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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-WOLVERINE-LAKE-MI · Wolverine Lake, MI 4,476 pop · income 70th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Wolverine Lake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wolverine Lake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
New Lexington · lowest
43,447
New Lexington · lowest
43,447 median HH income
21.7% of the leader · rank #1
Shenandoah He… · near
88,417
Shenandoah He… · near
88,417 median HH income
44.1% of the leader · rank #2
New Castle · near
88,421
New Castle · near
88,421 median HH income
44.1% of the leader · rank #3
Wolverine Lake · this city
88,423
Wolverine Lake · this city
88,423 median HH income
44.1% of the leader · rank #4
Wareham Center · near
88,424
Wareham Center · near
88,424 median HH income
44.1% of the leader · rank #5
Deerfield · near
88,424
Deerfield · near
88,424 median HH income
44.1% of the leader · rank #6
Bloomfield Hi… · highest
200,318
Bloomfield Hi… · highest
200,318 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Wolverine Lake on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 4,476.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Wolverine Lake - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Wolverine Lake lands in the 70th percentile for household income and the 92nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
70th
percentile, household income
60th
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
92nd
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Wolverine Lake, MI
4,476 people live in Wolverine Lake, Michigan - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Wolverine Lake report a median income of $88,423 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.1%. Home values in Wolverine Lake run a median of $270,400, and the median resident age is 43.9 years. Educational attainment runs 37.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 64.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 2 residential building permits were authorized in Wolverine Lake (Stable), up 0% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Wolverine Lake reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 317.2 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Michigan run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Michigan at 96.2 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,113 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $238 across Michigan, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 49.6 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Wolverine Lake's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change to reported crime to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wolverine Lake, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Wolverine Lake?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Which cities make useful reference points for Wolverine Lake?
Within Michigan, the closest population matches are Dexter (4,495 residents, $103,182 income); Hancock (4,510 residents, $55,278 income); Vandercook Lake (4,434 residents, $52,337 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Springdale, MD (4,476 residents); Ridge Manor, FL (4,478 residents); Haughton, LA (4,473 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Is Wolverine Lake growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -52 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 2 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Wolverine Lake?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 317.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 86% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Wolverine Lake?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
14.2%
Drive alone
79.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,401 workers age 16+.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
B
City profile score · Wolverine Lake, MI
71/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Violent crime B+
68 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B+
3.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B
37.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B-
$88,423
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Cost of living C
96.2 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Wolverine Lake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 79/100 (B+) · 68 /100k
Poverty rate: 78/100 (B+) · 3.1%
Bachelor's+ share: 72/100 (B) · 37.9%
Household income: 68/100 (B-) · $88,423
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Where Wolverine Lake sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Wolverine Lake's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Wolverine Lake highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Wolverine Lake, MI (this city): home $270,400, crime 317/100k
Haughton, LA : home $214,100, crime 250/100k
Hancock, MI : home $185,700, crime 554/100k
Fremont, MI : home $169,500, crime 2,554/100k
Bloomfield Hills, MI : home $942,900, crime 712/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Wolverine Lake compare to other US cities?
Where Wolverine Lake sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income70% higher than other cities
Home value60% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety92% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Michigan and the picture shifts: Wolverine Lake ranks #10 of 254 Michigan cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Wolverine Lake against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Michigan only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Michigan-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Wolverine Lake near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wolverine Lake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wolverine Lake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#93 of 718
87th percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#98 of 721
86th percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#572 of 727
21st percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#135 of 727
81st percentile in Michigan
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Michigan only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
70th percentile nationally for median household income · 92nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Wolverine Lake's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Wolverine Lake's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Wolverine Lake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$270,40040th percentilemore affordable than 40% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Wolverine Lake's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#6,988 of 15,516
More affordable than 55% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,865 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.1×, Wolverine Lake sits in the moderate band:
national rank #6,988 of 15,516 and #5,865 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$88,423Wolverine Lake, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wolverine Lake, MI median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Wolverine Lake, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)37.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,476
Median Income
$88,423
Median Home Value
$270,400
Median Age
43.9
Poverty Rate
3.1%
Labor force participation
64.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
37.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
317.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
68.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
249.2
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Wolverine Lake's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,507 residents
2021
4,485 residents
2022
4,456 residents
2023
4,448 residents
2024
4,454 residents
2025
4,455 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
2
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.9M
2020
3
3
0
$1.5M
2021
3
3
0
$1.4M
2022
5
5
0
$1.9M
2023
2
2
0
$0.7M
2024
2
2
0
$0.9M
Permit volume increased 0% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.8%
Carpool
4.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.6%
Work from Home
14.2%
Based on 2,401 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Michigan statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $238
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Michigan at $238 (electricity about $105 , water and sewer about $48 ).
These are Michigan statewide averages, not a meter reading for Wolverine Lake. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Michigan's BEA cost-of-living index is 96.2 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Wolverine Lake is $1,113/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Michigan statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.6 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Michigan statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Wolverine Lake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wolverine Lake compares to similar-size Michigan cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.