Ionia County, MI

Home values #

Typical home $264,748 (Sep 2026), +6.3% over one year, +30.4% over five

• 61st pct · 1,186th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 73rd pct · 23rd of 83 Michigan counties · median $225,043
• 25th pct · 4th of 5 counties in the Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood metro · median $301,131

Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), typical value of homes in the 35th to 65th percentile, smoothed and seasonally adjusted; a model estimate of value, not a sale price. Data through Zillow Research.

Rents #

Typical rent $1,198/mo (Sep 2026), n/a over one year; price-to-rent 18.4

• 21st pct · 1,072nd of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 28th pct · 29th of 40 Michigan counties · median $1,387
• counties in the Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood metro: only 4 of counties in the Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood metro published this metric; fewer than 5 is too few to rank

Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), smoothed, all homes and multifamily; price-to-rent = typical home / (typical rent × 12).

What the typical home costs to carry #

Principal and interest of $1,466 a month on $264,748 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,008 a month: 36.6% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $264,748 × 80% = $211,798, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $1,466/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $925 × 52 / 12 = $4,008) = 37% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $264,748 / ($925 × 52) = 5.5
• price-to-rent = $264,748 / ($1,198 × 12) = 18.4

The wage is one covered job’s average, not a household’s income, so this is the share of a single paycheque and not a mortgage underwriting ratio.

Estimate. Principal and interest on the typical home with 20% down over 30 years at this week's Freddie Mac average rate; compared with the average weekly wage of all jobs covered by unemployment insurance in the area (BLS QCEW), which is pay per job, not household income.

Jobs & wages #

19,841 jobs at 1,131 employers (2026 Q1); +3.2% jobs and +0.1% average weekly wage over the year

• 71st pct · 934th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 65th pct · 29th of 83 Michigan counties · median 12,414
• 50th pct · 3rd of 5 counties in the Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood metro · median 19,841

BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, all ownerships, total covered employment in the quarter's third month; over-the-year changes as published. Suppressed cells stay blank.

Drought #

D0 abnormally dry

Sites found: 5, searched within 0 km of this place’s internal point. That is a disc around a point, not the area itself: sites outside the boundary are included, and sites inside it further than 0 km away are not.

US Drought Monitor current week; the highest class of any polygon containing the point.

Reservoirs #

Surface water layer not loaded

Sites found: 0, searched within 150 km of this place’s internal point. That is a disc around a point, not the area itself: sites outside the boundary are included, and sites inside it further than 150 km away are not.

Σ(capacity × percent full) / Σ capacity over TWDB reservoirs within 150 km. Texas only; elsewhere USGS reservoir elevation/storage is listed without a capacity to normalise by.

Stream gauges #

Surface water layer not loaded

Sites found: 0, searched within 75 km of this place’s internal point. That is a disc around a point, not the area itself: sites outside the boundary are included, and sites inside it further than 75 km away are not.

USGS latest readings screened against EPA freshwater criteria (DO ≥ 5 mg/L, pH 6.5–9, conductance, turbidity, temperature); NWS flood categories where a NWPS gauge is co-located.

Groundwater #

No USGS monitoring wells within 75 km (or above 1,500 km)

Sites found: 0, searched within 75 km of this place’s internal point. That is a disc around a point, not the area itself: sites outside the boundary are included, and sites inside it further than 75 km away are not.

USGS latest daily water levels. A single latest reading says where the table is, not which way it is moving; select a well for its 365-day trace.

Water stress #

low (0.00)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 / 0.35

Banks & federal dollars #

$775.7 m in deposits at 11 offices of 5 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,846, highly concentrated. $382.3 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $356.9 m, grants $21.5 m), $19,266 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,846 across 5 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 5 banks with deposits in the county = 38.9² + 31.5² + 15.0² + … (2 more) = 2,846

FDIC Summary of Deposits: deposits at every insured office as of June 30, annual; HHI is the sum of squared county deposit shares (DOJ 1995 bank merger screen: 1000 / 1800). USAspending: obligations by place of performance for the latest complete federal fiscal year (Oct 1 to Sep 30), what agencies committed, not what they paid out; recipients are legal entities. Per-job divides obligations by BLS QCEW covered employment.

Federal obligations #

That is $19,266 per covered job, against 19,841 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $382.3 m / 19,841 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $19,266

USAspending obligations are recorded where the work is performed, so a prime award performed here is counted here even when the recipient is headquartered elsewhere. Recipients are legal entities, never people.

National context, not this county #

These are United States, single-gauge, single-state and port series. None of them is keyed to this county.

The indicator registry has no county-keyed series and no geographic selection: every entry is national, a named gauge, a single state or a port. They are here as the backdrop the county's own numbers move against, and they are never this county's readings.

What changed #

Ionia County, MI: 10 findings, 10 noted

1. noteIonia County, MI's covered employment was 3.2% higher than the same quarter a year earlier in 2026 Q1, on BLS QCEW's published over-the-year change.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +3.2 % = BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change for 2026 Q1, as published
   • the newest QCEW file carries no year-earlier level, so no move from one level to another is printed

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published

2. noteIonia County, MI's typical asking rent fell 0.8% from $1,207 in August 2026 to $1,198 in September 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • -0.8% = (1197.888888888889 - 1207.4463708154265) / 1207.4463708154265 × 100
   • 1197.888888888889 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-09
   • 1207.4463708154265 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08

3. noteIonia County, MI's typical home value rose 0.3% from $264,066 in August 2026 to $264,748 in September 2026, on Zillow ZHVI.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +0.3% = (264747.8740702004 - 264065.9314971368) / 264065.9314971368 × 100
   • 264747.8740702004 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-09
   • 264065.9314971368 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-08

4. noteIonia County, MI's average weekly wage was 0.1% higher than the same quarter a year earlier in 2026 Q1, on BLS QCEW's published over-the-year change.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +0.1 % = BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change for 2026 Q1, as published
   • the newest QCEW file carries no year-earlier level, so no move from one level to another is printed

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published

5. noteIonia County, MI's average weekly wage of $925 ranks 5th of 5 counties in the Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood metro, against a median of $1,022.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 0 on the 0-to-100 scale across 5 counties in the Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood metro that published jobs.avgWeeklyWage

   position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level

Read all 10 findings in the full brief

Every finding is produced by a fixed rule table and a fixed sentence for each rule. Nothing here is generated prose.