Michiganians looking to escape high rents in the state’s biggest cities might have a hard time this year, even in metro areas that have historically been affordable.

The cost of rent in mid-market areas like Lansing and Battle Creek has risen much faster than in Detroit or Grand Rapids over the last few years, according to data compiled by Construction Coverage, a research firm that publishes data on the real estate industry.

The pattern of rental costs rising faster in mid-market cities "is consistent with a broader national trend," said Jonathan Jones, a senior researcher for Construction Coverage.

"Secondary markets have seen faster percentage increases in recent years due to migration, remote work, and a 'catch-up' effect from lower starting rent levels," he said.

The most expensive cities for renters were almost all in California, according to the report, with the San Jose metro area leading the way. California and other coastal states like Massachusetts and Washington, as well as Hawaii, were the most costly for tenants.

No city in Michigan cracked the top 100 most expensive metros — even Ann Arbor sat well below the national median of $1,924 per month.

Michigan regions ranked in the top 15 least-expensive among both large and medium metro areas, with Detroit the 12th least-expensive large metro and Flint the sixth-least-expensive midsize metro.

"In high-cost areas, strong job growth, in-migration, tourism and tight land-use regulations continue to constrain supply. Beyond vacancy, indicators like net migration, wage growth, housing completions, and zoning or rent control policies are often better predictors of local rent pressure," Jones said.

Ann Arbor: most expensive rent in MI

The Ann Arbor metro area was the most expensive in Michigan for renters at the beginning of 2026, with a median rental cost of $1,778. That's $150 a month more than the Grand Rapids metro area, the second most-expensive in the state.

Renters in both regions saw their housing costs rise about 10% from late 2023 to early 2026.

Detroit, Traverse City and Monroe rounded out the five most expensive metros, the only areas in the state where median rent exceeded $1,300 per month. The least expensive metro in the state was Bay City, where renters paid $1,091 a month.

Cost pressures on both new and older developments push rental prices higher, said Lan Deng, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan.

Higher rents in new buildings, Deng said, often come from increasing development costs like land and labor, as well as higher interest rates.

"If the cost of development is high, that means the developer needs to take out a higher loan, which means they need to charge higher rents to pay it back," she said.

But older developments are getting more expensive too: as buildings age, they require maintenance and costly renovations, Deng said.

Both preservation and new housing development are necessary to provide enough affordable housing to serve an entire community, according to Julie Schneider, director of Detroit's Department of Housing and Revitalization.

Schneider pointed to 3,100 units of affordable housing created in Detroit over the last 10 years and city efforts to provide guidance and funding for owners of older buildings.

“You can't just have a single approach to address the housing needs that people have," Schneider said.

Rent increases squeeze smaller metros

While Michigan’s mid-size metros experienced greater rent increases across the board, renters in the Lansing region have suffered the most since 2023.

The median monthly rent in the Lansing-East Lansing metro area has jumped 20% to more than $1,350 in just three years, while more expensive markets like Ann Arbor (10%) and Detroit (8%) increased just half as much during the same period.

The Muskegon-Norton Shores, Monroe and Battle Creek regions joined Lansing with above-average rental cost jumps, all increasing by at least 13% since 2023.

Haley Hansen, a Methodist pastor who lives in East Lansing, said her monthly rent has gone up from $800 to $1,050 since she moved into her current apartment in 2023.

“When they first raised my rent I was like 'this is ridiculous,' but you go on apartments.com, you go on rents.com and everything is more expensive," she said.

Her small one-bedroom apartment doesn't have a dishwasher or in-unit laundry. "I don't know how much more I could downsize," she said.

"All things considered, Lansing is still really affordable," Hansen said, "and yet when I look at that extra $200, there’s a lot of things I could be doing with it.”

According to Deng, the UM researcher, the rent squeeze in mid-market cities may be linked to rising development costs across the board.

"(Higher startup costs) make it less profitable to build in places in the middle-rent area, like Lansing or Battle Creek, while in Ann Arbor the rent has been relatively high, so it's easier to justify new development," she said.

According to Deng, fewer new housing units on the market typically means that the cost of rent increases, since tenants have fewer options to choose from.

In the Lansing area, according to a Housing and Urban Development database, the number of building permits for new housing units has declined since the pandemic, with 649 new permits issued in 2024, compared to 1,027 new permits in 2020. The dip has been even more pronounced for multi-family housing, which dropped by more than 60% during those five years.

