Cheboygan County

Cheboygan County's median home price sits at $257,144 with year-over-year appreciation of 2.33%, and the investment estimate data returns zeroes across cap rate, cash flow, and cash-on-cash return, which tells you something important before you underwrite a single deal: the tool cannot construct a rent-supported cash-flow case here. The affordability index of 75 and appreciation score of 73 out of 100 confirm this is a market where price has moved ahead of rent, not the other way around. With no usable rent-to-price ratio in the county-level data, you cannot model a gross yield, and that absence is itself a data point. Cheboygan ranks 208th out of 1,000 counties nationally (73rd percentile overall) and 38th out of 83 Michigan counties, scores that reflect a market with genuine appeal on appreciation and affordability dimensions but a cash-flow profile that the data cannot support.

The investor this market most plausibly suits is someone buying for appreciation or recreational-market positioning rather than monthly income. The 73 appreciation score is the highest sub-score in the dataset, and at $257,144 the entry price is meaningful but not prohibitive for a buy-and-hold or vacation-rental play. A pure cash-flow buyer has nothing to anchor to here: cap rate is listed as zero, cash-on-cash is zero, and there is no rent figure to underwrite. A value-add operator looking for a mispriced asset could explore this market, but without rent comps in the data, they are underwriting blind on the income side and should pull local MLS rent data before committing capital. The stability score of 50 suggests roughly average volatility relative to the national sample, which means appreciation is not guaranteed and the buyer assuming price growth absorbs that risk directly.

No economic anchors or employer data were provided for Cheboygan County, so no claims about the local employer base or job stability are warranted here. Investors should conduct their own employer-concentration research before assuming rental demand is secular rather than seasonal.

The tax and insurance carry costs deserve real attention in any underwrite. At the state-average effective property tax rate of 1.54%, Michigan ranks as a high-tax state, and that rate is high enough to deserve its own line on your model. On a $257,144 purchase, the annual property tax estimate runs $3,960 and annual insurance runs $669, combining to $386 per month in fixed carrying costs before you pay a dollar of principal, interest, or maintenance. That $386 monthly figure is not trivial against whatever rent a Cheboygan property actually achieves, and it compresses gross-to-net yield meaningfully. The honest caveat is that 1.54% is a state-average estimate from the Tax Foundation; actual county and township millage rates in Cheboygan may differ, and investors should pull the county equalization office data for the specific parcel before closing. Michigan's taxable value rules add another layer: purchased properties are uncapped and reassessed, which can produce a tax bill materially higher than what the seller has been paying.

The primary risk here is concentration in a small-population county of 25,709 residents. Thin rental demand pools mean individual vacancy events hit portfolio yield harder than they would in a larger metro, and re-leasing timelines can stretch in non-urban markets. No vacancy rate data is provided, but population size alone warrants caution on underwriting occupancy. Seasonal demand patterns common to northern Michigan lake communities can create rent volatility that differs substantially from the year-round demand a buy-and-hold model assumes, and that risk is not captured in any figure in this dataset.

Compared to the neighboring counties in the data, Cheboygan offers a different risk profile than any of them. Livingston County prices out at $383,343 with a rent-to-price ratio of 6.34%, Eaton County comes in at $250,864 with 6.46%, and Jackson and Shiawassee Counties offer lower entry prices ($215,569 and $201,542) with ratios of 6.00% and 6.19% respectively. All four neighbors with rent data show meaningful gross yields and carry overall scores equal to or near Cheboygan's 67. Roscommon County, the closest geographic analog in the dataset, prices at $184,296 with no rent figure provided and scores a 66. The case for choosing Cheboygan over its neighbors rests almost entirely on the appreciation thesis: if you believe northern Michigan recreational and second-home demand continues to push prices, Cheboygan's combination of sub-$260K entry and a 73 appreciation score is the data-supported argument. If you need income to service debt, Jackson or Shiawassee offer lower prices with documented rent levels and comparable overall scores, making them the more defensible underwrite for a cash-flow-oriented hold.