Best Places to Buy Rental Property in Michigan (2026)

The cheapest place to buy in Michigan is also the best place to collect rent on it. Flint closed at a median of $48,500 and asks $968 a month, which is 24.0 percent gross before any cost. Second is Detroit: 17.7 percent gross, $88,000 to buy, $1,300 a month to rent. For one of these cities the page also shows a confirmed-close median; in Detroit, 115 confirmed lease closes carry a median of $1,300 against a $1,300 asking median. The two samples are not paired, so the gap describes the samples, not the same homes. Measured against the whole state, these are cheap markets: a median of $160,000 here against $285,000 statewide. The table shows the 20 highest-yielding markets among 73 Michigan cities meeting the coverage requirements; the yield range above describes the markets shown. A second table lists seven cities with enough closings to price but too few rental listings to rank.

The ranking

Gross yield here is an asking rental yield screen: twelve times the median asking rent over the median closed price, before taxes, insurance, vacancy, management or repairs. Sales use municipal boundaries. Rental listings use the associated city name and may cover a wider postal area. The ratio therefore compares related, but not perfectly matched, market samples, and a home bought at the median price does not necessarily earn the median rent. Confirmed-close medians appear where at least 30 confirmed lease closes were recorded in the window.

City by city

1. Flint, 24.0 percent gross

The numbers: $48,500 median closed price across 601 closings, $968 median asking rent across 772 listings, 24.0 percent gross. The Flint market page carries the monthly figures.

2. Detroit, 17.7 percent gross

Detroit's confirmed-close median, $1,300 on 115 closes, sits close to its $1,300 asking median; the samples are separate, so read it as agreement between two medians rather than a validated yield. The numbers: $88,000 median closed price across 3,360 closings, $1,300 median asking rent across 6,638 listings, 17.7 percent gross. The Detroit market page carries the monthly figures.

3. Saginaw, 17.7 percent gross

At $74,000 to buy and $1,090 a month to rent, Saginaw yields 17.7 percent gross on 280 tracked closings. Full detail is on the Saginaw market page.

4. Pontiac, 12.9 percent gross

The numbers: $134,807 median closed price across 332 closings, $1,450 median asking rent across 494 listings, 12.9 percent gross. Full detail is on the Pontiac market page.

5. Jackson, 11.5 percent gross

At $135,000 to buy and $1,296 a month to rent, Jackson yields 11.5 percent gross on 263 tracked closings. Full detail is on the Jackson market page.

6. Eastpointe, 11.2 percent gross

Homes in Eastpointe closed at a median of $147,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,375, a gross yield of 11.2 percent. The Eastpointe market page carries the monthly figures.

7. Roseville, 10.9 percent gross

Homes in Roseville closed at a median of $160,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,450, a gross yield of 10.9 percent. Full detail is on the Roseville market page.

8. Bay City, 10.9 percent gross

Bay City is cheaper than its yield rank suggests: fourth on price, eighth on yield, because a $121,512 home there rents for only $1,100. The numbers: $121,512 median closed price across 288 closings, $1,100 median asking rent across 162 listings, 10.9 percent gross. The Bay City market page carries the monthly figures.

9. Adrian, 10.7 percent gross

Adrian's rental sample is 63 percent apartments and condos while its sales are mostly houses, so the $1,387 asking median understates what a house rents for there. Homes in Adrian closed at a median of $155,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,387, a gross yield of 10.7 percent. The Adrian market page carries the monthly figures.

10. Lansing, 10.4 percent gross

At $150,000 to buy and $1,300 a month to rent, Lansing yields 10.4 percent gross on 893 tracked closings. The Lansing market page carries the monthly figures.

11. Taylor, 10.3 percent gross

The numbers: $175,000 median closed price across 375 closings, $1,497 median asking rent across 199 listings, 10.3 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $141 per square foot. See the Taylor page for the property mix and the price band.

12. Redford, 9.7 percent gross

Homes in Redford closed at a median of $185,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,500, a gross yield of 9.7 percent. See the Redford page for the property mix and the price band.

13. Dearborn Heights, 9.7 percent gross

Homes in Dearborn Heights closed at a median of $211,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,700, a gross yield of 9.7 percent. Houses there closed at about $145 per square foot. The Dearborn Heights market page carries the monthly figures.

