An overall look at the total number of housing units in Michigan shows there has been an increase in the number built from 1940 to 2010. However, in the remainder of this post information will show that housing construction decreased significantly beginning in 2009.

After a dip in the early 1990’s in the number of private housing units authorized, an indicator of the number of privately owned housing starts, Michigan began a slow, bumpy increase. Then, from 2004 to 2009 there was a steady and rapid decline in the number of building permits authorized. There was a drop of 45,000 building permits authorized from peak to bottom. In 2010 there was a slight increase, but permits still did not reach the 10,000 mark through 2011.

This chart shows the number of privately owned one unit housing starts from 1990 to 2011.  From 1990 to 2004 the number of privately owned housing starts showed growth. However, beginning in 2005 those numbers began to drop off and by 2009 that number had reached its all time low in the 21 years recorded at 6,441. The high during this time period was 44,186 in 2004.

The above chart shows the age of housing from data provided by both the 2000 and 2010 censuses. When comparing the age of housing from the 2000 and the 2010 data it can be seen that there was more new homes built from 1991 to 2000 than from 2001 to 2010. The data also shows that in 2010 the number of homes 50 years and older was much higher, by 576,531, in the year 2010 than 2000. This has huge implications for housing maintenance costs in the state at a time of declining incomes.