Housing Need Assessments 2025
Both the Otsego Economic Alliance and Northeast Michigan Housing Alliance completed updated housing need assessments in 2025. Both studies were developed in part for the Otsego Housing Task Force. The results supported what was already clear from the community survey and that is that we need more housing. The results showed that Otsego County as of 2024 is already short 600+ housing units. It also shows that by 2029, without significant new builds, this shortage will grow to 1,600+. In a County with 25K inhabitants, those numbers are significant! This has both a human and economic impact. From a human perspective there can be hardship when one cannot find a safe and affordable house to live in. From an economic perspective, we’re at a bottleneck point. Meaning that the sustained economic growth has been a healthy and great thing for the region. However, the housing shortage now has become an obstacle for further growth and we can expect stagnation to occur.