14. Garden City, 9.3 percent gross

Garden City moves fast, 9 days from listing to contract at the median, which matters more than its 9.3 percent yield if you cannot close quickly. At $220,000 to buy and $1,700 a month to rent, Garden City yields 9.3 percent gross on 225 tracked closings. See the Garden City page for the property mix and the price band.

15. Port Huron, 9.0 percent gross

Port Huron is cheaper than its yield rank suggests: tenth on price, fifteenth on yield, because a $160,000 home there rents for only $1,200. The numbers: $160,000 median closed price across 234 closings, $1,200 median asking rent across 126 listings, 9.0 percent gross. Full detail is on the Port Huron market page.

16. Hudsonville, 9.0 percent gross

Rent is what puts Hudsonville sixteenth here; on price alone it would sit twentieth of 20. The numbers: $340,000 median closed price across 142 closings, $2,550 median asking rent across 97 listings, 9.0 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $193 per square foot. The Hudsonville market page carries the monthly figures.

17. Southfield, 8.9 percent gross

At $230,000 to buy and $1,700 a month to rent, Southfield yields 8.9 percent gross on 396 tracked closings. The Southfield market page carries the monthly figures.

18. Muskegon, 8.8 percent gross

Muskegon is cheaper than its yield rank suggests: fourteenth on price, eighteenth on yield, because a $176,250 home there rents for only $1,295. Homes in Muskegon closed at a median of $176,250 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,295, a gross yield of 8.8 percent. Houses there closed at about $135 per square foot. Full detail is on the Muskegon market page.

19. Oak Park, 8.8 percent gross

The numbers: $232,750 median closed price across 244 closings, $1,700 median asking rent across 150 listings, 8.8 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $162 per square foot. Full detail is on the Oak Park market page.

20. Burton, 8.7 percent gross

A low entry price does not carry Burton far: it is twelfth cheapest on this list and twentieth on yield, with rent of $1,214 against a $167,750 median price. The numbers: $167,750 median closed price across 246 closings, $1,214 median asking rent across 142 listings, 8.7 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $124 per square foot. See the Burton page for the property mix and the price band.

Priced, but too few rentals to rank

Resideline can price these cities but cannot yet rank them on rent: each has 100 or more closings and fewer than 50 rental listings in the window.

How this ranking is built

• •Cities: every Michigan city where Resideline tracked at least 100 closings inside the municipal boundary in its reporting window (six or twelve months) and at least 50 rental listings under the city's name since September 10, 2025: 73 cities qualify and the table shows the 20 highest-yielding.
• •Prices: the median price homes closed at inside the city limits, from Resideline's tracked closings; the state comparison uses the statewide median of $285,000 across 79,006 closings.
• •Rents: the median advertised rent on rental listings Resideline tracked in the last twelve months, all property types, measured on the listings that carry the city's name (a postal footprint, wider than the city line in some places).
• •Confirmed-close medians: Observed rent blends two kinds of record: confirmed lease closes extracted from property records, and the final asking rent on listings that left Resideline tracking without a recorded close. Where a city has at least 30 confirmed closes in the window, their median is printed beside the asking figure; in the last twelve months about a quarter of Resideline's close episodes are confirmed closes. The asking and confirmed-close samples are separate, not paired, so a difference between their medians is not a measured gap on the same listings.
• •What is missing: taxes, insurance, vacancy, management and repairs, which turn a gross yield into a net one, and the unit mix, which differs between what sells and what rents.

Sources and related pages

• •Resideline tracked closings inside city limits (window per city, updated September 10, 2026) and rental listings since September 10, 2025; confirmed lease closes extracted from property records.
• •More Michigan rankings: Cheapest cities to buy a house in Michigan ranks the same kind of list with each city's price per square foot for houses, realized appreciation and days to contract beside the median, and Cap Rate by City ranks the Michigan cities Resideline tracks by gross rental yield. The Michigan housing market hub carries the statewide figures and the largest Michigan markets by closings.
• •Asking rent vs observed rent compares live asking rents with final asking rents under that study's own definition; it says nothing about confirmed lease closes.

Prepared with Resideline's research pipeline and reviewed by Jeffrey Batista, Resideline's founder.