Michigan's Statewide Housing Data Portal

The Michigan Municipal League (MML) works to inspire positive change in Michigan's communities, serving local governments across the state on issues ranging from economic development to housing policy. In partnership with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), MML engaged HR&A and HousingWeaver to build the Michigan Housing Data Portal — a statewide platform that makes housing data easily accessible to local officials, developers, advocates, and residents across every county, city, and town in Michigan.

The Challenge

Meeting the state of Michigan's housing goals heavily relied on state agencies, local governments, and community organizations having access to reliable data and tools. But housing stakeholders across Michigan's hundreds of cities and townships lacked a shared platform to understand housing conditions in their communities, compare them to regional trends, or build a data-informed case for local investment and policy change.

The Approach

To better understand what data proved most critical to housing work across the state, HR&A directly engaged local housing officials, state housing professionals, developers, advocates, and real estate professionals across Michigan. HR&A then used HousingWeaver to build and launch the Michigan Housing Data Portal, which visualizes housing, demographic, and economic data across the state.

The portal includes:

• Snapshot and comparison views to explore housing trends at the state, county, metro, and municipality level
• Automated housing needs assessments for any community in the state, with charts and narrative analysis downloadable as a PDF or CSV
• Side-by-side comparisons of multiple geographies, so local leaders can benchmark their community against neighboring cities or counties
• Individual data downloads for each indicator, enabling planners and advocates to pull the numbers they need directly into their own reports

Results & What's Next

The Michigan Housing Data Portal is now the primary shared resource for housing data coordination across MML, MSHDA, and MEDC, used by local officials, nonprofits, developers, and advocates across the state. By providing every municipality in Michigan with reliable, community-level data, the platform gives communities the foundation they need to build housing plans, set local goals, and make the case for investment.