In contrast, Ann Arbor developers received 12% more permits in 2024 than they did in 2020, including 44% more permits for multi-family units.

Under the current economic conditions, Deng said, "new development can only be justified for higher-end development."

Seniors, low-income among most affected

Groups impacted most by rising rents were seniors on fixed incomes, disabled tenants and working families, said Khadja Erickson, executive director of the Lansing-based Tenant Resource Center.

“We are seeing expenditures of 70, 80, sometimes 90 percent of their income to cover the cost of rent alone,” she said.

Increased rents in a city like Lansing can drive out lower-income residents, including those with housing vouchers, which have strict limits, according to Erickson.

“When your voucher is, let’s say $958, and there’s no wiggle room for you to go above that, and everything around you is over $1,000, you are not able to utilize your voucher to access the housing you were promised," Erickson said.

“People are really being squeezed in a way that they haven’t been before. People are being forced to make decisions that we haven’t had to make in generations,” Erickson said.

Shawn Brock, 56, of Lansing said his disabilities have made finding housing especially challenging.

Brock has lived in Lansing almost his whole life. He spent 30 years working in retail and another 10 years in custodial work before he started receiving disability benefits about six months ago. He has mobility issues and difficulty breathing.

For a period after the COVID-19 pandemic, he was homeless and living in a shelter despite working full time.

He'd been paying $750 a month for an apartment, plus about $40 for utilities, which he said was "tight at times" but still "doable." But when Brock's landlord had to sell the small complex where he lived, he couldn't find a new place to stay.

After spending two years on a waiting list for income-based housing through the Lansing Housing Commission, he moved into his current apartment, which costs him just over $400 a month.

With a disability benefit of $1,500, Brock said, "it works out fairly well."

"I would not be able to afford going on the private market … that would just not be possible without a roommate in Lansing at this point," he said.

While his own living situation is stable now, Brock continues to advocate for tenants' rights in Lansing with the group The Rent is Too Damn High.

He said the group's main goal in Lansing is to organize tenants' unions and put pressure on "bad actor landlords," who he said, "are just looking at bottom lines instead of trying to actually house people."

Bipartisan legislative push for affordability

At the state level, a bipartisan group of legislators is attempting to tackle the affordability crisis from the supply side. Rep. Kristian Grant, D-Grand Rapids, and Rep. Joseph Aragona, R-Clinton Township, announced a package of zoning reform bills last week.

Grant told The News that housing has been her main priority since she entered the state Legislature four years ago. When she looked into the factors holding back affordable housing development in Michigan, she said, "all the research that I did brought me back to zoning reform."

"Over the last 40 to 50 years, zoning laws have become so restrictive that the type of housing that Michiganders need is essentially illegal to build," said Grant.

The package includes eight bills that would change rules about parking, setbacks, duplexes, dwelling size and development studies, with the goal of creating a smoother, less costly path to building affordable housing across the state.

One of the bills in the package — sponsored by Grant's Republican counterpart Aragona — would change the threshold for local protest petitions against new housing developments.

“One or two or maybe five to 10 people can show up to a community meeting and say we don’t want a project, and those few people voicing their opinion can kill housing for dozens of families,” Grant said.

Another would loosen restrictions on Accessory Dwelling Units, which are secondary housing units on a single residential lot, like an in-law suite.

The bills have not yet been introduced, but committee hearings are planned later this week.

Deng, the UM housing researcher, said the proposed zoning reforms would be a "vital step" in addressing the growing affordability crisis in Michigan cities.

"The state must diversify its housing stock to ensure young households and first-time homebuyers aren't priced out of the market. The proposed reform represents a crucial effort to expand those options," Deng said in an email.

Aragona, the Clinton Township Republican, clarified that the legislation was focused on bringing a larger, more varied housing supply onto the market, not providing subsidies or grants.

The issue, in his view, is that “developers are focused on a lot of high-end apartments and a lot of very large homes.”

Aragona said he bought his own home around a decade ago for $130,000.

“If you try and get into something like that today, it’s pretty much impossible because housing prices and home prices have gone up,” he said.

The proposed legislation has support on both sides of the aisle, according to Aragona, including in the state Senate. He told The News some of the most liberal and most conservative state senators are “looking at this package and very accepting of it.”

“Everybody in Lansing is starting to really realize that housing is an issue,” he said.

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