In Michigan cities, homeownership and marriage rise together: 82 of 101 places fall on the same side of the state line

Where more people own their homes, more adults are married (r = 0.75)

In Beverly Hills, 94.8% of occupied homes are lived in by their owners, the highest rate among 101 Michigan places with 10,000 or more residents. It is also one of the most married places in the state, with 64.0% of adults currently married. In Ypsilanti, the pattern runs the other way: just 33.2% of homes are owner-occupied, the lowest in our data, and 23.5% of adults are married.

Those are not isolated cases. Across all 101 places, the share of owner-occupied homes and the share of married adults move together closely, with a Pearson correlation of 0.75 (1.0 would be a perfect match). Of the 101 places, 19 are above the Michigan figures on both measures (73.2% owner-occupied and 47.6% married), and 63 are below on both. That means 82 places, about four in five, land on the same side of the state line for both.

What the data shows: established suburbs at the top, college towns and big cities at the bottom

The highest-ownership places are mostly mature suburbs. After Beverly Hills come Forest Hills (94.0%) and East Grand Rapids (93.9%) near Grand Rapids, then Grosse Pointe Woods (89.8%), Jenison and Berkley (87.9% each), Allen Park (87.3%) and Livonia (87.2%). Forest Hills and East Grand Rapids are also the two most married of the 101 places (75.2% and 70.6%), and East Grand Rapids has the highest share of households with children (50.3%).

The lowest-ownership places fall into two groups. College towns, including Ypsilanti, Mount Pleasant (35.7%), East Lansing (38.5%), Kalamazoo (42.3%), Ann Arbor (45.5%) and Marquette (46.3%), have large student renter populations and low married shares. Several larger or older cities, including Detroit (50.3%), Pontiac (46.6%) and Inkster (46.8%), also have more renters than owners or close to it, alongside married shares between 22% and 26%.

The exceptions are revealing, because a correlation of 0.75 is strong but not perfect:

• Owners, but fewer married adults. Burton (76.2% owner-occupied, 39.3% married), Clawson (75.4%, 41.6%), Wyandotte (73.7%, 41.1%) and Fraser (73.3%, 42.7%) have above-average ownership with married shares below the state. Some homeowners are single, divorced or widowed, and these cities may reflect that.
• Married, but more renters. Hamtramck (58.3%, 53.1%), Okemos (59.2%, 51.0%) and Novi (66.3%, 57.4%) have high married shares with below-average ownership. Wixom stands out most: only 42.5% owner-occupied, yet 45.4% of adults are married.

Only 26 of the 101 places are above Michigan’s 73.2% ownership rate, likely because the statewide figure includes many rural areas with very high ownership that are not part of this city-level ranking.

Highest and lowest homeownership rates, with family measures

Ranked by owner-occupied share. Michigan: 73.2% owner-occupied, 47.6% of adults married, 27.1% of households with children.

Data and method

Homeownership comes from ACS 2024 5-year estimates (2020 through 2024), table B25003, Tenure, which classifies every occupied housing unit as owner-occupied or renter-occupied. Vacant homes are excluded. Married share comes from table B12001 (adults 15 and older who are currently married), and households with children from table B11005. All data was retrieved through the Census Reporter API for 101 Michigan places of 10,000 or more people.

The correlation (r = 0.75) was computed across the 101 places in our build script, using owner-occupied share and married share for each place. The counts of places above or below both state figures are simple tallies from the same table.

What a correlation can and cannot tell you

• It is not cause and effect. Buying a home does not make people marry, and marriage does not make people buy homes. Age, income, the housing stock and local job markets all influence both.
• It describes places, not people. A city-level pattern does not tell us whether the specific people who own homes are the ones who are married. Drawing individual conclusions from area data is a well-known statistical trap.
• Students shape the low end. College towns pull the correlation up because they are low on both measures for the same reason: a young, mobile population.
• Five-year estimates blend 2020 to 2024 and carry margins of error, especially in smaller places.

Homes, money and the conversations couples have about them

For many Michigan couples, a house is the biggest shared decision they will make. Picture two people at a closing table in Livonia, signing their names on page after page, quietly realizing that this paper ties their finances together for the next thirty years. Or picture a couple in a Kalamazoo apartment, debating whether to stretch for a starter home or keep renting and save.

Neither choice is better for a relationship. Owning can bring stability and roots; renting can bring flexibility and less financial pressure. What often matters more is whether partners can talk openly about money, risk and what “home” means to each of them. Those conversations can surface different family histories and expectations, and that is normal.

If you and a partner keep circling the same money or housing disagreement, couples therapy is one place to slow the conversation down. Iryna Morhunova-Sutton, LLMFT, meets with individuals, couples and families by video anywhere in Michigan; there is no office visit, so you can talk from your own living room, owned or rented. You can also read about communication problems or whether insurance covers couples therapy.

Update schedule

We will recalculate the rankings and the correlation when the next ACS 5-year release arrives. Related: households with children by city. For local profiles, start at the Michigan hub.