Permits Survey.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment, legal or tax advice. Align Lending is an independent Michigan mortgage broker, NMLS #2041154, and is not a registered investment adviser, a broker-dealer, a financial planner, a real estate brokerage or a law firm. We do not select markets, recommend properties or securities, or participate in any securities offering. Market data, agency guidelines and lender programs change; confirm current figures with the issuing agency and current loan terms with your loan officer. Consult a licensed financial advisor about investment suitability, a CPA about tax treatment, a securities attorney where a fractional or pooled real estate interest is involved, and a Michigan real estate attorney about title, landlord-tenant and contract questions. Rental, sale, financing and advertising decisions are subject to the federal Fair Housing Act and Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Related resources

20-minute read

How to evaluate a property’s location: A block-level checklist for investors

Discover how to evaluate a property’s location using job growth, school ratings, crime data, transit access, and zoning before you commit capital.

Read more

20-minute read

How to analyze rental market trends: A landlord’s step-by-step guide

Learn how to analyze rental market trends using vacancy rates, days on market and rent comps so you can price units competitively and cut costly vacancy.

Read more

20-minute read

Economic factors driving housing demand, and how investors should read them

Learn which economic factors drive housing demand, from 6% to 7% mortgage rates and labor market strength to migration and supply limits, so you can plan.

Read more