Home Builders Association of Michigan flags aging housing as ‘a huge problem’
The bulk of Michigan’s occupied housing predates 1980. About 60% of the state’s roughly 2.5 million occupied homes — owned and rented — were constructed in or before the 1970s, according to reporting by Jordyn Herman of Bridge Michigan distributed by The Associated Press. Michigan’s median home is significantly older than the national median.
The age is not distributed evenly. Much of the state’s aging housing stock is clustered around major cities like Detroit and Grand Rapids, the reporting found, though older homes exist in pockets across Michigan.
In 1973, the year much of the state’s housing stock was built, Richard Nixon was president, U.S. forces were withdrawing from Vietnam, and “The Exorcist” was the year’s highest-grossing film. The age of Michigan’s housing stock corresponds to that mid-1970s period.
That age creates a structural backdrop for an ongoing state housing crisis. Dawn Crandall of the Home Builders Association of Michigan said the age of existing homes will be “a huge problem” to contend with in the coming years as officials try to address the broader crisis.